Teaching Racial Justice Theatre and Performance

Teaching Racial Justice Theatre and Performance introduces The One Love Method, which offers a restorative paradigm for racial and gender justice in theatre classrooms.

One Love uses indigenous West African philosophy and UN Human Rights to help theatre teachers promote justice, embody non-western practices, and set a confirming environment for BIPOC students. Grounded in the Black politics of love, it teaches educators how to make BIPOC students feel seen and safe and teaches white students to connect with their African ancestry and to see and empathize with their BIPOC peers. This book offers hands-on racial justice theatre exercises for acting, play development and selection, directing and devising, casting, and intimacy. It outlines theory and practice on how to de-centre and resist racism and white supremacy in every level of theatre work with students. Racial justice topics and vital questions relevant to theatre education and racial justice pedagogy are offered, including West African indigenous theater practices; empathy building; confirming environments; healing, health, and grounding practices; consent-forward work; navigating interracial scenes; do’s and don’ts of racial justice theatre; and building a future of justice.

This book is written for university professors of Theatre and Performance and can be used in courses such as Introduction to Performance Studies, Black Theatre, Multicultural Theatre, Acting I and II, Directing, and Theatre History.

Dr. Ayshia Mackie-Stephenson is a performance studies scholar, intimacy director, vocalist, and award-winning writer and educator from Brooklyn, NY. She uses theatre and new media to investigate race, sexuality, and human rights. Her work has been published by Routledge, Black Camera, Qualitative Inquiry, Boston University Press, International Review of Qualitative Research, Theatre Topics, HowlRound, and Research in Drama Education. She has done consent work forTrinity Rep, The Huntington, Emerson Stage, Company One Theatre, LSU, and Northeastern University, among others. For more information, visit https://www.ayshiastephenson.com/.