Off Book is now out in paperback!
Off Book: Devised Performance and Higher Education
Edited by Heather Fitzsimmons Frey, Nicola Hyland and James McKinnon
Off Book is a multi-vocal edited collection of essays exploring the reciprocal, symbiotic relationship between devised performance and higher education. Considering power, timelines, colonial structures, inclusion and exclusion, research, community engagement, and student learning outcomes, the authors examine devising in Canada, Australia, and Aotearoa New Zealand.
As a modality of teaching and learning, devised performance enables authentic learning experiences and the development of both disciplinary and general skills. As a form of creative scholarship, practice-based, or practice-led research, devising enables the discovery and dissemination of original knowledge. Both in and out of the classroom, devising can enable scholars, artists, and educators to cross bridges between the academy and a public which is increasingly sceptical of its commitment and value to them - particularly those communities and individuals who have been historically excluded from participation in higher learning (and theatre) by economic, physical, or intellectual disadvantage.
The chapters collected in Off Book illustrate how devising contributes to the broader mandates of colleges and universities, in addition to the specific goals of their drama, theatre, and performance programs and to higher education’s institutional goals.
