Giving and Taking Voice in Learning Disabled Theatre

Tony McCaffrey is a Senior Lecturer at the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art, Ara Institute, Christchurch, New Zealand. He has been Artistic Director of Different Light Theatre since 2004 and is the Co-convenor of the Performance and Disability Working Group of the International Federation for Theatre Research.

• 1. Introduction: Giving and Taking Voice. 1, Part 2. Setting the Scene: The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes 2. Community Theatre and Myths of Community 3. Dramatic Theatre and the Temporality of Learning Disabled Theatre 4. Intertextuality and Intermediality: Performing Responses to the Disabling of the City 5. Learning Disabled Performance Research: Ecologies, Histories, Philosophies 6. From the Theatre to the After Party

"Giving and Taking Voice in Learning Disabled Theatre offers insight into the specific production history of a learning disability-focussed theatre company... I think this book may be most valuable to disability arts scholars looking to engage with the questions that McCaffrey presents and may use this text to situate the work of Different Light alongside other learning-disabled theatre companies." Becky Gold in Research in Drama Education (RiDE): The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance"Through foregrounding the voices and artistic journeys of the Different Light performers, this book offers inspiring perspectives on what a ‘good life’ could look like for persons with learning disabilities, what they have to offer to society at large, and the role that theatre and performing arts can play in making this a reality." David O'Donnell in Australasian Drama Studies (ADS) Journal“[McCaffrey provokes] critical shifts, not only in the aesthetic receptions of disability performance, but also in how disabled performers join their practices with the recuperation of disability as a creative method and epistemological advantage in a (seemingly) post-rehabilitation era. […] McCaffrey examines 18 years of sustained theatre practice and research as it has existed alongside and with “the presence and voice of learning disabled artists” in Different Light Theatre (Christchurch, New Zealand). McCaffrey critically recounts the challenges faced when attempting to balance care and support with artistic rigor in learning disabled theatre.” Elisabeth Motley in TDR: The Drama Review (69:2)