Theatre Practice Research Articles

Artistic practice of technical components of monologue speech of actors

The purpose of the work is to investigate the peculiarities of the verbal means of expression of the actor in one-man shows. The research methodology is based on the application of a set of scientific methods, including systems, analysis, synthesis, as well an art history approach, which allowed to obtain objective results. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the generalization of the theoretical analysis of monologue performances staged on the Ukrainian stage, with an emphasis on the technique of speech expression and its artistic skill in the performance of actors. Conclusions. Various elements of theatrical performance are highlighted. Consideration of theoretical studies of the role of the monogenre in the performing arts, the main means of self-expression of monomart, the triad of this form of theatrical action - text, director, actor. Analysis and classification of narrative models of one-man shows: traditional narrative of a character, literary interpretation, performance in a play, actor as the second "I" of the hero, play-emotion, play-removal, play-memory. Determining the main structural parameters of the actor's stage behavior in a solo performance in a complex relationship of roles, author and character, the degree of acting, reincarnation in the image - the inclusion of plasticity, psychophysical state of the actor, purposeful volitional action, assimilation of various forms of stage space. Based on the analysis of research by scientists and theater critics, certain aspects of the historical development of solo performances, the process of their formation and their popularity in modern theatrical art have been clarified. Keywords: mono-performances, theatrical speech, acting skills, diction, artistic theatrical practice, acting language.

Emphasizing play production concept(s): Relevance and application for student directors in the University of Cape Coast

The relevance of production concept(s) in play production(s) cannot be overemphasized as it forms the theoretical spine for any play production and it informs all the aspects of theatre production. Therefore, the apparent absence of a production concept in any production is problematic; this warrants critical examination. There is a great need to bring the issue of a production concept to student directors if they are to eventually end up as front-runners in theatre practice. Student directors and other budding directors ought to see what lies as the merits and demerits of having a production concept injected into the body of their creative work or not; they also ought to be shown the way in formulating one in the first place as well as how to apply it in their production for the best of results. This paper seeks to examine student directors’ appreciation and application of production concepts for their practical projects at the University of Cape Coast. The aim is to spark a discourse with this subject matter at its core, bridging the gap between it and budding directors for their comprehension, appreciation and application of production concept(s).

Dionysian Fury and Vibrating Voice

Abstract This article concerns Hugo Ball’s artistic practice in performing arts, extending from his prewar years in Expressionist theater to his performances at the Cabaret Voltaire in 1916–1917. In it, I examine how discourses on the crisis of modernity emerge in Ball’s theatrical practice, focusing on the performer’s physical presence in Ball’s performances and theoretical writings. To scrutinize these themes in a wider context of political and cultural discourses on modernity, I discuss the notions conceptualized by Ball and other avant-gardists concerning time and history, illustrating Ball’s view on modernity and German society while providing insight into his performative practice.

Cultural dimensions of directing practice of the XX century in ukraine (on the example of the methodology of Vladimir Sklyarenko)

The article aims to identify aspects relevant to modern directing practice, which were developed and improved during the professional activity of V. Sklyarenko. The research methodology consists of the application of the following approaches: culturological, historical-comparative, biographical, interdisciplinary, historical and theoretical generalization. Scientific novelty. For the first time article examines the work of the outstanding Ukrainian director V. Sklyarenko from the perspective of Ukrainian theater development of the XX century and in the context of today’s opera house challenges. Conclusions. V. the contextual dimension implicitly corrected Sklyarenko’s directing practice, and the master’s dominant genres reflected the cultural and artistic priorities of his time. The formation of the director’s creative method on the opera stage coincides with the significant rise of artistic life in the 60s when radical staging innovations were perceived as defining criteria, and the leading concept of each work held a sense of freedom. Sklyarenko’s long-term theatrical practice is a thorough comprehension and consistent extrapolation into each of Les Kurbas’s directorial concepts of high professional culture and aesthetics of the theater, directed by artistic openness to experimental innovations. V. Sklyarenko’s artistic concepts remain relevant in the theatrical practice of today, gaining new life in modern opera productions. The study of the director’s experience is necessary first because the Ukrainian opera theatre faces the fundamental of the revival of the national repertoire at the theatrical stage.
 Key words: XX century theater, Ukrainian theater, V. Sklyarenko, Ukrainian directing.

Tiny Houses, Treesits, and Housing on the Front Lines of the TMX Pipeline Resistance

Housing is a strategic component of land defence on the front lines of resistance to extractive development across Turtle Island. This article highlights two resistance efforts along the proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMX) route to provide dynamic examples of housing “as a temporal, embodied, affective, and theatrical practice”: the Tiny House Warriors’ tiny houses and the Protect the Planet Stop TMX treesit. The construction and occupation of tiny houses and treehouses in the pathway of extractive development projects are “sustainable tools”—creative strategies and adaptable tactics that may be adapted and repeated on other front lines of resistance.

On How to Live Well: Houses as Theatres of the Good Life in Mexico City

In this article, the author explores the contours of housing as performance by examining a sampling of cases drawn from mid-twentieth-century Mexico City. In her analysis of the erection of modernist middle-class housing projects, suburbs, and architectural sculptures against the informal housing system that expanded throughout the national capital from the 1950s through the 1980s, the author reads housing as shifting performances of race, nation, citizenship, capitalist development, and class aspiration. Together, these readings reveal how houses are more than shelters; they are also theatrical practices that offer competing visions of ‘the good life.’

Inclusive Theatres as Boosters of Well-being:

With the surge in media accessibility studies, researchers have explored the possibility of using psychological indicators to study modes of production, consumption, and reception of audiovisual and accessible media texts. However, most of the methodologies and measures applied so far tend to evaluate perception and/or reception in the short term, i.e., immediately after viewing media texts or attending live performances. This article moves from previous articles on inclusive theatres (Di Giovanni, 2021; Raffi, 2021) and sets forth to evaluate individuals’ reactions to inclusive activities in the medium to long-term. To this end, the concept of well-being becomes central, along with some of the measures and tools so far employed to measure it outside the realm of accessibility studies. Lay summary Media accessibility is the research area dealing with the theories, practices, and instruments that provide access to media products, services, and environments for people that cannot, or cannot properly, access that content in its original form. Media accessibility research has truly blossomed in the past years and has welcomed new, often not-so-close theoretical and methodological approaches. More recently, researchers have explored the possibility of using psychological indicators to evaluate perception and/or reception in the medium to long-term, i.e., the medium to long-term effects of inclusive practices in theatre and other media experiences. To this end, the concept of well-being becomes central, along with some of the measures and tools so far employed to measure it outside the realm of media accessibility studies. This article moves from previous studies on inclusive theatres, which place the people and their diverse abilities at the core, to prove that it is time to move beyond the well-established practices of feedback collection immediately or soon after a performance or event. By reporting on a two-month experiment with young people with sensory disabilities who were trained to be inclusive guides in theatres, our aim is to reflect on the impact of such events, and of participation, on people’s lives in the medium to long-term.

Theatre and Performance Practices on the Spanish Stage: An Introduction

Theatre and Performance Practices on the Spanish Stage: An Introduction.

The Influence of British Directors on the Fundación Siglo de Oro and its Productions of Early Modern Drama, 2007-2021

The Fundación Siglo de Oro –formerly Compañía Rakatá– has been staging Spanish Golden Age and Elizabethan theatre since it was founded in 2006. Over this time, the company has developed an identity associated not only with its staging of early modern drama, but also with the influence of a series of contemporary British theatre practitioners on its rehearsal process. Perhaps one of the most noteworthy constants in its work is a fruitful series of collaborations with British stage directors, beginning in 2007 with Laurence Boswell directing El perro del hortelano (revived in 2014), in 2009 Fuenteovejuna, and in 2015 co-directing Mujeres y criados with company founder and producer Rodrigo Arribas. While, at first, we can ascribe this collaboration to the impact of the Royal Shakespeare Company Golden Age season, curated by Boswell, which visited Madrid’s emblematic Teatro Español in 2004, the company have continued to seek out British directors including Tim Hoare on Don Juan en Alcalá (2016) and Trabajos de amor perdidos (2016), and most recently Dominic Dromgoole on a new production of El perro del hortelano (2021). This latter partnership is also the culmination of a collaboration with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre which saw the company take part in the Cultural Olympiad with Enrique VIII (2012) and become the first company to perform Lope de Vega in Spanish at the London theatre, with El castigo sin venganza (2014). There has therefore been a clear exchange of ideas between Spanish classical theatre and contemporary British theatre practice. This article proposes to explore the methodological contributions of British directors to better understand how this has altered the in-rehearsal perspectives on the Spanish Golden Age to explain the benefits of this Anglo-Hispanic collaborative approach to the company’s work. This will be supported by an interview with Rodrigo Arribas, whose constant presence as founder, producer, actor and most recently as director can help us to understand the contributions made by Boswell, Hoare and Dromgoole to the company’s rehearsal methodology.

Promoting environmental justice in contaminated areas by combining environmental public health and community theatre practices

Communities affected by contaminated sites are often overburdened by environmental and social fragilities living a depression in their potentialities and destabilisation in health and quality of life. The paradigm of Environmental Justice and the framework of community capacity (community capacities) are at stake in promoting environmental public health in communities affected by contaminated sites. Three community changes foreseeing the following objectives appear as priorities: centralisation in decisions regarding the use of their territories; an active (i.e. participated) role in decision-making processes; a view of a possible future without contamination. These transitions require the activation of technical, scientific, and cultural domains. While environmental public health research, especially if implemented through a community participative approach, has a central role in promoting the community capacity of ‘knowledge’, performing arts have great potential for empowering the other capacities. Different collective theatrical approaches are reviewed and analysed in the cultural domain, identifying those of community theatre as the practices with the greatest participative and transformative impact. A community-based approach for promoting environmental justice in contaminated sites requires the development of interventions integrating technical-scientific with cultural domains.

Cross-Cultural Dialogue and the German Theatre in St Petersburg

This article explores the history of the German theatre in St Petersburg in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a subject forgotten for a hundred years due to historical reasons. Svetlana Melnikova uses cross-cultural research methods, which, as she has discovered, appeared in Russian criticism concerning the arts as early as the nineteenth century. The ideas of Russian scholars turned out to be concordant with modern findings in cross-cultural dialogue and comparative research methods, because the process of establishing Russian culture was influenced by earlier cultures in a variety of ways. The German diaspora in the capital of the Russian Empire at the turn of the nineteenth century, and the artistic qualities of the German theatre (the activities of its managers, the company, the repertoire, theatre buildings, as well as the target audience) described in this article, are here presented as the expressive elements of intercultural communication that provide theatre history with a sense of actuality. The author introduces unique archive materials from the Russian State Historical Archive, as well as from publications preserved in Russia-focused departments of major Russian and German libraries. Examining these materials, she reconstructs the history of this rare phenomenon in the context of the mutual influence between German and Russian theatres. Svetlana Melnikova is Professor of Art at the St Petersburg State University of Film and Television. She is the author of six books, including Kotzebue in Russia (2005), and ninety-six articles on the history, theory, and practice of theatre in Russian and German.

Applied Theatre as an interventionist model for theatre for development projects: the Itchi-Agu experience

Over the years, theatre art has distinguished itself as a very effective medium of communication in diverse spheres of life. Traditionally, the theatre situation requires the audience to come to the theatre, sit and see a performance. However, as time progressed, theatre practitioners saw the need to take the theatre to the people and use it as a tool for development, especially in rural African communities. This dimension of theatre practice is known as “Applied Theatre”, as it refers to the use of theatrical forms in unconventional theatre spaces to address issues of concern to communities. In such settings, theatre is often used as an interventionist tool to address the perceived needs of such communities. Theatre for Development projects have been undertaken on a number of subjects around Nsukka communities, but none has been devoted to addressing the issue of water hygiene in any of such communities. It is, therefore, the aim of this paper to examine the steps employed in the Theatre for Development (TfD) workshop by the Department of Theatre and Film Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, towards addressing the precarious water situation of Itchi-Agu community of Enugu State, as well as to recommend it as essential and ideal for TfD projects. The theoretical framework shall be based on the “Bottom-Up” Theory.

A convivial space: the urban khan in Ottoman Istanbul from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries

This article examines the privacy, sociality and conviviality dynamics of urban khans in Ottoman Istanbul from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. Firstly, it looks at the professional and ethno-religious patterns in their use as commercial and residential spaces, then discusses khans as a private residential space, through inheritance records of those who live and die in a khan room. Finally, it turns to issues regarding the public spaces of a khan, namely its common areas, and in particular performative and theatrical practices located in khan courtyards. The article highlights the particular role played by urban khans as convivial spaces of residence, artisanal production, commercial exchange, and sociability.

How COVID-19 & UK government policy shaped the new world of applied theatre in British care homes

ABSTRACT This article provides an insight into the relationship between applied theatre, COVID-19, and UK Government policy in British care homes. This reflection draws upon the experiences of an applied theatre practitioner, who worked in a care home during the height of COVID-19 in 2020. The author shares the impact of COVID-19 government policy, her applied theatre practice, and the implications of this for the practitioner, residents, and staff. The text offers a grounded perspective on the relationship between policy and practice, indicating how uncharted policy terrain can shape a new world of applied theatre in care home contexts.

Playing Real: Mimesis, Media, and Mischief by Lindsay Brandon Hunter

Reviewed by: Playing Real: Mimesis, Media, and Mischief by Lindsay Brandon Hunter E. B. Hunter Playing Real: Mimesis, Media, and Mischief. By Lindsay Brandon Hunter. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2021; pp. 192. As W. B. Worthen notes in his recent project to map the technicity of theatre, a great deal of contemporary scholarship tends to represent theatre "as engaged in a conflictual accommodation with the succession of performance-recording media: theatre/film, theatre/TV, theatre/digital media,"1 a characterization that does not reflect the inherent intermediality of theatrical practice. Although Worthen's project does not, of course, involve an analysis of campus politics, it is worth noting that the scholarly dichotomies he marks as erroneous could also describe the separations between departments of representational media on a great deal of campuses. In other words, courtesy appointments and exceptions aside, at the level of faculty, budget, and building allocation, theatre in academia has more often mirrored the dichotomies that characterize its scholarship than it has the intermediality of its practice. However, reorganization across these separations is becoming more common for degrees from BA/BFA through the PhD. Most recently, in 2021, UC Santa Cruz's Department of Theater Arts merged with the university's Art and Design: Games and Playable Media Program to become the Department of Performance, Play, and Design. And in 2020, Ohio State University combined its Department of Theatre with an interdisciplinary Film Studies program and a major in Moving-Image Production to become the Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts. A book review cannot outline the potential downsides, positive impacts, or unique circumstances that might attend such mergers. However, what can be accomplished here is a focus on one example of how the intermedial lines of inquiry likely to arise from these departmental reorganizations can manifest at the level of the field's key currency: the solo-authored monograph. Released in 2021 from Northwestern University Press, Lindsay Brandon Hunter's Playing Real: Mimesis, Media, and Mischief illustrates how scholarship can thrive when theatre is considered with a broadly crossdisciplinary perspective. Given the aims and scope of Theatre Topics and the recent publication of other reviews that capably cover the book's core theoretical interventions,2 this review takes the opportunity to focus on how Playing Real might function pedagogically amid the field's recent departmental mergers. Playing Real draws together a wide spectrum of case studies, with chapters ranging from digitized conventional [End Page 112] theatre to born-digital contexts that Hunter marks as resoundingly theatricalized. Chapter 1 considers the 1964 Burton/Gielgud Electronovision Hamlet, as well as mid-2010s broadcasts from the National Theatre's NT Live and Royal Shakespeare Company's Live from Stratford-upon-Avon. Chapter 2 revisits the Electronovision Hamlet through an analysis of its legendary 2007 "reanimation" by the Wooster Group. The book then shifts from the theatrical to the theatricalized, with two chapters on various reality TV shows—those "mash-up[s] of artificial construction and supposedly authentic, spontaneous affect" (xxi). And Chapter 5 turns to alternate reality games (ARGs), which Hunter explains are "conducted across multiple media platforms . . . and employ real-world digital and material objects as artifacts that serve the games and their fantastic scenarios" (xxii). What ties together these disparate contexts, Hunter argues, is that each "has been decried as imperiling the real by setting up camp in a murky area in which the boundaries separating actual from virtual, genuine from artificial, and truth from fiction are difficult to discern" (xv). It is in this "double artificiality of theatricality rendered through representational media" that she finds "a fertile site for productive and pleasurable mischief, including the playful reconfiguring of audience and participant relationships to qualities like sincerity, honesty, and genuineness" (ibid.). Graduate seminars or faculty reading groups might find in Playing Real a demonstration of situating seemingly far-flung case studies in one's home field and using the technical and theoretical vocabulary of that field to craft one overarching argument. In an undergraduate course, the book's inclusion of contemporary, populist case studies like reality TV and ARGs would invite students across majors—perhaps in a newly merged department—to think under the umbrella...

Site-Specific Author's Drama

The article discusses the role of the playwright in contemporary site-specific drama and the role of the director of site-specific performance. The study aims at three main areas: the author’s drama based on the recent history of the 20th century; the performative potential of the commonness and of oral history; and contemporary site-specific drama. As a playwright, the author focuses on the memories of witnesses and socially taboo topics. As a theatre director, she examines approaches for transforming into theatrical language the memory of place, the collection of data from oral history and burning issues. She looks at the relations between playwrights and site-specific performance. She observes the links among the topic, communication means and non-theatrical places. This qualitative longitudinal art research is based on experience from theatre practice, analysis and comparison of theoretical knowledge. The author gives examples of authorial plays and reports on their productions, specifically stating these dramas: Midnight in the Borderland (3. /4. 5. 1950, a monastery), Three Chairs (Alzheimer’s disease, a retirement home), From Majdalenka to Madla (World War II, cellar), Hotel on the Corner (1932–1989, old theatre building). The study emphasizes the need for a creative and attentive approach by the author, playwright, dramaturg and director to create a whole new world from the duality: ordinary and taboo. It turns out that the combination of a strong theme, an unusual place tied to the topic of the drama, and the participatory role (active/passive) of the audience can be an effective strategy and even “tactic” in strengthening the role of the author in drama after the year 2000.

THE WAYANG AND ITS ENCHANTING LITTLE PUPPETEERS: EXPLORING COGNITIVE ABILITIES OF CEREBRAL PALSY CHILDREN THROUGH PERFORMANCE

Wayang Kulit or shadow theatre, an ancient theatrical performance practice has given opportunity and space for researchers to explore the possibilities of creating a stimulating environment for performance and cognitive development among cerebral palsy children. This study looks at how three important performative elements in Wayang Kulit performance, “story-telling, role-playing and space” are explored for the development of cognitive abilities; i) to learn, ii) to sequence and iii) to reason, among cerebral palsy children. The study employs an action-research methodology which looks at participation-observation and artistic processes ranging from drama/theatre approaches to speech and vocal exercises. To assist the children in achieving the intended goals, “sensitive assistance” approach was also employed whereby teachers/facilitators assist the children during the workshop and training sessions. The cerebral palsy children were not only the participants of the workshops but more importantly, were the performers, storytellers, musicians, and puppeteers. Findings of this study show the children could, a) memorize the script (ability to learn), b) present the script in a story-telling manner (ability to sequence), c) role-play (to reason), and d) understand the mechanism of the performative setting (on and off stage). In addition, the study shows that through the sessions conducted via Wayang Kulit performance, the children learned to communicate, respond to each other, and also express themselves emotionally.

Plague: A Tragic Way to Empower the Artistic Imagination and to Deliver Hope

This paper examines the impacts of the plagues in dramatic literature and performance art beginning with ancient Greek Theatre and ending in Contemporary Theatre. It addresses the traditional application of the metaphorical employment of the plagues and a shift towards the pronunciation of the space in Contemporary Theatre. This research exposes the existential concerns that threaten humanity, such as fascism, marginalization, and the catastrophic consequences of climate change. To clarify the main argument, the classical and modern texts, along with the opinions of legendary theater theoreticians, directors, and artists, are examined. These sources range from Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year, Albert Camus’ The Plague, and Ann Bogart, to Robert Wilson. These existential concerns, along with possible artistic responses to the current problems of climate change and COVID-19, inspired them to start a discussion through more ecologically concerned theater practices.

ÇAĞDAŞ TÜRK OYUN YAZARLIĞINDA BİR DIŞLAMA PRATİĞİ OLARAK HOMOFOBİ

1960’larda Weinberg tarafından tanımlanan homofobi terimi psikoloji, sosyoloji ve hukuk alanlarında
 irdelenen bir meseledir. Günümüzde cinsiyete dayalı ayrımcılığın bir dışlama pratiği olarak tanımlanan
 homofobi, etkileri ve sonuçlarıyla farklı alanlarda incelendiği gibi tiyatro alanında da işlenmiş, bu bağlamdaki
 deneyimler, sonuçlar, ezilme ve dışlama pratikleri sahneye getirilmiştir. Avrupa ve Amerika tiyatrosunda
 homofobiyi ele alan oyunların izleri 1930’larda görülmeye başlar, ancak homofobiyi çarpıcı şekilde işleyen
 metinler için 1960’ları beklemek gerekir. Türk oyun yazarlığında ise homofobiyi işleyen oyunlara rastlamak
 ancak 2000 sonrasında mümkündür. Peki 2000 sonrası Türk tiyatrosunda homofobik tutum ve davranışlar
 hangi bağlamlarda nasıl işlenmiştir? Bu metinlerde homofobiye ilişkin tahakküm ve direnme pratikleri
 nelerdir? Çalışmamızın amacı bu soruları yanıtlayarak 2000 sonrası Türk oyun yazarlığında cinsiyete
 dayalı ayrımcılık ve homofobi temasının nasıl işlendiğini örneklerle sunmaktır. 2000 sonrasında yazılmış
 oyunlardan homofobiyi ele alma, sahnelenme ve yayınlanma kriterleri gözetilerek 12 oyun seçilmiştir.
 Oyunlar homofobinin teorik zemini bağlamında incelenmiş, konunun ele alınışı açısından Bireyin Kendisini
 Dışlaması, Heteronormativiteden Doğan Sosyal Dışlama ve Kamusal Alanlardan Dışlama şeklinde üç
 başlıkta kategorize edilebileceği görülmüştür. Sonuçta oyun yazarlarının homofobiyi aşılması gereken bir
 dışlama biçimi olarak gördükleri; bazı oyunlarda direnme stratejisi üretilirken, bazılarında kabullenici bir
 tutum sergilendiği görülmüştür. Direnme üreten yazarlardan bazılarının, homofobiyi komedi aracılığıyla,
 bazılarının ise trajik öğelerle aşmaya çalıştığı görülmüştür.

Wading the Quagmire: Aesthetics and Ethics in Verbatim Theater Act 1

The authors draw on their collective decades of theater creating and viewing to expose how they navigate the innumerable ethical and aesthetic enmeshments of verbatim theater. Mirroring the realms in which each writer works, Wading the Quagmire is an edited and manipulated refraction of conversations between the two authors presented through a script-based structure. Each author discusses, describes, and defends their approach, drawing on salient moments from their theater practice, sharing entanglements, and reflecting on the learnings of practice. In the end, the authors resist ethical prescriptions, while identifying the tight rules they work within and the consequences of breaking them.