Abstract
This article explores a unique ecology of blurry boundaries between personal passions and politics, professional and amateur theatre, and the expectations placed on the theatre and performance department by this community. Examining the powerful collective identity in this community, bound up in ‘the theatre’, and the responses to changes made to a university theatre program, this article explores how this community turned the study of theatre into a political issue.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My sincere thanks to all my colleagues and friends who have offered their solidarity and support over the last eighteen months. This essay includes discussion of Living Room Musicals: Singing local stories. This project was supported by the Tasmanian Community Fund under Grant 37Small00076; and the Office of the Pro-Vice Chancellor (Community, Partnerships and Regional Development) at the University of Tasmania under the Community Engagement Grant 2018 (Mid-Year).
Notes
1 The Launceston City Council has changed the term for elected members from alderman to councillor. I will use councillor throughout for clarity.
2 Junction Arts and The Unconformity are Tasmanian arts festivals based in Launceston and Queenstown, respectively.