Community Art, an artistic research into mediation procedures between professional and non-professional theatre artists in contemporary performing arts.

This project is based on three assumptions: 1. There is a blurred distinction in the professional theatre world between a non-professional and a professional actor or director (e.g. social artistic productions, projects of participation), 2. in higher art education (particularly in Belgium and the Netherlands) students are trained to work with professional players and 3. many non-professional players are increasingly looking for other new forms of informal education in which they participate fully in an artistic project (and that desire is not filled by part-time artistic or amateur circuit). In other words, there is an increasing need for good practices for non-professional players. Central to this project, located on the border between pedagogy, artistic research, art education and the professional theatre field, are the following research questions: 1. What agogic, educational and artistic skills are required when working with non-professional players? 2. Which informal pedagogical and artistic environment is required to escape not only the laws of the daytime education, but also those of the part-time education? 3. How should the different components (school for higher education, teaching training program, professional theatre field) relate to the blurring distinction between professional and non-professional theatre? These questions are explored through a specific artistic project where twenty participants in a laboratory setting will continue to work with the Kapellekensbaan of Louis-Paul Boon. This process will result in a multi-disciplinary theatrical performance that is played at various locations.