The article presents a dramatherapy intervention with homeless clients. It introduces the concept of ‘the necessary theatre’ as a theatrical frame to encapsulate the healing potential of drama and arts practice. The term, first introduced by Peter Brook, refers to the ‘blessed moments’ of shared artistic experience by actors and witnesses in attuned presence and level of energetic presence. During the dramatherapy work with the homeless clients it became clear that the aim of the intervention was to contribute to creating conditions for such moments to occur and happen as events. The article argues that the case study with this ‘vulnerable’ client group created useful knowledge and innovative practice concerning epistemological dilemmas for arts practice as therapy. The case study reinforced the tradition of arts therapy that insists on working from within the artistic media, such as the Jungian Sesame approach to drama and movement therapy that acknowledges each individual's healthy and creative drive for self-regulation and agency.

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This article presents the Norwegian applied theatre project called P:UNKT, which suggests a meeting point, a crossroads and encounters. The aim of the project was to stimulate integration and cultural diversity, with the outreach nature of P:UNKT resulting in new ways of interaction and collaboration across groups and institutions. I conducted research on the project from 2010 to 2012 and three years later, in 2016. I claim that the project enabled ethnic Norwegians and immigrants to create unique storytelling theatre together that transcended the conventional preconceptions of us and them, resulting in the emergence of a new ‘we’. This type of social and applied theatre run by a professional, state-funded theatre is not common in Norway. The findings of my research are therefore of relevance to local communities, theatre companies and politicians. The P:UNKT project is an example of the active role that applied theatre can play in shaping Norwegian identity construction in the twenty-first century.

has pioneered the field of drama and theatre in higher education in Norway. This article addresses educational, academic and artistic challenges that emerge when practice as research in the arts enters the academic field of humanities. In particular, the article examines narrative supervision methodology at the master's level. The first part of the paper identifies the foundations of the contextual and methodological challenges. The main body of the article explores three discussion topics, each illustrated by case examples of practical-theoretical master's projects. The first example investigates experiential and theoretical borderland tensions; the second addresses onto-epistemic questions; and the third explores the communication of complex narrative construction. Storytelling metaphors are used to advance our emphasis on narrative inquiry as practitioner-researchers and supervisors. The dilemmas outlined are relevant to the Nordic and international community currently navigating this relatively new research area.

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