What is recovery? What does it mean to choose to be in recovery? Is there something that society can learn from those who have grappled with addiction and chosen to live differently?

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This presentation begins with a performance of extracts from a piece in development that grapples with the lived experiences of recovery. Created in collaboration with a group of performers who understand recovery processes, it explores what might be an aesthetic of recovery in theatre practice and performance.

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My Research:

My research thesis proposes an approach to developing applied theatre practice as an ‘affective performance ecology’. I begin with the premise that applied theatre practice and research is a living thing bound up in relations in the world, with others and with theatre practices. My approach as a researcher-practitioner, my sense of being-in-the-world, is embedded in my understanding of ‘affect’ as a way of theorising the flow and exchange of energy or sensation that motivates us to thought, to action, to inter-relation with people, places and things. My practice as a theatre-maker with people in recovery from addiction is an affective expression of my understanding of the world and of those with whom I am collaborating. My research is, therefore, a practice of human ecology and, specifically, a concern with both performance ecology and ecologies of recovery (from addiction).