Archiving and reporting on the arts is just as important as the execution of artistic practice by itself.
The archival and recording of theatrical work may not be a part of creating the actual work, but it makes sure that theatrical happenings live beyond their ephemerality.
Careful recording and detailed reflections are extensions of the creative process behind any performance, educational program or workshop, and can become valuable learning resources for the entire field.
At TEFO, we’ve always been thinking about how to fulfill our responsibility to develop ourselves as a networking and consulting organization for other practitioners in this field, and we hope that the principle of “Shared Knowledge” can continue carrying us forward in this work.
Thus, we are continually working to strengthen our online database’s ability to gather, organize and preserve applied theatre practice here in Hong Kong, so that our field’s research, records and archives can inspire present and future generations of applied theatre practitioners.
Please note that our English database is still under construction, and there may not be as much content as our Chinese database. For more resources, please visit the Chinese version of our website.
Some Reflective Notes on Directing the Online Auto-Ethnotheatre See You Zoom – An Account of the Lives of Hongkongers in the Dramatic 2020 | DaTEAsia Vol. 10
This article accounts the director’s reflection on the creating and performing of the auto-ethnotheatre See You Zoom series (February-October 2020), through the video-conferencing software Zoom during the staying home period due to COVID-19. Driven by an urge to connect community people under the cumulative impact of the social unrest and the pandemic since mid-2019, the director started this creative journey, encountered challenges, and gained insights of devising, rehearsing and staging auto-ethnotheatre entirely through Zoom. Three aspects of online theatre-making were reflected: (i) working with actors without their physical presence (ii) playing with the public and private spaces, and (iii) managing the engagement of Zoom participatory-audience.
Elements of Drama Applied for Emotional Support to Children during the Pandemic (Chinese) | DaTEAsia Vol. 10
During the pandemic, conflicts arise readily between homebound parents and children and result in emotional instability. In this article, the author shares how elements of drama can be applied to help children, teenagers and parents regulate their emotions and foster a healthy parent-child relationship. This article illustrates that appropriate application of elements of drama promotes quality parent-child interaction, through which children learn to regulate their emotions.
Artistic Transfiguration: Drama as Pedagogy during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic（Chinese） | DaTEAsia Vol. 10
This article examines the notion of transfiguration and analyses how process drama and arts education can help achieve elevated mental and spiritual states through transforming adversity to something that inspires beauty and deep meanings. This article illustrates this transfigurative function of drama education with an online pedagogical resources project which supports kindergartens with mainly drama education during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The author accordingly points out that drama education can effectively address the emotional, spiritual, ethical and mental needs of teachers and young children in the context of post-pandemic education.
Human Acts of Imagination: Drama and the Culture of Education｜DaTEAsia Vol. 9
The “subject” of educational drama and theatre is what it is to be human, our focus is on the self. The self of course is socially constructed and as drama and theatre are social art forms, the relationship between self and society and society in the self is at the core of what we do. Form and content is indivisible, meaning making is paramount. How we learn, the philosophy and pedagogy that underpins the art form of drama, and the culture of education that nurtures it is therefore critical to everything we do.
【 Lesson Plan 】What is Drama? ｜TEFOZine #1
For a long time drama has been an activity well received by the students of the Pentacostal Lam Hon Kwong School. They gained confidence and generic skills from engaging in drama activities. They developed fluency and clarity in public speaking and in inter-personal communication. With these favorable conditions and funding from the Quality Education Fund, the School introduced the first local drama curriculum in 2000-01.
A Practical Study of the Application of Active-inquiry Process on Theatre Play: Using the Experience of Creating the Play, Battle for Hong Kong 1941, as an Example（Chinese）｜DaTEAsia Vol. 9
The study draws on the playwriting experience of the play for museum theatre, Battle for Hong Kong 1941, to examine the creation of interactive theatre and the design of the interactive section through the active-inquiry process from the point of view of an implementer. The researcher is also the playwright and the designer of the play’s interactive section.
