Loving Critiques of Theater Education: A DisCrit Analysis

• In Event: Intersectionality in Teacher Education Within Program and Content Areas

Abstract

The well-meant claim of many theater educators that “all theater is theater for social justice” obscures the ways in which ableism and racism circulate in theater classrooms, evading change and sustaining injustice. Guided by DisCrit (Annamma et al., 2013) and as a theater educator myself, I leverage a fictionalized vignette (Humphreys & Watson, 2009) of a traditional United States theater classroom to explore ways in which ableism and racism co-construct ideas about what it means to make “good” theater and the role of theater education with multiply marginalized students. Insights suggest theater educators and researchers should engage in critical reflexivity and seek out the wisdom of multiply marginalized communities to reimagine P-20 theater education towards intersectional justice.

Author

• Maddie N. Zdeblick, University of Washington
  Presenting Author