Dr Katharine Low, RCSSD, in conversation with Hope Azeda

Dr Katharine Low, Lecturer in Community Performance and Applied Theatre at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama interviews Hope Azeda, member of the Ariadne network, director of the Ubumuntu Festival and founder of Mashirika Performing Arts.

Before the interview with Hope, Kat delivers a lecture on her practice and scholarship concerning applied theatre and sexual health, with a complimentary interest in feminist-led research and the role of women in theatre. Since 2003, Kat has researched and developed social theatre practices as ways of beginning discussions around sexual and reproductive health, predominantly in South Africa, with additional work in Tanzania and the UK. Her practice lies in creating participatory-led theatre and creative arts-based practice with local communities to explore and gain greater understandings of the key sexual health concerns facing their communities. Kat has published articles on theatre and health in a number of journals and she co-edited Applied Theatre: Performing Health & Wellbeing (2017) with Dr Veronica Baxter for Methuen Bloomsbury and is currently working on her monograph, Challenging Transformation: Applied theatre and sexual health communication in South Africa for Palgrave MacMillan, which considers another way of approaching sexual health communication while also challenging some key tenets held in applied theatre practice, namely an empowerment, transformation and/or impact narrative.