Social and professional networking for the applied theatre practitioner

As many applied theatre practitioners work outside the radar of mainstream critical attention, it is often difficult to share knowledge or hear about new developments in this field; the consequences of this are that many practitioners, particularly those new to the field, are left with the task of 'reinventing the wheel', and well seasoned professionals' work becoming stagnant. Taking as our starting point 'Theatre, Media, and Survival' the creators of this panel began to consider how our own work in applied theatre might benefit from a larger web presence, specifically one which might better connect applied practitioners 'glocally' (ie, both locally and globally), allow for healthier and more frequent dialogue about approaches to work, question the efficacy of applied theatre methods, and subsequently developing a resource that might benefit theatre scholars. The panel specifically aims to question: (1) how technology and new media impacts our work as applied theatre practitioners; (2) the functionality, general purpose and feasibility of a professional/social network and how this might impact our work; and (3) how such a network might be maintained. It is hoped that one of the outcomes of the panel will be the development of a work-group that will be responsible for making the theorised network a reality.