Theatre and Democracy

Kristian Nødtvedt Knudsen (PhD) is associate professor in Theatre at the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts, University of Agder. He is chief editor of JASEd (Journal for Research in Arts and Sports Education) and his main teaching, research and developmental areas are: arts education, dramaturgy, performativity and artistic research.

Muneeb Ur Rehman is an applied theatre practitioner, educator, actor, voice over artist, improvisation coach and occasional stand-up comedian from Pakistan, practising with hybrid performance methods in education, community development and organizational growth. He set up Pakistan’s first-ever theatre department in a secondary school in Lyari, Karachi, in 2016–17, authoring a Training Manual for drama teaching. Using theatre as a development tool, he has conducted workshops at various international forums including SDEA, Singapore, “Performing the World”, New York and PPLG, Thessaloniki. In 2019, he conducted teacher training at Katmandu University and improvisation workshops for theatre artists in Nepal.

Kamogelo Molobye is a lecturer and PhD candidate with the University of the Witwatersrand Theatre and Performance Department, specializing in Movement Studies, Physical Theatre and Choreographic Practices. He was a recipient of the Institute for Creative Arts (ICA) Live Art Fellowship 2017, a resident choreographer for the Staatstheatre Brunswick Festival 2018, and a resident choreographer for the Goethe-Institut of Namibia’s “Museum Conversations” 2019.

Cletus Moyo is a Drama Lecturer at Lupane State University in Zimbabwe and at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He is a Canon Collins PhD scholar in Drama and Performance Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Moyo is a holder of a Master of Arts in Dramatic Art from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, which he did under the Drama for Life Scholarship. His research interests are: applieddrama, theatre and trauma, social drama and art as alternative media. Moyo is a recipient of the Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Dissertation Completion Fellowship for 2020 – 2021, administered by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC).

Vigdis Aune is professor emerita at the Department of Arts and Media Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim. Her teaching areas are applied theatre, project-theatre and arts-based research methodology. Research fields are theatre with, by and for young people, applied theatre, documentary theatre. In the project Theater and democracy. Building democracy in post-war and post-democratic contexts, she has run a project in partnership with ISAK, a Youth culture center in Trondheim.

Nanna K. Edvardsen is a PhD-student art the Arctic Centre for Welfare and Disability Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, at the Arctic University of Norway. Her research areas are: applied theatre, disability theatre, inclusive art and educational drama.

Rikke Gürgens Gjærum is professor of Applied Theatre at the Arctic University of Norway; leader of Arctic Centre for Welfare and Disability research, Faculty of Health Sciences, Arctic University of Norway; and professor of Drama and Theatre studies, Faculty of Technology, Art & Design, Oslo Metropolitan University. Research areas: applied theatre, disability theatre, inclusive art, educational drama, marginalization and arts & health.

Heli Aaltonen PhD is associate professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She is a youth theatre researcher, performing storyteller and theatre/drama educator with a specialization in applied theatre practices, practice as research method, and encounters between ecology and performative art forms. She leads a research project – Performing Arts and Sustainability – in her department. She was a co-editor and writer in the last Nordic Drama magazine (2/2020), which had a focus on sustainability.

Kathy Barolsky is a drama and movement therapist, applied theatre practitioner and accredited Playback Theatre trainer. She founded Drama for Life Playback Theatre in 2008. Kathy is currently a PhD candidate as part of the Building Democracy through Theatre project at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, in Trondheim, Norway.

Cheraé Halley is an actress, theatre-maker, lecturer and applied theatre facilitator. She is an accredited trainer for the Playback Theatre short courses accredited by University of the Witwatersrand. Cheraé coordinates and lectures the Master of Arts in Applied Drama courses under the Department of Drama for Life, University of the Witwatersrand.

Ellen Foyn Bruun is Emeritus Professor of Drama and Theatre at Department of Art and Media Studies, NTNU Trondheim. Her research contributions cover drama and theatre education in higher education, voicework, dramatherapy and applications of the arts in therapeutic and educational contexts.