Applied Drama: Reflection on the Practice and the Question

The drama has been variously utilised for entertainment, education, social engineering and therapy among others. The drive towards multidisciplinary has also endeared drama to scholars and practitioners in education and social sciences who practice Applied drama. Most studies conducted on applied drama examines its usefulness in solving social and developmental issues with limited attention paid to interrogating the concept itself. It is the objective of this paper, therefore, to interrogate the concept of Applied drama in order to determine its departure or otherwise from previous pragmatic usage of drama for social engineering. The taxonomy of previous attempts at using drama for non-aesthetic purposes was conducted and compared with applied drama. Practical application to utilise drama for social and development purposes by a Nigerian Non-Governmental Organisation, Creative Actors Initiative for Development (CRAID) was also examined to determine whether they fall within the purview of Applied Drama. Data were subjected to critical analysis. Infotainment, Edutainment, Enter-Educate, Theatre for Development, Political Theatre, Agitation Propaganda and Psychodrama are various ways through which drama has been deployed to interface with society. Applied drama is not radically different from these previous concepts in its purpose and operation. Applied drama is a mutation of previous pragmatic usage of drama for social engineering. The use of drama for the non-aesthetic purpose will outlive the concept of Applied Drama as it did the previous concepts.