4 Major Working Areas

As a professional organization that promotes the concept of “Practice as Research, Research as Practice”, we will put to use past successful experiences, and create new, high quality pilot productions, actively finding different social issues and collaborators in the local community, and engage in different target audiences with new provocative ways. These pilot productions also have a research element that will develop along with them, making meaning of applied theatre and drama education practice on a macro scale. From here we build new audiences for applied theatre, and open new demand in the local arts market.

TEFO is currently Hong Kong’s only civil organization (and isn’t affiliated with a university or other tertiary level academic institutions) that conducts and promotes applied theatre and drama education research. Compared to other academic institutions, we are experienced in theatrical practice and are familiar with research methods specifically for investigating artistic practice. We hope to propel the importance of practice-based research in our field, through the process of research we can discover how to develop better practices, at the same time also providing the evidence to funders and the general public to affirm applied theatre’s benefits for society. We collect recordings and research of local practices and publish them on international platforms to connect Hong Kong’s practice to the world, promoting dialogue between local practitioners and those abroad.

Over the years, we’ve held applied theatre/drama education workshops on different themes and forms. Most recently, we have been planning mid-term to long-term intensified study courses. The courses are combined with our projects to provide internship opportunities. Conceived with the concept of “developmental base” instead of “developmental center”, we have created an “incubator” that nurtures applied theater workers instead of just providing courses for workers, so that more people can learn the application of theatre in a range of different sectors, eventually becoming a professional worker.

We have always held the role of being a bridge between local and international applied theatre organizations. We push local practitioners to discover new forms and practices, open dialogues to cultivate new inspiration. At the same time, through international dialogue, we strengthen international and local organizations’ connection with each other, and promote Hong Kong’s experience to the rest of the world. To this day, we organize international and regional conferences to share our experiences, practical results in different fields of applied theater/drama education, display innovative work methods, and gather the latest research cases to become an important display for practice in the Sinophone applied theatre field.