Theatre Studies Research Articles

Theatre studies for professionalism: A call for secured future

This paper highlights the current course and challenges the modern and traditional theatre practitioners in Nepal have faced, and the steps that the stakeholders need to take to herald professionalism in the field. Any step taken by them needs to be guided by the objective of creating economically sustainable ground for the theatre profession. This paper also briefly mentions my findings about the way the stakeholders of the performance culture of Bali, Indonesia have managed to secure a market for their traditional dance and drama forms in the context of tourism of both domestic and international order. In the new political and economic context of Nepal, modern and traditional theatre practitioners need to link their arts and crafts with the urban market. For this, the practitioners need to have access to higher studies and learn to conduct research activities warranted by the market-oriented nature of modern theatre, the paper concludes.

Live-Capture Filmed Theatre Productions: A New Hybrid Art Form Between Film and Theatre

This paper explores the unique positioning of live-capture filmed theatre, specifically referring to National Theatre Live examples, through the lenses of film theory and genre studies. Live-capture filmed theatre has gained substantial traction, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which accelerated the transition of theatre into online platforms. This study examines how this hybrid form is conceptualized within contemporary film theory and genre frameworks. Drawing on D.N. Rodowick’s insights into the fluid and evolving nature of cinema and Siegfried Kracauer’s critique of early filmed theatre’s “canning,” the paper evaluates how live-capture filmed theatre both sticks to and differs from traditional cinematic norms. Additionally, Rick Altman’s semantic/syntactic/pragmatic genre theory provides a framework for assessing the hybrid characteristics of live-capture filmed theatre. The analysis reveals that while live-capture theatre fits neither conventional film genres nor fully reflects theatrical experiences, it operates within a distinct hybrid space that blends elements of both media. Ultimately, live-capture filmed theatre is positioned as a new hybrid art form that challenges conventional definitions of film and theatre. It contributes to the evolving discourse on audiovisual media by offering new industrial opportunities and enhancing global accessibility to theatrical performances. This study highlights the need for continuous exploration of hybrid art forms and their impact on the future of film and theatre studies.

The Juncture Of Musical Theatre And Theatrical Music: A Literature Review

This paper is a position paper that highlights the intersection of musical theatre and theatrical music, two art forms within the Ghanaian context that blend music and drama but with distinct orientations. The essence is to clarify blurred boundaries and lack of clear distinction between these two art forms, which often leads students of music to confusion or misinterpretation in composition and performance discourse, performance practices, and artistic production. The approach used is a review of some topical issues related to the topic to unravel the distinction to make contribution to knowledge in music composition and performance as well as other cognate disciplines such as ethnomusicology and theatre studies. It is seen that while musical theatre integrates music as a vehicle for storytelling within a staged performance, theatrical music emphasises music's dramatic qualities without necessarily conforming to theatrical conventions. The two concepts have shared elements such as narrative, emotional expression, and performance as well as some differences in structure. Understanding the two Chiasmus is key to composing works that identify the key juncture where these art forms converge, offering insights into their mutual influence in contemporary performance.

The Unrepresentable Takes the Stage: Bisexual Legibility and Theatrical Monosexism in Contemporary English-Language Drama

Abstract This article brings contemporary theatre studies into dialogue with the growing range of bisexual scholarship across disciplines. This scholarship argues, among other things, that bisexuality must be understood not as a blend of hetero- and homosexualities, but rather as a unique experience that is subject, at various times, both to homophobia and to another form of discrimination: monosexism. I argue that bisexual erasure, discrimination, and oppression – monosexism – in theatre reinforces and is reinforced by bisexual erasure in the broader culture. Building on the work of Judith Butler, Jill Dolan, Sam See, and others, I suggest that greater awareness of bisexuality in theatre studies might play a part in destigmatizing bisexuality and making offstage bisexual lives more legible and more liveable. The article goes on to analyze representations of bisexuality in three contemporary English-language plays: Stop Kiss (2000) by American playwright Diana Son, Cock (2009) by British playwright Mike Bartlett, and Smoke (2022) by Canadian playwright Elena Belyea.

Of Deep Time and Slow Violence: Anthropo-Scenic Timespaces and the Chronotopes of Climate Theatre.

This article explores how contemporary climate theatre navigates the distorted scales of the Anthropocene and the climate crisis through its unique aesthetics – embodiment, spatiality, temporality, and reciprocity. Previous literature on climate theatre has largely discussed its anthropomorphism and anthropocentrism in relation to global warming. Building on ecodramaturgical frameworks, this article draws on ecocritical appropriations of Mikhail Bakhtin’s chronotope to investigate how theatrical time and space make the abstract nature of climate change tangible. The argument posits that chronotopes of climate theatre are crucial for understanding how contemporary theatre and performance tackle scalar derangement. By drawing on interdisciplinary approaches from environmental humanities, performance and theatre studies, and posthumanism, the study situates itself at the intersections of performance art, political theatre, aesthetic theatre, drama, and environmentalism, examining how different theatrical formats use theatrical ‘timespaces’ to address the spatio-temporal complexities of the Anthropocene. It discusses Ella Hickson’s Oil (2016); April De Angelis’s Extinct (2021); Extinction Rebellion’s “The Sea Is Rising and so Are We” (2019); and Chris Rapley and Duncan Macmillan’s 2071 (2014), showing how each uses theatrical chronotopes to transform deep time, slow violence, and the dispersed nature of climate change into the ‘hyper-present’ of the stage.

The arts and humanities: rethinking value for today—introduction

This kaleidoscope of short pieces derives from two Fellows Engagement Week sessions (2022, 2023) in which speakers from across the British Academy—Theatre Studies, Anthropology, Modern History, History of Science, English, Philosophy, Music—gave ten-minute talks on the civic value of the arts and humanities. The British Academy’s SHAPE acronym, answering the Royal Society’s STEM formulation, understandably stresses the economic importance of arts and humanities in today’s challenging technological world (E is for Economy). The remit of this forum, however, was to remake and reclaim arguments for the civic importance of arts and humanities, recognising that accounts of the arts are often based on 19th-century arguments that no longer have force today. Three themes emerge from this forum: the importance of collaboration, the non-instrumental significance of aesthetic experience, and the centrality of language to civic life. (This article is published in the thematic collection `The arts and humanities: rethinking value for today—views from Fellows of the British Academy’, edited by Isobel Armstrong.)

Redefining Vygotsky’s early works as a theory of aesthetics

The paper critically examines Lev Vygotsky’s art-related texts from 1915 to 1924, challenging interpretations based in Psychology by asserting that his aesthetic framework transcends outdated objectivist references, offering a nuanced philosophical perspective. Situating this within post-1917 Revolutionary Russia, the study explores its alignment with the visions of a ‘Revolutionary’ theatre for the ‘new human being’ in the Russian Futurist movement. It underscores Vygotsky’s pursuit of empirical evidence for understanding theatre’s impact on individuals and society, highlighting Marxist dialectics as the backbone of his aesthetic thought. Moreover, it establishes a connection between Vygotsky’s thought and Formalism, rooted in their shared emphasis on art’s structural features and links his ideas with Futurism, exploring their shared belief in the transformative power of form as a crucial element in provoking social change. The paper defines Vygotsky’s aesthetics, focusing on integral aspects of artistic reception, particularly emotion and imagination. It traces the shifts in Vygotsky’s understanding of these terms from his early reliance on psychoanalysis to the incorporation of dialectic and, later, cultural-historical perspectives, thus integrating Vygotsky’s later theories on human psychology into his aesthetic theory. The paper concludes by exploring the resonance between Vygotsky’s redefined aesthetics and contemporary Cognitive Theatre Studies. It draws attention to methodological convergence and shared insights on the interplay between natural and cultural influences, such as image schemas and conceptual blending, emphasising the enduring relevance of Vygotsky’s perspective on artistic structure and theatre’s transformative socio-political impact.

Feminist Readings of Space, Body, and Performance: An Overview of Emerging Feminist Theatre in India

The theatre has been an amalgamation of history, society, and its representation where it connects with the audience directly. It has been a medium of resistance, protest, and entertainment and a cultural and social tradition in various countries. This paper is an analytical study of feminist theatre and its nuances, showing that theatre, which has been used as a mode to protest and resist, becomes a tool to reclaim and re-own space and body for women. It is essential to theorize Feminist Theatre so that its congruency can be established with the socio-cultural and historical paradigm. All the genres that were written to stabilize feminist thought in the discourse fell back on the conventional praxis of mythology and other texts. For example, Indian narratives borrowed feminine tropes from the classical texts whether it was Rabindranath Tagore or Girish Karnad, women were phenomenal yet subdued. Hence, when men wrote women, there was always a hint of “othering” the female gender in these write-ups; there was always a moralistic judgment of these women. Thus, this study is an attempt to theorize women playwrights and feminist performances that have made an attempt to pave the way for feminist scholarships and feminist theatres to evolve.

Realism, Postmodernism, and Authenticity in the Contemporary Circus Novel

ABSTRACT In the late 20th and early 21st century, European circus has become embroiled in public debates about the inclusion of live animal acts, some of which have recently been replaced with hologram alternatives. I ask what such replacements of live bodies with technically mediated one's does to the sense of risk and sensation which has always defined live circus acts and their claim to authenticity through the threat of live danger. I investigate recent revaluations (Schulze, Funk, and Vermeulen) in Theatre Studies of the concept of authenticity after postmodernism to reflect on how the complex mix of loss, assertion, and compensation in these debates can be deployed in analyzing two distinct narrative representations of the circus (Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants and Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus); the first exemplifies classic realism, the second a version of postmodernism. I ask how the texts negotiate and interrogate the ongoing problem of circus’s relationship to authenticity, where authenticity is at once an impossible imperative against which circus strives to measure itself, a condition and guarantee of its danger and immediacy, and a performative promise which disappears in the moment of its delivery.

Scientific Fact and Artistic Image: Deformation of the subject field of Ukrainian theater studies in the 1920s

The limits of professional activity are determined by the circle of persons who carry it out (who), the content of the activity (production, processing or any other actions aimed at changing the object), quality criteria, technical, ethical and other norms, forms of incentives and sanctions, etc. So, for a formal or informal small or medium-sized social group, the activity of which is inseparable of the situation in which it is carried out, because, in addition to production, it involves the organization of demand and sales, communication with the world external to the group, which leads to stratification activity itself into smaller independent functions (differentiation of production, sales, etc.) and to its transformation, sometimes almost to the point of self-destruction. The heart of professional activity — its subject field or subject matter — is determined not only by the subject of production, its quality criteria and boundaries but also by invisible communications, which are very often hidden from the direct consumer, among which a key role is played by a professional network (structured professional communication carried out by members of the group regarding the subject of production) and its reference library (theoretical works, technical instructions, protocols regulating activities, etc.). During the 1920s, when in Ukraine the self-reliance of activities aimed at the production of scientific facts, therefore, new and preferably practically oriented knowledge about the theater, and the separation of this sphere from others, was fixed in terms of theater studies, there was an extremely active process of formation of the subject field, network and reference library of theater studies. A key role in these processes was played (and not only because of his own professional activity but also as a result of his position in the network) theater historian Petro Rulin, in whose activities, precisely from the point of view of the formation and deformation of the subject matter of theatre studies, its main trends of the 1920s are highlighted.

Space and Theatre

Theatre as an artistic and cultural activity has been the subject of academic speculation ever since the Greeks, but it was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that European and American scholars institutionalized a field of theatre studies. A significant part of this new field’s self-definition involved a clear splitting away from traditional literary studies, within which theatre had previously had its academic home. The entire Western tradition, from the Greeks onward, considered the drama primarily as a branch of literature—the other basic divisions being the epic and the lyric. Traditionally theatre scholarship was based upon the literary text (Artistotle’s indifference to spectacle is an early and notorious example of this bias) and the actual process of the physical realization of this text, while not entirely ignored, was a matter of considerably less interest.

Leadership development and the politics of intentionality: A case study of organisational theatre

In this article, we report an ethnographic, arts-based research inquiry into a leadership development initiative designed using principles of Organisational Theatre. We explore dynamics of relevance and intentionality that have been over-assumed and under-researched in leadership development to tease out implications for research and practice. Our empirical material is drawn from interviews, focus group workshops, an ethnodrama process, sustained observation and questionnaires. We offer two interconnected contributions: 1) the significance of ‘the politics of intentionality’ in a theoretical framing of leadership development and 2) the role of aesthetic reflexivity in navigating such politics. These contributions are accessed through a performance ontology anchored in the dramaturgical analysis of social life most famously applied by Goffman. Our overall framing of intentionality as a nuanced, fluid, plural and political alternative to purpose offers novel insight into the field of leadership development.

Audience Impact of European Co-production: The Case of Quo Vadis, Aida?

European co-productions are usually the most ambitious European films, combining multiple sources of financing and targeting both transnational audiences and critical acclaim. However, their success with audiences is often quite limited in terms of admissions. In this article, we investigate the sources of this audience challenge for European co-productions adopting the perspective centered on audience design. We look at what we define as “ideal European co-productions”—films of high artistic value with festival visibility, an “ideal script” and clear socio-cultural and political value. We identify, drawing primarily on literature in theatre studies, four different groups of target audiences for these films—average spectators, emancipated spectators, spect-actors and emancipated spect-actors—and offer a framework for understanding what mobilizes these audience groups to seek out and view films. We then use Quo Vadis, Aida?, a 2020 film by Jasmila Žbanić, as an in-depth case study to show how, in practice, a lack of strategy at both production and distribution stage can result in failing to reach the target audiences even for films that show significant audience potential and have well-defined socio-political goals. We end the study pointing to the limitations of our work as well as offering suggestions for further research and policy development.

Simultaneous interpretation in interpreter-mediated remote legal proceedings: some observations from a forum theatre study

This article concerns the findings of a study into participant responses to remote interpreter-mediated court proceedings using Welsh-English simultaneous interpretation. The study employs the forum theatre techniques of Augusto Boal, to explore how counsel, witnesses, mock-jurors and interpreters participate in hearings conducted remotely. The study was conducted in 2022, when the early difficulties of conducting hearings remotely because of the Covid pandemic had been resolved, and legal systems were considering how remote hearings could operate in the future.

Theater practice and interpersonal synchronization behaviors: a pilot study comparing actors and non-actors.

Recent studies in the field of theater studies no longer view theater as an object, but rather as a dynamic relationship between actors and spectators. In an embodied and situated perspective of cognition, imagination emerges as a product of this dynamic. This study aims to investigate whether acting practice enhances someone's abilities to set up an effective relationship with others and allows the individual to better manage not only the relationship itself, but also her/his own feelings and those of her/his partner. Eighty two healthy Italian adults, with no communication disorders, including 43 actors (Mage = 25.4; S.D. = 3.64) and 39 non-actors (Mage = 24.1 = S.D. = 4.17) completed a joint verbal production task named Random Sequence Generation (RSG) task. Initially, participants performed the task individually. Subsequently, in a second phase, they worked in pairs with another participant, taking turns to contribute to a shared sequence. Pairings were predetermined to ensure a balanced mix of actors and non-actors, and to prevent participants from having prior relationships. Following the task, subjects were queried about their sense of presence, and, their perception of entitativity with their partner. We observed a replication of previous studies, showing higher RSG scores and reduced repetition in the paired condition, indicative of coupling and synchronization behavior. Within pairs, the level of the sense of presence of both partners was positively correlated. Furthermore, an interaction effect between the sense of presence and acting experience on the perception of entitativity was observed. Specifically, actors described perceived entitativity with their partners when their sense of presence was heightened, whereas non-actors experienced a decrease in perceived entitativity with their partners under similar circumstances. We discuss the results and limitations of the study, suggesting the effect of artistic practice on the development of a sort of dual-task ability which enables actors to organize their sensations and actions while sustaining a meaningful connection with others. This research represents an interdisciplinary collaboration between theater studies and cognitive sciences, highlighting the value of a multidisciplinary approach to research.

<i>Gesamtkunstwerk</i> Transcriptions in the Polish Theatrical Avant-Garde

When considering the concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk in the context of the avant-garde, it seems useful to use the term transcription, borrowed from musical terminology, which denotes the development of a composition for a different instrument, voice or ensemble than originally intended. From this perspective, we can speak of a transcription of Wagner’s concept to other areas of the arts. In Polish theater studies, the notion of the Gesamtkunstwerk appears often. Usually Wagner’s concept is cited as one of many inspirations of selected artists and their artistic practices. As far as the activities of artists among the Polish theatrical avant-garde are concerned, this inspiration seems to be obvious. In this article, I attempt to show how the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk functions in selected works of Polish artists, such as Zbigniew Pronaszko, Jerzy Grotowski and Tadeusz Kantor. These artists consciously refer to the Wagnerian idea by perceiving the work of theater art primarily as a tool of possible social change.

Centenary Paper: Down But Not Out: Fighting to Maintain Federico García Lorca in UK Higher Education

Over the last decade, British universities have become increasingly reliant on an instrumentalist rhetoric to defend the ongoing relevance of research and teaching in the Humanities. This has resulted in a new chapter in the long-running saga concerning the crisis (purported or real) of Modern Languages alongside the study of literature. The very flexibility condemning traditional Modern Languages curricula to the past nevertheless offers new opportunities for literary study when used for the development of new skills. In this article, I employ my experience of a research-led undergraduate project on the UK stage legacy of Federico García Lorca as a case study to suggest ways in which the study of literature and theatre might be revamped.

Frances Burney’s A Busy Day; or, an Arrival from India (1800-1802) and the Family Business

Frances Burney (1752-1840) became one of the most famous eighteenth-century English novelists after the publication of her first work Evelina (1778), which was followed by other successful novels that made her a household name in Britain. Though Burney was always very attracted by the stage and there is a close relationship between her narrative and dramatic production, her comedies and tragedies have been considerably less explored and celebrated by eighteenth-century scholars and feminism. This article examines Burney’s comedy A Busy Day; or, an Arrival from India (1800-1802), which was never performed on stage during her lifetime and was one of the author’s last compositions paving the way for her harsh social criticism in The Wanderer (1814). Like all of Burney’s works, A Busy Day contains a good deal of satire and a provoking view of the domestic ideology, colonialism and the economic interests of the family at the turn of the nineteenth century. Burney introduces an insightful analysis of vulgarity and prejudice against the middle class. By drawing on the work of several Burney scholars, gender and theatre studies, I show how gender and colonialism are interrelated in A Busy Day, which showcases an evolution from Burney’s first heroine in Evelina to a more mature woman that would continue up to The Wanderer and it turns out to be Burney’s fiercest dramatic criticism against bias based on class, race and sex.

The Study of Music Theatre in the Russian Context: Italian Contributions and the Current Debate

The two main narratives that coexist in Russian musicological literature – notably in the field of opera – fall within the branches of russkaja and zarubežnaja muzyka. The first is inward-looking, self-referential, aiming at enhancing the peculiarities of the original, peculiar, and autochthonous contribution to Russian musical culture; the other studies Western music and its evolution separately from the previous one. This approach differs from Western scholarship, which today tries to integrate the Russian musical phenomenon into the global horizon. While this difference can be explained through historical reasons, much remains to be done regarding communication between scientific communities and the coordination of efforts made to study sources that are still too dispersed and difficult to submit to an overall view. Observing the current state of research, my contribution highlights potential directions in the frame of Slavic studies, such as the reception of Western opera in Russia, the mobility of musicians and musical assets, the reception and evolution of aesthetic thinking, and the vocabulary with which this was expressed, particularly in the imperial era.

Analysis of Tencent Video Content Innovation StrategyA Case Study of Theatre X

To maintain its competitiveness in today's fiercely competitive long-form video platform market, Tencent Video launched the "X" Theater in 2023 from the perspective of long-term value, aiming to satisfy user demand for high-quality short-form videos through diversified and personalized content. This paper explores the development path of Tencent Video from the following four aspects: the industry survey on the foundation of Tencent Video and its development history, the significance of the study, the SWOT analysis of Tencent Video's X-Theatre content innovation strategy, and the optimization proposal for Tencent video's X-Theatre. Through these studies, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the competitive strategies of today's long-form video platforms. The study learns that Tencent has a broad user base and strong liquidity, allowing it to invest flexibly in video content. At the same time, Tencent can test the market's inclusiveness on a wider scale, thus leading similar platforms in terms of revenue. By innovating the scheduling model, improving the quality of video content, and digging deeper into the emotional needs of viewers, Tencent Video has taken the X Theater as a starting point for content innovation, which is now beginning to bear fruit. This innovative strategy is expected to drive the growth of long-form video platforms.