Frances Rifkin, Artistic Director of Utopia Arts and Director of the Serpentine Galleries’ Implicated Theatre, explored the implicit tensions present in the realm of alternative or Independent theatre.
In this Unwritten Handbook, she challenged the notion of ‘Applied’ Theatre.
Rifkin is a theatre director, lecturer and trainer with a wide-ranging career in theatre, higher education and organisational consultancy; she has been the Director of The Serpentine Galleries’ Implicated Theatre programme since 2011. Frances Rifkin called on her experience working with and beyond Implicated Theatre – which extends to artistic director, oral historian, workshop leader, group worker and community arts animateur – to open up a discussion around the practice and history of alternative or Independent Theatre.
This Unwritten Handbook used Frances’s experience with Implicated Theatre as a departure point for a critical investigation into alternative theatre practices. What territory does ‘Applied Theatre’ occupy between the creative spheres of arts and theatre practice? What is ‘Applied Theatre’ and what does this terminology reveal about the relationship between alternative theatre practices and the mainstream?
Unwritten Handbook was a seasonal series of conversations with artists commissioned through Education and Projects at the Serpentine Galleries.
