The Routledge Companion to Applied Performance provides an in-depth, far-reaching and provocative consideration of how scholars and artists negotiate the theoretical, historical and practical politics of applied performance, both in the academy and beyond.

Tim Prentki is Emeritus Professor of Theatre for Development at the University of Winchester. He is the co-editor of the Routledge Applied Theatre Reader (2008), author of Applied Theatre: Development (2015) and The Fool in European Theatre: Stages of Folly (2011), and co-editor with Ananda Breed of Performance and Civic Engagement (2018).

Ananda Breed is Professor in Theatre at the University of Lincoln. She is the author of Performing the Nation: Genocide, Justice, Reconciliation (2014), co-editor with Tim Prentki of Performance and Civic Engagement (2018) and Principal Investigator of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) project Mobile Arts for Peace (MAP): Informing the National Curriculum and Youth Policy for Peacebuilding in Kyrgyzstan, Rwanda, Indonesia and Nepal (2020-2024).

Introduction to Volume One; Part I: Australia and New Zealand; Introduction to Part I: 'Considering the ethics of representation in applied theatre'. - Helen Cahill & Peter O'Connor; Chapter 1: 'Identifying and understanding the notion of quality within an applied theatre project designed to playfully engage people living with dementia'. Julie Dunn & Michael Balfour; Chapter 2: 'Repairing the evil: Staging Puppet Antigone (2017) at Auckland Prison'. - Rand Hazou; Chapter 3: 'Taurima Vibes: Economies of manaakitanga and care in Aotearoa New Zealand'. - Molly Mullen & B¿ni Te Rongopai Tukiwaho; Chapter 4: 'Small acts at the margins: Making theatre work at cross-cultural intersections'. - Linden Wilkinson; Chapter 5: 'The art of listening in prison: Creating radio drama with incarcerated women'. - Sarah Woodland; Part II: The Balkans; Introduction to Part II and III: 'Memory, identity, and the (ab)use of representation'. - Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta & Darko Luki¿; Chapter 6: 'Performing the otherness: Representation of the invisible communities in post-conflict and post-communist societies: Croatian example'. - Darko Luki¿; Chapter 7: 'The bridge to hope: Applied theatre in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina'. - Sead ¿uli¿; Chapter 8: 'Theatre against violence, action in classrooms'. - Ines Škufli¿ Horvat, Maja Sviben, & Nina Horvat; Chapter 9: Interview with Vladimir Kruši¿: Theatre and drama in education. - Darko Luki¿; Chapter 10: 'In search of polyphonic concepts of participatory theatre and art for social change: Almost half a century of engagement'. - Ljubica Beljanski-Risti¿; Chapter 11: 'Giving voice to the voiceless: Raising awareness and spurring debate on the Homeland War (1991-1995) in Croatian theatre'. - Nikolina Židek; Part III: North America; Chapter 12: 'Examining the ethics of research-based theatre through Contact! Unload'. - George Belliveau, Susan Cox, Jennica Nichols, Graham W. Lea & Christopher Cook; Chapter 13: 'We Are Here: Gylphing a re-creation story through waterways, bloodlines and constellations'. - Jill Carter; Chapter 14: Applied performance practices of therapeutic clowns: A curated conversation with Helen Donnelly. - Julia Gray, Jenny Setchell, & Helen Donnelly; Chapter 15: 'Playback Theater conductor as ritual guide: The artful and sensitive job of extracting personal stories'. - Hannah Fox; Chapter 16: 'Theatre to address social justice issues with gatekeepers in Canada'. - Lauren Jerke & Warwick Dobson; Chapter 17: 'Tensions of engagement: Oscillating between distance and implication'. - Yasmine Kandil; Chapter 18: 'Questioning social justice: A dialogue on performance, activism and being in-between'. - Asif Majid & Elena Velasco; Chapter 19: 'Timely homecomings'. - Carrie MacLeod; Chapter 20: 'The arrivals legacy process: Reviving Ancestral stories of recovery and return'. - Diane Roberts; Chapter 21: 'Applying Hamilton' - Hana Worthen; Part IV: Latin America; Introduction to Part IV: Applied performance in Latin America. - Paloma Carpio & Rodrigo Benza; Chapter 22: 'The body, women, and performance art in Latin America'. - Josefina Alcázar; Chapter 23: 'Dance as a tool for the construction of peace and identity'. - Ana Carolina Ávila; Chapter 24: 'We play as we mean to resist: Theatre games as political participation'. - Matthew Elliott; Chapter 25: 'Communal living culture: From the many to the few, from the few to the many'. - Iván Nogales & Paloma Carpio; Chapter 26: 'Latent conflict or latency in conflict: The liminal space between art actions and the Chilean civic-military dictatorship'. - Andrés Grumann Sölter & Francisco Gonzáles Castro; Chapter 27: 'The community and its Gaze: Argentine community theater'. - Edith Scher; Chapter 28: 'Three community experiences and a resignation' - Rafael Murillo Selva; Part V: Southern Africa; Introduction to Part V: Applied performance in Southern Africa - Alexandra Sutherland; Chapter 29: 'Romio ndi Julieti (Romeo and Juliet): Chichewa language production of a serious drama'. - Amy Bonsall; Chapter 30: 'Rituals (2010) as a counter narrative of healing and reconciliation in Zimbabwe'. - Kelvin Chikonzo & Ruth Makumbirofa; Chapter 31: 'Dear Mr Government'. - Jessica Lejowa, Bongile Lecoge-Zulu and Cherae; Halley; Chapter 32: 'Applied performance as a space to address issues affecting girls and young women in Zimbabwe: A case study of Rachel 19'. - Cletus Moyo & Nkululeko Sibanda; Chapter 33: 'Applied arts in business contexts: Selling out to the oppressor or doing transformational work?' - Petro Janse van Vuuren; Part VI: Western Europe; Introduction to Part VI: 'Care for the Open: intercultural challenges and transcultural potential of applied performances in Western Europe'. - Julius Heinicke; Chapter 34: 'Realistic art and the creation of artistic truth'. - Rolf Bossart; Chapter 35: 'Artistic creation and participation in Portugal and Brazil: The urgencies of today'. - Hugo Cruz; Chapter 36: 'Core of Nordic applied theatre: Challenges in a subarctic area'. - Riike Gürgens Gjaerum; Chapter 37: 'Youth transformation in search of freedom'. - Maria Kwiatek; Chapter 38: 'Legami in spazi aperti (Bonds in Open Spaces)'. - Giulia Innocenti Malini; Chapter 39: 'Exploring dramaturgy in participatory refugee theatre as a dialogical art practice: Dialogical tensions in a temporary relational playground'. - Sofie de Smet, Lucia De Haene, Cécile Rousseau, & Christel Stalpaert; Chapter 40: 'The right artistic solution is just the beginning'. - Lene Thiesen