The largely solo work of the Coventry-based performer Carran Waterfield is clearly part of a tradition of avant-garde performance and of so-called ‘third theatre’ in its refusal of a narrative line, and its multi-disciplinary, performer-centered orchestration of the elements of visual, aural, and dynamic expression. Yet Waterfield's performance pieces are also highly distinctive in their organic relationship both to her own life and to the life of the community in and for which she performs. Jo Trowsdale here suggests that the points of difference provide an unusual model in which elements of drama therapy, community art, and educational theatre find a fruitful interface with ‘third’ and avant-garde theatre forms. Jo Trowsdale lectures in drama at the Institute of Education, University of Warwick, and is presently researching the role of artists in education, especially in the training of teachers.