Arundhati Roy says “another world is not only possible … on quiet days I can hear her breathing” … but is a distant echo enough for people to feel enabled to create change when capitalism and neo-liberalism have become so entrenched? Deanna Borland-Sentinella decided the fear and separatism created by these ideologies called for extending upon the ways Applied Theatre could support communities to imagine and rehearse for something different. i.e. figure out how to negotiate which direction they are sailing in and perhaps even problem-solve how to plug up that pesky leak in their boat before everyone sinks. This presentation shares Deanna’s PhD research into translating tools from the academic discipline of Futures Thinking into Applied Theatre activities. The practice-led project spans across Brisbane, Australia and Dili, Timor-Leste and highlights how a short trip across the ocean provides such a vastly different context for embodying the future.
Deanna Borland-Sentinella is an Australian Applied Theatre practitioner who has studied and worked in the field as a global citizen across the UK, South America and South-East Asia. Deanna loves learning about people through using Applied Theatre as research, as well as learning more about the form itself through adapting tools and techniques to respond to the needs and desires of workshop stakeholders. Deanna has used Applied Theatre to support communities from a range of backgrounds, including refugees and migrant communities, children and young people, incarcerated populations and people with disabilities, to express what’s important to them through embodied, creative practice. Whilst being driven by a social justice life mission, Deanna has also dabbled in how to ethically engage business in the training and development potential of Applied Theatre’s methodology
