Theatre Practice Research Articles

Co-Carrying Rupture and Repair

Through evocative and holistic description, this article investigates how ceremony performs its spiritual, communal, pedagogical, and embodied work. Identifying ceremony as transformational, as carrying memory, and as medicine work, she contrasts it with settler-Canadian theatre practices and histories, which she identifies as colonial apparatus that, in their preoccupation with imperialism, have actually been pre-occupied by sacred processes, relationship, and memory. She suggests that the pandemic has deepened a rupture, opening space for reckoning and for the transformation of potential futures.

Specificity of the actor's skill in the context of post-dramatic theater productions

The purpose of the article is to identify the features and determine a promising theoretical and practical approach to acting in the context of the specifics of post-dramatic theater. Methodology. An analytical method was applied to identify domestic and foreign scientific works on the theory of post-dramatic theater; the method of systems analysis and synthesis, thanks to which the approaches and methods of actor's mastery developed by K. Stanislavsky are considered in the context of dramatic and post-dramatic theater, with their inherent originality; the method of historical and cultural analysis and the comparative method, on the basis of which the differences in acting in the performances of dramatic and post-dramatic theater are revealed. Scientific novelty. The skill of the actor of the post-dramatic theater was investigated; the features of acting perception and practice of playing in performative practice are revealed; a promising theoretical and practical approach to acting, corresponding to the specifics of post-dramatic theater, is proposed; the expediency of using certain principles of the Stanislavsky system in search of new methods of acting by an actor in post-dramatic theater has been proved. Conclusions. A wide range of types of theatrical practices at the present stage of the development of the performing arts has led to the transformation of acting perception and acting. The post-dramatic theater offers the viewer not only the image of the hero but also the special existence of the actor, which is defined as “presence” and is the result of work on the material, the theme of the performance. In the context of the specifics of post-dramatic theater, in our opinion, a proactive approach is appropriate, providing for the rejection of prejudices and adherence to a single system, discourse or practice and cultivates a critical awareness of acting as a multiple and variable. This approach will contribute to the implementation of a certain set of actions - historically and procedurally considered and comprehended by the actor "absolute" while being part of the plurality. For example, the study showed that for the development of the actor's skill in certain types of post-dramatic theater, it is extremely useful to use certain aspects of the Stanislavsky system, in particular, the development of an actor's inner creative state of body and mind becomes extremely important.

Prison Theatre and an Embodied Aesthetics of Liberation: Exploring the Potentials and Limits

Prison theatre practitioners and scholars often describe the sense of imaginative freedom or “escape” that theatre and drama can facilitate for incarcerated actors, in contrast to the strict regimes of the institution. Despite this, the concept of freedom or liberation is rarely interrogated, being presented instead as a given—a natural by-product of creative practice. Drawing from John Dewey’s (1934) pragmatist aesthetics and the liberatory pedagogies of Bell Hooks (2000) and Paulo Freire (1996), I propose an embodied aesthetics of liberation in prison theatre that adds depth and complexity to claims for freedom through creativity. Reflecting on over twenty years of prison theatre practice and research, I propose that the initial “acts of escape” performed through engaging the imagination are merely the first threshold toward more meaningful forms of freedom. I frame these as the following three intersecting domains: “Acts of unbinding”, which represents the personal liberation afforded by experiences with theatre in prison; “acts of love”, which expresses how the theatre ensemble might represent a “beloved community” (hooks); and “acts of liberation”, which articulates how these experiences of self-and-world creation may ripple out to impact audiences and communities. An aesthetics of liberation in prison theatre can, therefore, be conceived as an embodied movement towards personal and social renewal; an approach that deepens our understanding of its oft-cited humanising potential, and its limits.

“I forget who I am while I remember who I was so I can perform who I am”: memory, embodied practice, and thing-power in theater-making

ABSTRACT The theater affords us a way to think. It holds, inflects, and problematizes memory, and opens an alternate space within which to interrogate memory as an individual experience and a shared collective phenomenon. This essay interrogates memory as central to the theme, content and form of the theater-making process. Examining the question “How can performance facilitate memory and how can memory facilitate performance?” (Shaughnessy, Nicola. Applying Performance: Live Art, Socially Engaged Theatre and Affective Practice. London: Palgrave, 2012), we analyse the performer's experience in relation to Antonio Damasio’s conceptualization of somatic markers and Jane Bennett’s notion of “thing-power” to consider the ways in which the body in theater honors the plurality of memory.

Right wing and Street-theatre: from censure to co-option

ABSTRACT This paper examines the modes of cultural organisation that facilitate the Right-wing’s appropriation of historically Left-wing theatre practices such as the Street-theatre in New Delhi in the service of percolating Hindu-nationalism. The paper suggests that a thorough understanding of the organisation behind the creative methods for mobilisation employed by the Right-wing is indispensable if strategies of resisting co-option and building an effective opposition have to be conceived.

Development of the idea of art synthesis in European culture of the XIX–XX centuries

This article is dedicated to examination of art synthesis as a phenomenon that extended to various spheres of culture and art of the XIX–XX centuries. This period marks the emergence of a different visual language and new forms of perception of artistic expression. Analysis is conducted on the  forms of implementation of the idea Gesamtkunstwerk, and their development throughout the XX century: mythologization as a peculiar method of thinking, strive to go beyond the purely artistic imagery, subjectification of the perception of time and space, creation of the organized aesthetic environment, aesthetic dimension of humanism, synthetism of mentality and universalism of the artist. Special attention is given to the historical-cultural context, from the views of the Jena Romantics and musical theory of R. Wagner to the works of the masters of Art Nouveau, avant-garde and innovators of the theatrical scenery. The author also reviews the advent of the new forms of artistic expression. The analysis of the key trends allows determining the broad sense of the idea of art synthesis for the culture: philosophy, poetry, architecture, visual arts, design, and performance. The novelty of this study consists in description of the idea of art synthesis as one of the key meaning-forming factors in the European culture of the XIX–XX centuries. The article examines the problem of performativity of modern art as the logical continuation of the evolution of forms of artistic expression. Modern theatrical and performative practices (“live” exhibitory spaces, “museum of senses”, “theater of plentitude”, exploratory theater, promenade theater, and other) can be viewed as the reconceived version of the idea of art synthesis that originated in the culture of German Romanticism.

Actress training by Michael Saint-Denis: improvisation in a mask

The purpose of the article is to analyze the features of the theatrical and pedagogical activity of M. Saint-Denis and to reveal the specifics of the acting training "Improvisation in a mask" in the context of students' work with a neutral and characteristic mask. Methodology. The biographical method was applied (to cover the director's and pedagogical activity of M. Saint-Denis); the typological method (for identifying and determining the main features of the theatrical pedagogy of M. Saint-Denis in general and the methods of teaching the actor developed by him in particular); the method of comparative analysis (for the study of the training "Improvisation in a mask" with neutral and characteristic masks), etc. Scientific novelty. Studied the actor's training "Improvisation in the mask" of the leading theater director and teacher of the twentieth century. M. Saint-Denis and revealed the features of the work of student actors with a neutral and characteristic mask; analyzed the theatrical and pedagogical activities of M. Saint-Denis as a standardizer of theatrical practice in the context of the developed and implemented curricula for acting in drama schools founded with his assistance (London Theater Studio, Old Vic School, Strasbourg Higher School of Dramatic Art, Canadian National Theater School and the Juilliard Drama Department). Conclusions. M. Saint-Denis's holistic model of acting training is formed on the basis of an organic combination of a physical approach, in which the body learns to turn into an absolute expressive instrument, an internal approach, the so-called realistic characterization, and a comprehensive understanding of the style in the context of mastering physical, vocal, intellectual, creative and emotional skills, allows student actors to master all kinds of drama. The study revealed that the mask was considered by M. Saint-Denis as a temporary working tool that helps to reduce feelings of insecurity and awkwardness, enhance the ability of internal self-awareness, enhance expression and experimental activity, develop concentration of attention, self-control of a student-actor and a harmonious path from the inception of physical qualities. character to their external dramatic expression. The student's task is to fill the mask, to give it life and feelings. If the actor who animates the mask is convincing and sincere, it feels like he has his own facial expression. The aim of the training is: to eradicate cliché-manners; teach students to develop and release creative impulses; to teach students to work on classical roles or roles of the "big style" (according to M. Saint-Denis).

Venus Hottentot: performance ethnography, the audience and resisting racism

ABSTRACT Sara Baartman (Venus Hottentot) was an African teenager lured to Europe to perform for audiences in 1810; her genitals and brain were posthumously dissected, pickled and museumized. In 2016, ‘Venus Hottentot: A Short Play’ was staged at The University of MA, Amherst, and the audience participated in free writing at the end of the performance. The paradigm for the play and audience research is performance ethnography, which emphasises using research and writing as a political act to destabilise colonial power. I analyze the audience’s writing and make recommendations for resisting racism against Black bodies in theatre practice and activist scholarship.

Laughing (Last) in the Brothel: Comedy and Sanctity Across the Channel in the Wake of Pericles

This article approaches Shakespeare’s (and Wilkins’s?) tragicomedy _Pericles_ (pub. 1609) not merely in the familiar light of the miracle play tradition but also as drawing, for its representation of Marina, on the hagiographic model of the virgin martyr. Despite the confessional obstacle, the heroine’s tribulations in the brothel provides distinctive common ground with the _Tragedie de sainte Agnes_ by Pierre Troterel (1615) in accompanying the menace posed to virginity with salacious humour and quasi-farcical action. On this point, Troterel departs from French theatrical precedent in ways suggesting specific indebtedness to the English play. A supplementary intertext here is the only other known contemporary dramatisation of the Apollonius story besides _Pericles_, _Les heureuses infortunes_, by Joachim Bernier de la Brousse, (1618). I have elsewhere proposed that Bernier’s work, too, shows familiarity with that play. Yet he invests his heroine with a saintliness beyond what either Pericles or the Apollonius narratives warrant – to the point of echoing, too, the precedent of Troterel. Bernier’s brothel scenes, combining traces of farce with motifs of miracle and conversion, tend to confirm this double heritage. Arguably, this trio of dramatic texts affords a glimpse of the earliest impact of a Shakespearean text on French theatrical practices.

The counter-theatricality of right-wing populist performance

ABSTRACT This article investigates Donald Trump’s performances of right-wing populism, contrasting these with the professional theatrical practice of US political speechwriting. The public performances of US presidents are theatrical constructions in a broad conceptual interpretation of the term: as speechwriters work to construct the presidential persona and the national audience, they abstract and fictionalize both the presidential self and the national public. The resulting presidential persona is a theatrical construction designed to appeal to an idealized national community. Much of the appeal of Trump’s populism, this article posits, lies in his efforts to eschew the professionalized theatricality of US presidential performance. Drawing on in-depth interviews the author conducted with US political speechwriters – primarily presidential speechwriters spanning administrations and campaigns from Reagan to Obama – the article seeks to account for the counter-theatrical appeal of the Trump presidency and of performances of right-wing populism more broadly. Building on the speechwriters’ specialist knowledge, the historical conditions that have allowed performances of right-wing populism to flourish are explored. The article interrogates right-wing populism’s exploitation of institutional distrust as a dominant political affect and its undermining of integrative concepts of the nation in favour of a definition of ‘the people’ in terms of white, patriarchal nativism.

Doctoral writing: learning to write and give feedback across cultures

PurposeThis study aims to broaches several endemic challenges for academics who support doctoral writing: writers are emotionally protective of their own writing; writing a thesis in English as a second language is a challenging, complex task; and advising across cultures is delicate. Giving constructive feedback kindly, but with the rigour needed to raise writing quality can seem daunting. Addressing those issues, the authors offer a novel way of working with writing feedback across cultures.Design/methodology/approachThe case study research team of two candidates and one supervisor stumbled onto an effective way of working across cultural and institutional difference. What began as advisory feedback on doctoral writing became an effective collaborative analysis of prose meaning-making. The authors reflected separately and collectively on how this happened, analysed reflections and this narrative inquiry approach led to theories of use to writing feedback practice.FindingsThe authors cross between theory and praxis, showing that advisors and supervisors can create Bhabha’s post-colonial third space (a promising social space that sits between cultures, beyond hierarchies, where new ways of thinking can be collaboratively generated) as a working environment for international doctoral writing feedback. Within this zone, Brechtian alienation, a theory from theatre practice, is applied to prompt emotional detachment that enables focus on writing clearly in academic English.Research limitations/implicationsArguably the writing feedback session the authors described remains bound by the generic expectations of a western education system. The study is exegetical, humanities reading of practice, rather than a social science gathering of empirical data. Yet the humanities approach suits the point that a change of language, attitude and theory can give positive leverage with doctoral writing feedback.Practical implicationsThe authors provide a novel practical method of supporting international doctoral candidates’ writing with feedback across cultures. It entails attracting the writers’ interest in theory and persuading them, via theory, to look objectively and freshly at their own writing. Also backed by theory, a theoretical cross-cultural space allows for discussion about differences and similarities. Detachment from proprietorial emotions and cross-cultural openness enables productive work amongst the mechanics of clear academic English text.Originality/valueUnderpinned by sociocultural and metacognitive approaches to learning, reflection from student and supervisor perspectives (the data), and oriented by theory, the authors propose another strategy for supporting doctoral writing across cultures. The authors demonstrate a third space approach for writing feedback across cultures, showing how to operationalise theory.

THEATRE MANAGEMENT INVESTIGATION OF FEMALE PROMISCUITY: PREGNANCY AND ABORTION IMPACT ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATIONAL THEATRES IN NIGERIA

This study investigates promiscuity impacts, pregnancy impacts and abortion impacts of female undergraduates on management of the University of Benin educational theatre program, with implications on general theatre practice including Muson and Nollywood, in Nigeria. There are widespread speculations that female undergraduate theatre students are promiscuous and therefore highly prone to pregnancies and abortions for reasons or factors not confirmed by research. At least no such specific extensive study has been carried out in the University of Benin Theatre on this topic. Yet many female students are branded and treated merely as ‘debased females and prospective prostitutes’, and do not enjoy the goodwill, support, respect and honor their counterparts in the social, basic and environmental sciences as well as other fields of academic studies enjoy. This would be tantamount to a great disservice and injustice that need to be urgently addressed if a rigorous academic inquiry proves otherwise. Not to mention the undiscovered negative impacts the problem may have had, or currently be having on the training and practice of theatre arts in Nigeria: hence this investigation. The methodology, the subjects of study and study sample were carefully and systematically determined. The findings are mostly positive regarding the negative behavior investigated. Hence the recommendations point to measures aimed at checking and restricting these vices as well as their impact to a minimum as well as towards improving the moral, academic and managerial framework of educational theatre programs in Nigeria.

The fundamental concepts of cultural anthropology applied in the theory and practice of the anthropological theater

This article explores the classical terms and concepts of cultural anthropology, which have found practical application in the performances, paratheatrical experiments and actions of the Polish experimental stage director Jerzy Grotowski (1933–1999) and collectives of the modern anthropological theater that continue the pursuits of Grotowski of the late XX century. The methods and terms of cultural (social) anthropology by A. van Gennep, V. Turner, M. Eliade, B. Malinowski and structural anthropology by C. Levi-Strauss give a better perspective on the specific terminological apparatus of Grotowski, unique practical discoveries of his works, and conceptual basis of theatrical anthropology as one of the paramount phenomena in the development of modern art. This article is first to discuss the problems of the emergence and formation of anthropological methodology as the framework for creating a scientific apparatus for understanding ritual-theatrical forms, as well as practical tool for artistic expression in the theatrical and paratheatrical experiments. Based on the fundamental works of the school of cultural anthropology, the author reveals the key terms of modern anthropological theater. As a result of studying the methods and approaches of cultural anthropology, the author determines the new unique technique of the modern Polish theater ensembles based not on the reconstruction of theatrical forms of the past, but rather reactualization of the mythological structures in the process of creating ritual-theatrical action.

Brazilian Literature as World Literature

Brazilian Literature as World Literature

Panarchy 3: River of the Sea

The article reflects critically on Panarchy 3: River of the Sea, a learning-disabled-led ecological performance project that evolved in connection with the River Clyde from 2018 to 2019. River of the Sea was a collaboration between The Panarchy Projects at the University of Glasgow and the Friday Club at the Citizens’ Theatre in Glasgow. The Friday Club is a learning-disabled theatre group with fifteen members that meets once a week to socialize and develop performance skills, and The Panarchy Projects are an ongoing series of neurodivergent-led, ecological, and theatre-based research projects. The article introduces the exploratory praxis of the River of the Sea project, which combines theatre practice as research method with participatory action research methods within an expanded ecological field. It then analyses the findings, insights, and accounts of experience which were generated through this praxis and shared in two very different performance events. The article ends by discussing these findings, suggesting that learning-disabled-led ecological performance practices, such as those explored in the River of the Sea project, can support aesthetic experimentation, and nurture solidarity. The article hopes to contribute to the development of what Alison Kafer has called a “cripped environmentalism” (131), and to the building of a bridge between learning disability and environmental discourses.

Reinventing the Theatre Curriculum to Address Contemporary Development Needs and Job Alignment in Nigeria.

As the social and economic terrain is changing in Nigeria, theatre training and practice have not evolved commensurately to address the current development needs and job alignment. The models used in many Nigerian universities mainly offer theoretical knowledge of theatre and basic training for entertainment roles. Even though the philosophy and objectives of theatre training in the NUC Benchmark for minimum academic standards are couched with the anticipation for innovation and programme expansion, it does not specify the type or scope of expansion needed to retain the viability of theatre practice within the current knowledge economy. Nigerian universities are therefore not firmly guided to develop their theatre curricula in a direction that is sensitive to the exigencies of time and age. There is currently a lot of interest in film production, carnival, standup comedy, development communication, applied theatre and event management. This paper argues that theatre and performing art programmes in universities and other theatre training centres should develop more courses around these emerging areas of interest. The paper submits that while there are many specialties in which theatre graduates can be professionally engaged, and while the nature of theatre training imbues numerous subjective qualities desired in the contemporary world of work, much more could be done by reinventing the theatre curriculum to give theatre graduates wider opportunities.

AESTHETIC DIMENSIONS OF OLA ROTIMI’S THEATRE

The study examines Ola Rotimi’s Theatre from both the literary and theatrical perspectives. The study contends that Ola Rotimi created/developed simplicity of style both in his playwriting and in theatre practice. The study also notes that Rotimi has created the drama and theatre of lasting quality through his knowledge of the culture and tradition of his people and his copious deployment of Para-linguistic aesthetics in his plays. Rotimi anchores all these on his knowledge of world theatre in his practice, thus creating the phenomenon of total theatre. The study concludes that the laws of the theatre are provisional and subject to change, derived from creativity and not from theory.KEYWORDS: Ola Rotimi, Aesthetic Dimensions, African Theatre, Playwriting, Para-linguistic aesthetics, Theatre Practice

Performing Political Persuasion in the United States in the Early Years of the Republic

Theater productions were born out of a paradox in the United States of the Revolutionary War and shortly afterwards. While the nation’s dominant ideology was anti-theatrical, theater often served a nationalist agenda, co-defining the new American nation and its nascent identities – such were, for example, productions of Joseph Addison’s Cato at Valley Forge in 1778 and William Dunlap’s André at the New Park in New York in 1798. These theater events empowered the audience to publicly perform their national identity as Americans and exercise their republican fervor. Similarly, a production of Bunker-Hill by J. D. Burk at the Haymarket in Boston in 1797 was crucial in helping define the social and political identities of its audiences, who were motivated to attend the performances as an expression of their partisan preferences. This article shows that literary, theatrical and social practices served to constitute performatively the early American national identity.

Co-design Techniques for and with Children based on Physical Theatre Practice to promote Embodied Awareness

Research in Full-Body Interaction suggests the benefits of activities based on using embodied resources to strengthen the sensorimotor, cognitive and socio-emotional aspects of the user experience. However, scholars in this field have been often primarily concerned with the comprehension of and design for the user's mind. Little attention has been drawn on its connection to the bodily experience. The scarcity of adequate co-design methods with and for children to raise an awareness of their body during design risks of deriving interaction design decisions only from the perspective of adult designers. In this article, we present our research on novel co-design techniques to elicit children's embodied awareness. These techniques were analysed in the context of a design workshop series with a local theatre school. For the analysis, we used the Think4EmCoDe research framework, a tool to foreground key aspects of an embodied co-design technique for children. Results indicate the benefits of techniques based on physical theatre practice that (1) help children understand their body and space as mediators of ideas and meaning making processes; (2) allow them to incorporate the specific features of Full-Body Interaction in their co-design.

Philosophy and the Drama of Life: A Theater Experience of Understanding F.M. Dostoevsky

The article aims at a multidimensional discussion of the little-explored topic of the dramatic content of the philosophical problems in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky (1821—1881). There is proved that it was this feature of creativity that made the writer, with his philosophy of life and sharp, dramatically effective plot and psychological collisions, the most desirable and very productive author for the Russian theater art.Polyphony, dialogism, combined with the features of the tragic genre, are the basis for numerous theatrical embodiments of novels and novellas by F.M. Dostoevsky. The intensity of the action in his works gave rise to the expressions “novel-drama” or “drama in a novel”, “novel-tragedy”, and in theatrical practice it created the ground for the transformation of moral and philosophical problems into active stage action.The article reveals the context of F.M. Dostoevsky’s works — the time and conditions for the emergence of novels and novellas, the problem field that united and separated him from the works of his predecessors and contemporaries, which is done on the basis of a brief description of several aspects of the philosophical-aesthetic and socio-moral systems. In this context, according to our concept, a special place is occupied by the idea that life in Russia is absurd and ridiculous, and the reflection of the absurd is the most important artistic paradigm.The article proves that the analyzed philosophy of F.M. Dostoevsky’s life received polar genre embodiments in the theater. Thus, the dramatic and melodramatic beginning was characteristic of the performances that had in their center the so-called little man. The article presents an understanding of the most remarkable performances of the second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century: “The Idiot” by G. Tovstonogov, with a new trend of searching for a “positively beautiful” person, which had a significant impact on many theatrical experiences in Russia; “The Petersburg Dreams” by Yu. Zavadsky, as a unique experience for Soviet art of creating a tragic work in full accordance with the aesthetic characteristics of this genre; “And I Will Go, and I Will Go” by V. Fokin, as the last emotional outburst of the young generation of Soviet creators who thought in the moral and psychological parameters of F.M. Dostoevsky’s characters; “The Karamazovs” by K. Bogomolov — a postmodern experience of an absurdist reading of the multifaceted text of the classic.In the works of the writer and their theatrical embodiment, the article notes the signs of a carnival worldview, a combination of grotesque and subtle psychologism in the stage versions of F.M. Dostoevsky (in particular, when working with ironic and satirical texts, “Uncle’s Dream” and especially “The Village of Stepanchikovo”, where sympathy and negative connotations are integrated into a single artistic space). The article correlates the writer’s works existential interpretations by theatrical creators of the 20th and early 21st centuries with socially significant problems, life choices, and dramatic conflicts that characterize Dostoevsky’s philosophy.