Evan Hastings

Evan Hastings is a leading international practitioner, consultant and academic in the field of Applied Theatre, with expertise in Drama Therapy, Theatre of the Oppressed and Theatre in Education.

Evan Hastings is the Founder of Shadow Liberation, a participatory theatre method for facilitating sexual assault prevention in higher education. Utilizing trauma-informed and research-based practice, Shadow Liberation blends Drama Therapy and Theatre of the Oppressed (bystander intervention) with Shadow techniques. Shadow Theatre offers distancing strategies conducive to representing traumatic material in abstracted ways. As the Founder of Shadow Liberation, Evan has engaged diverse communities across 17 countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East & North America. Evan has received support for his Shadow Liberation work from the Garden of Hope Foundation in Taiwan, US Consulate Shanghai, GIZ, India Foundation for the Arts and the Burning Man Global Arts Grant. Evan has presented on Shadow Liberation at many international conferences over the past decade and has delivered Performances, Masterclasses, and Lectures at top Universities including New York University (New York City, NY, USA), Utrecht University (Utrecht, Netherlands), Ghent University (Ghent, Belgium), National University of Singapore (Singapore), National Taipei University of Education (Taipei, Taiwan), Shantou University (Shantou, China), Asian Women's University (Chittagong, Bangladesh), AOD Design Campus (Colombo, Sri Lanka), Delhi University (New Delhi, India).

As an extension of his Shadow Liberation work, Evan has received 5 commissions to create public art installations in India and China. These installations have appeared at the Community Arts Festival in Guangzhou, China (2016), Phoenix Flower Community Arts Festival, in Shenzhen, China (2017), and Festival of Stories in Bengaluru, India (2017).

Evan has over a decade of experience Evan was a 3-time faculty fellow at Project Zero within Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, where he taught in the Project Zero Classroom Summer Institute and the Future of Learning Institute. At Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, USA, Evan taught in the Masters in Teaching programme and the Bachelors in Expressive Therapies program from. In India, Evan taught Drama Therapy in the Foundation in Expressive and Creative Arts Therapies program at the Studio for Movement Art and Therapies, was faculty at Srishti, Institute of Art, Design, and Technology, and visiting faculty at Xavier's College Mumbai.

In his 20 years of practice, Evan has designed and facilitated creative group processes in challenging contexts including correctional facilities, refugee camps, war zones, school violence contexts, and in remote villages.

Evan moved to Dunedin in August 2019 to take the Artistic Director role at Theatre in Health Education Trust, where he is leading programme expansion and directing Sexwise, a national touring Applied Theatre programme promoting Relationships and Sexuality Education for Rangatahi/Youth in low-decile schools and alternative education settings.