Andrea Tuijten
Andrea's work and passion hold a focus on facilitating interfaith encounters through theatre, critical pedagogy and youth activism, multi-arts and creative educational approaches.
Staff details
Andrea Tuijten is an applied theatre practitioner, associate lecturer, project manager, creative programmes designer and producer. Her work and passion hold a particular focus on facilitating interfaith encounters through theatre, critical pedagogy and youth activism, multi-arts and creative educational approaches. Over the past 9 years she has worked with children, young people and adults (ages 4-25+) from a diverse range of backgrounds, across various cross-arts, community, educational, academic and professional settings. Her wider experience encompasses drama and language acquisition for young people with refugee experience, arts and creative leadership with care experienced young people, disability arts, and arts and mental health.
Teaching
Andrea started teaching at Goldsmiths University in 2014 on the Applied Theatre MA where she runs sessions and lectures on applied theatre approaches to interfaith dialogue (theatre as a space for creating community). In 2018 she started convening and teaching the MA contextual course Radical Performance, which sets out to probe the creative innovations in theatre, performance, and live art practices that intersect with notions of radicality. In teaching this course she applies creative practices to exploring course material and cultivating a space for critical exchange and enquiry.
Selected work
As a freelance creative Andrea has worked with Ovalhouse, Rewrite, The Faith and Belief Forum, and currently works with Kazzum Arts, Greenwich and Lewisham’s Young People’s Theatre and A New Direction.
From 2014-2016 she was Co-Director of The MUJU Crew, London's award-winning interfaith theatre company, that provides platforms (theatre productions, live events, commissions, and participatory programmes) for Muslim and Jewish creative collaboration. She produced MUJU’s first main stage show, Come In! Sit Down! at Kiln Theatre in 2015 alongside a range participatory programmes for Muslim and Jewish young people.
For The Faith & Belief Forum (F&BF, 2014-2018), an intercultural dialogue charity, Andrea designed and produced Amplify, a youth-led participatory arts programme for young people from diverse faith, belief, cultural and socio-economic communities, to create inclusive spaces within schools for exploring complex issues relating to faith, belief, identity, and community in a rapidly interconnected and globalised world creative manifestos for change. In 2017 she organised a youth-led Committee Room Take-Over in the Houses of Parliament where young people presented their manifesto to an audience of activist, educators, young people, policymakers and artist. She also led on wider delivery of F&BF’s encounter based schools work as well as creative curriculum, training and programme design and development.
In addition, as an independent artist Andrea co-designed a body of work that combines Participatory Arts methodologies with the field of Qur’an Translation, for which she has co-delivered workshops in London, Salt Lake City (USA) at the Parliament of World Religions 2015 and 12th Interfaith Conference at the Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue (Qatar) in 2016.
Research Interests
Andrea's research interests include:
- Applied theatre and interfaith dialogue
- Critical pedagogy and creative youth activism
- Play, space and political disruption
- Post and de-colonial consciousness in creative spaces