Vernacular Theatre : Making Theatre with Community

Between 1989 and 2020 Jonathan Petherbridge worked as the Artistic Director of a community-based theatre company - London Bubble.This longer than average tenure allowed him time to forge a close working relationship with the community and develop new ways to involve people of all ages in theatre-making.Out of a slew of projects emerged a particular methodology to make work that was researched, curated and performed by citizens between the ages of 8 and 80.The process that emerged was called Foraging - a methodology carefully divided into five phases, which attempts to bring the best out of both voluntary and specialist artists - making time and space for them to create theatre that has a striking beauty and an ingrained aesthetic of care.Vernacular Theatre describes the result - the aesthetic.The case studies - based on work with citizens of London and Hiroshima - examine how this theatre has valued key moments of communal history, contemporary issues and everyday institutions.The book