Networking Women's theatre in Africa

该项目旨在利用一个移动的应用程序建立一个虚拟社区，由生活在非洲并从事诗歌、戏剧创作和戏剧制作的专业和社区项目的女性创作者组成，研究人员和世界任何地方从事文学或基于性别的研究的其他有关各方也参加。该移动的应用程序将提供给所有人，包括功能移动的手机用户，并作为一个在线网站，以计算机用户。我们设想这个虚拟社区的女性创意从业者，戏剧从业者，研究人员和其他感兴趣的各方能够“发现”和参与彼此通过这个移动的应用程序。女性创意从业者谁注册将创建在线档案与他们的联系方式，能够上传播放脚本，照片和链接到视频或youtube剪辑。所有其他用户将指定他们的姓名，位置和职业，以参与论坛讨论，这是这个网络的核心功能，以及访问公告和现场活动列表。我们设想在该论坛上就当代非洲妇女的经历所特有的各种关切问题进行合作分析，共同创造知识。这将涉及摆脱静态或宏观的方法来理解所谓的“非洲”身份，超越了“性别与发展”或“赋权”的困境。该项目的核心是方法论，旨在将非洲人撰写的与性别、性取向和身份有关的理论和实践置于研究的中心（见班尼特和佩雷拉，2013年）。因此，该论坛将促进生活在非洲的女性创意从业者之间就与非洲妇女的经历有关的哪些问题需要讨论、分析和创造性表达进行讨论。实际上，这将涉及每个参与者都将自己定位在她的特定背景下，然后考虑参与/处理这些问题的集体策略，而不是由什么材料或主题定义的研究问题，或者由研究人员预先定义。从概念上讲，论坛的目标是促进多层次的参与，使用户能够相互交流，并以他们选择的任何方式比较方法，美学选择及其对各种社区的影响，从而扩大我们参与新兴材料的内容和方法。艺术/文学经理和程序员接触和接触代表性不足的创意从业者，从而扩大对这些基本上没有代表性的妇女及其工作的认识。E1 M将创建两个虚拟空间，培训PI和Co-I管理和策划用户提交的内容，并报告网站使用情况，包括定期进行与网站有效性相关的调查。作为创造性的实践者，艾米·杰弗塔将策划网站，主持内容，共同促进论坛讨论，并在妇女剧作家国际会议委员会和组织，开普敦大学和研究项目之间进行联络。她和PI将共同编辑非洲女剧作家（梅图恩）的一系列此前未出版的戏剧，这些戏剧来自这个项目。作为PI，和记黄埔将共同主持论坛讨论，这将有助于她正在进行的研究，即非洲女性创作实践者选择在他们的作品中部署美学如何影响观众的接受和对他们提出的问题的参与。她还将参加WPIC 2015，并共同编辑非洲戏剧：当代妇女（詹姆斯·柯里）与非洲学者简·普拉斯托（利兹大学）和克莉丝汀·马茨克（拜罗伊特大学，德国）谁将担任该项目的顾问。

This project aims to use a mobile application to build a virtual community consisting of female creative practitioners living in Africa and involved in poetry, play writing, and theatre making both professionally and in community projects, with researchers and other interested parties engaged with literary or gender- based research in any part of the world. The mobile app will be available to all, including feature mobile phone users, and as an on-line site to computer-users.We envision this virtual community of women creative practitioners , theatre practitioners, researchers and other interested parties being able to 'discover' and engage with one another through this mobile app. Women creative practitioners who register will create on-line profiles with their contact details, the ability to upload playscripts, photos and links to video or youtube clips. All other users will specify their name, location and profession in order to participate in the forum discussions that are central function of this network, as well as accessing announcements and a live events listing. The forum is where we envision the collaborative analyse of issues and co-creation of knowledge regarding various concerns specific to the experiences of being contemporary African women will take place. This will involve moving away from static or macro approaches to our understanding of so-called 'African' identities that transcend the beleaguered discourses of 'gender and development' or 'empowerment'. Central to this project is the methodological approach that aims to place African-authored theories and practices related to gender, sexualities and identities at the centre of the study (see Bennett & Pereira, 2013). As such, the forum will facilitate discourse between female creative practitioners living in Africa regarding what issues related to the experiences of women in Africa need discussion, analysis and creative expression. In effect this will involve each participant both situating herself in her specific context, and then considering collective strategies for engaging in/ with these issues, as opposed to research questions being defined by what material or subjects are accessible, or pre-defined by the researcher. Conceptually then, the forums will aim to facilitate multiple levels of engagement, enabling users to interact with one another and compare methodologies, aesthetic choices and their impact on various communities in any way they choose, thereby broadening both content and the methodologies of our engagement with the emergent material.It will also facilitate other publics, including potential audiences, critics, producers, directors, artistic/literary managers and programmers to access and engage with under-represented creative practitioners, and thereby broaden awareness of these largely unrepresented women and their work. E1M will create the two virtual spaces, train PI and Co-I to manage and curate the user-submitted content, and report on site use, including running a regular survey related to site efficacy. As creative practitioner, Amy Jephta will curate the sites, moderating content, co-facilitate the forum discussions, and liaise between the Women Playwrights International conference committee and organization, the University of Cape Town and the research project. She and the PI will co-edit a collection of previously unpublished plays by African female playwrights (Methuen) that emerge from this project.As PI, Hutchison will co-facilitate the forum discussions, which will feed into her on-going research into how the aesthetics women creative practitioners in Africa are choosing to deploy in their work affect audience reception and engagement with the issues they raise. She will also participate in WPIC 2015, and co-edit African Theatre: Contemporary Women (James Currey) with African scholars Jane Plastow (University Leeds) and Christine Matzke (University Bayreuth, Germany) who will act as advisors to the project.