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Processes of ‘positive multiculturalism’ in practice: an extended case study with Warwick Arts Centre (WAC) Research undertaken as part of Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) Collaborative Doctorate Award (CDA) By Rachel King PhD Thesis University of Warwick School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies May 2013 i Table of Contents List of Figures iii Acknowledgements iv Abstract v Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Overall Methodological Framework 27 Conceptual Framework 49 Locating WAC 102 Chapter 2 Case Study A: Creating spaces for collaboration 129 between WAC users Chapter 3 Case Study B: Making connections across 203 Coventry Chapter 4 Case Study C: Devising a performance for 232 WAC’s new Creative Space Conclusion 327 Bibliography 369 Appendix 1 387 Appendix 2 388 Appendix 3 389 Appendix 4 392 Appendix 5 393 Appendix 6 394 Appendix 7 396 Appendix 8 397 ii List of Figures Figure 1: Photograph of Warwick Arts Centre's foyer space. Copyright of WAC, date unknown. ......... 1 Figure 2: Key conceptual framework of overall case study. ................................................................. 18 Figure 3: Extract from Reflective Journal: annotation of original title. ................................................ 20 Figure 4: Final image in Shaun Tan's The Arrival (2007). ...................................................................... 22 Figure 5: Journal notes - introducing research to WAC. ....................................................................... 32 Figure 6: Journal notes – early stages of collaboration with WAC ....................................................... 32 Figure 7: Core participants of three case studies ................................................................................. 40 Figure 8: WAC's location in sub-regions and West Midlands. ............................................................ 106 Figure 9: Map of University of Warwick campus (2009)..................................................................... 109 Figure 10: Stan's Café’s Of All the People in All The World (2003) in WAC foyer. Photographs used with the permission of the Company. ................................................................................................ 117 Figure 11: Exterior view of WAC's Creative Space (2010). Photograph used with permission of the University of Warwick ......................................................................................................................... 123 Figure 12: Interior views of Creative Space (2009). Author’s own. .................................................... 124 Figure 13: Y1 Aims and Research Methods. ....................................................................................... 131 Figure 14: Data collection methods for Audience Reception Study. .................................................. 133 Figure 15: Journal notes - doubts concerning appropriate language. ................................................ 137 Figure 16: Journal notes - making sense of identity. .......................................................................... 141 Figure 17: Sample of participants' responses to question 'How would you describe your ethnic identity?' ............................................................................................................................................. 142 Figure 18: Audience Forum 1 in WAC's Butterworth Hall bar area. Author's own............................. 198 Figure 19: SBB - display of pupils’ skin colour artwork ....................................................................... 220 Figure 20: SBB - Prof. Abraham working with primary school pupils. ................................................ 226 Figure 21: Devising process - experimenting in WAC's Creative Space. ............................................. 266 Figure 22: Sample of stage plans from participants’ Creative Journals (Y3) ...................................... 270 Figure 23: Participants' changing relationship with WAC. .................................................................. 277 Figure 24: Images of 'name-game' in progress. .................................................................................. 287 Figure 25: Luggage tag from audience feedback. ............................................................................... 307 Figure 26: Performance event - Steward Announcement. ................................................................. 308 Figure 27: Performance event - Dancing Game. ................................................................................. 312 Figure 28: Performance event - audience member alters 'image of hope'. ....................................... 316 Figure 29: Performance event - final 'image of hope'. ....................................................................... 317 Figure 30: Case Study A-C comparison of types of 'strangers' and types of 'collaboration' .............. 331 Figure 31: Key considerations that inform the recommendations ..................................................... 356 iii Acknowledgements I owe many thanks to the numerous people who have supported me throughout this research. Firstly, I would like to thank the AHRC for the CDA. I am grateful to staff at WAC for welcoming me, giving me their time, expertise and access to invaluable resources. In particular, I would like to thank Alan Rivett, Director of WAC, for his continual support and his generous and vibrant contributions and also Brian Bishop and Carly Mee for their cooperation, excellent advice and encouragement. I would also like to acknowledge the vital contributions made by the many research participants with whom I have worked. I am extremely appreciative of the guidance, wisdom and open-mindedness of my academic supervisor, Baz Kershaw, who has always encouraged me to trust my instinct and to navigate the unknown throughout the research. I am deeply thankful for the invaluable support of Nadine Holdsworth who has given astute advice and compassion. I also owe many thanks to friends and colleagues, Jonothan Neelands and Joe Winston, for their inspiration, encouragement and continual patience and also my fellow CDA researchers, Natalie Hart and Jacqueline Contre for their friendship and perceptive comments. I would like to thank my friends in the Wolfson Research Exchange for their solidarity, particularly Kate Beats for her kindness. I am indebted to Frank Carruthers for his generous support and diligent proof- reading. I am also thankful for the kindness of my fantastic family: the Kings, the Carruthers, the Shaws, the Wards, the Owens and the Turners. Finally, I would like to thank three very special people; my mum, Sheila King, for her endless patience, care, kindness, love and unwavering encouragement; Oliver Turner for his unending optimism, insightfulness, thoughtfulness, love and patience; and Margaret McCarthy for her dazzling positive energy, help and care throughout. I would like to dedicate this work to them and, also, to the memory of my dad, Bryan King, whose spirit has been with me throughout this journey and will be always. iv Abstract This thesis consists of three distinct but interconnecting case studies that took place between 2007 and 2010 in collaboration with Warwick Arts Centre (WAC), Britain’s second largest multi-arts venue. The study developed practice-led methods to investigate the dynamic interactions between notions and perceptions of ‘multiculturalism’ and ‘internationalism’ in relation to WAC’s theatre and performance programming and education activities. The first case study is a qualitative audience reception study designed to make sense of WAC’s programme in relation to multicultural and international issues. The second case study focuses on an educational outreach project that placed two local schools in collaboration with a commissioned teacher-artist and a University of Warwick academic. These encounters inspired the final case study, which made use of WAC’s newly built Creative Space as a site for a devising project with young people from nearby Coventry, culminating in a performance for an invited audience. The thesis explores the varied complexities that frame ‘multiculturalism’ by focusing on its origins as a political concept in post-1945 Britain and its subsequent association with contemporary contentious social, political and cultural national and international issues. An analysis of the negative effects of ‘multiculturalism’ is balanced by considerations of the project’s emergent concepts: ‘hospitality’ and ‘conviviality’, which articulate the possibilities of living in diversity in more ‘positive’ terms. These paradigms reverberate throughout each case study, informing their methodologies, influencing their conceptual frameworks and placing ‘multiculturalism’ in more dynamic and relevant dimensions of pedagogical and creative practices. Each case study considers collaboration between strangers and investigates the potential of WAC as a hospitable and convivial environment. These new perspectives demonstrate the