Moving the centre of socially engaged performance

This editorial marks the first co-edited issue of Applied Theatre Research ( ATR ) : Socially Engaged Performance . In retitling the journal and reframing its editorial vision, we foreground socially engaged performance as an inclusive term that invites radical and interdisciplinary praxes from new ecologies and centres. Guided by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s call to ‘move the centre’, we point to the continued dominance of Eurocentric epistemologies and highlight the need for multiple, interconnected centres for cultures, knowledges and practices. Our reflections introduce inequities in academic publishing and access and new possibilities for mentorship and support for practitioners. By recommitting to mentorship and sponsorship as integral modes of moving the centre, this editorial situates ATR: Socially Engaged Performance as a platform for global dialogue and generosity, while sustaining applied theatre and socially engaged performance as critical, creative and politically urgent fields.