Representation Of Experience Research Articles

From Page to Stage:Creating Original Theatre in Kuwait

Writer Craig Loomis, Assoc. Prof. of English at the American University of Kuwait, published a book in 2013 called The Salmiya Collection. In it, he described the diverse experiences of everyday life in a part of the world not clearly known or understood by outsiders: Salmiya, Kuwait. His tales chronicle ordinary Kuwaitis, expatriot professionals, local students, parents, and children as they struggle to make their way in a complex and changing world. The collection’s complex group of characters and situations resonated with me on a universal level, rather than just speaking to a specific time and place. I became convinced that the stories’ themes of change and transition, and the tensions they cause, would resonate with a larger audience in our ever-changing world. First, however, Dr. Loomis’ short stories had to be adapted to fit the theatrical structure of short plays. Writer Ken Downs, a former newspaper editor and current teacher, transformed the short stories into staged vignettes about daily life in the Middle East and, in particular, Salmiya, Kuwait. Several revisions later, the collection of short stories has emerged as nine one-act plays woven together as the fulllength play, Long Ago and not so Fay Away. Bringing this project together was not easy. Casting, rehearsals, rewrites, and weaving together both the pieces and the ensemble posed special challenges. This paper discusses how these challenges were overcome in our quest to create an original theatre experience about the Middle East—and life in general—that would be reflective without being alienating, and remain true to Dr. Loomis’ vision and voice.

Introduction: Global Shakespeare for Anglophone Audiences

Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance vol. 11 (26), 2014; DOI: 10.2478/mopa-2014-0002 Reflecting on the 2012 Globe to Globe Festival, Bridget Escolme hopes that this unique project might paradoxically be the beginning of a decentring of Shakespeare in global knowledge production. What questions, she asks, might this Festival continue to provoke that arent about Shakespeare? And how might theatres and universities start to explore and answer them (309)? Escolme joins other scholars left asking questions, about Shakespeare, non-Shakespeare and performance, in reaction to an unprecedented few years of foreign productions staged for Anglophone audiences. Many of those excellent responses are collated in Shakespeare Beyond English (2013), edited by Susan Bennett and Christie Carson, and A Year of Shakespeare (2013), edited by Paul Edmondson, Paul Prescott and Erin Sullivan. This special edition of Multicultural Shakespeare is part of that response and seeks to engage with and develop the debate started by these two important books. We do this not least with a review of both books which productively places them in dialogue with one another, but also with a rich, eclectic set of articles that considers the genesis of the Globe to Globe Festival, foreign Shakespeare performance practices, the politics of translation and the ethics of reviewing such productions, amongst other things. A Year of Shakespeare offers an archive of accounts of an exceptionally wide range of theatrical experiences made available within a short space of time and originating in many different cultures (Wells xxiii). Similarly, Shakespeare Beyond English serves, according to its editors, as a scholarly archive of the Globe to Globe Festival; albeit one they hope challenge[s] the business of Shakespeare and so is a great deal more (Bennett and Carson 3). Rather than emulate these comprehensive works, this journal is not an archive but rather a diverse snapshot of scholars analysis of foreign Shakespeare in 2014, focussing on a range of performances from Globe to Globe, to the Edinburgh International Festival, to the Royal Shakespeare Complete Works Festival. Escolme wonders Lecturer in Early Modern English, University of Kent. London Shakespeare Centre, Kings College London. Sarah Dustagheer, Aleksandra Sakowska Introduction: Global Shakespeare for Anglophone Audiences 10 Sarah Dustagheer, Aleksandra Sakowska how theatres and universities might begin to explore the questions raised by foreign Shakespeare and we hope that this journal begins some of that exploratory work. Shakespeare remains a focus but, again picking up on Escolmes thoughts about questions that are not about the early modern playwright, articles here offer thoughts on contemporary Chinese, Indian and Polish theatre practices from practitioners and researchers working in these areas. The next few pages introduce the articles that follow, but also seek to identify three of the reoccurring themes that they examine: performance spaces, languages and reception. Performance Spaces For David Wiles, the play-as-event belongs to the space, and makes the space perform as much as it makes actors perform (1); the importance of space, as asserted by Wiles, is confirmed by the discussion of many foreign Shakespeare productions. The way a space performs in the sense of working both with or even against a production is pertinent for shows which are transferred across not only different theatre spaces but different countries too. For the Globe to Globe Festival, the specific performance conditions of Londons reconstructed theatre challenged many companies performing during 2012. Reviewing Andrea Baracco and Vincenzo Mannas Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar) for Shakespeare Beyond English, Sonia Massai points out that the performance space offered by the Globe is not neutral and often clashes with the aesthetic and more generally artistic principles that inform the theatrical language and approach shared by some directors, including Baracco (97). …

Medical Student Experience in Surgery Influences Their Career Choices: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Student experiences during surgical rotations may dictate interest in future surgical careers. The objective of this study was to systematically examine the effect of surgical experience (SE) on student attitudes toward surgical careers and also to identify variables influencing the educational value of SE. A systematic review of the available literature was conducted by 2 independent researchers searching Medline, EMBASE, Google Scholar, and Cochrane databases, in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses recommendations. Studies assessing SE during the students' surgical rotations were identified. The quality of the included studies was assessed using a validated quality index. Factors affecting student surgical rotation experience and perceptions of surgical careers were recorded. Overall, 204 studies were identified; 20 unique studies met the inclusion criteria with a median cohort size of 169 (interquartile range: 107-262) respondents. Most were cross-sectional surveys (n = 16/20) and administered to clinical students (n = 16/20). All studies investigating the effect of SE on career choices (n = 8) found that positive experiences during the surgical placement were associated with an increased interest in surgical careers. The operating theater experience was identified as a defining feature of overall SE. Involvement in operative procedures, a welcoming environment, and avoidance of syncopal events positively influenced the SE, particularly in those who actively sought educational opportunities. Study limitations included single-center and single-year cohort designs (70%) with the use of nonvalidated research tools (95%). A systematic review of the literature highlights a number of factors associated with a positive surgical rotation, which may lead to more students deciding to pursue a career in surgery. Understanding the factors that contribute to these decisions through multicenter studies using validated research tools may lead to more effective surgical rotations, ultimately improving the delivery of the surgical education.

Teatro contemporâneo e infância: a Scuola Sperimentale di Teatro Infantile da companhia italiana Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio

This article discusses the theatrical experiences developed within the Scuola Sperimentale di Teatro Infantile founded by Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio in the 90s. Pedagogical activities at the Scuola Sperimentale had an experimental character and kept feedback relationships with the artistic and philosophical research of Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio. To sum up, this study recognizes that one of the peculiarities of the work produced by Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio is associated with weakening the limits between acting background and theatre pedagogy, between acting experience and learning processes, between acting and reception.

Theater of Transposition: Charles Dullin and the East Asian Theater

In first half of twentieth century, Charles Dullin (1885-1949) was not only one of prominent figures of modern French theater, but also played a pivotal role in French theater's interculturation of East Asian theater. Dullin incorporated ideas of East Asian into his productions and, more importantly, into his theory of theater of transposition. In so doing, he also directly inspired next generation of French artists (Antonin Artaud and Jean-Louis Barrault) to take an interest in East Asian theater. Dullins theory has not been appreciated and studied in English-speaking world as thoroughly as Jacques Copeaus, Bertolt Brechts, and Vsevolod Meyerholds. Nor has his interest in East Asian theater. But role of East Asian in formation of Dullins theory, not in least less important than it was in formation of Copeaus, Brechts, and Meyerholds, merits a comprehensive and in-depth approach. Dullin's Experience of Theater in His Early Career Charles Dullin's contact with East Asian theater, specifically, theater, began as early as 1908 when he performed as an actor in VAvare chinois, a comedy in four acts and six scenes, translated and adapted by Judith Gautier from a thirteenth-century Yuan variety play (zaju), Khan thsian-nou (Kan qian nu, The Slave to Treasures He Guards), by Zheng Tingyu. The adaptation was first produced by Andre Antoine at Theatre National de L'Odeon on January 30, 1908. In Odeon production, Charles Dullin played a Sorcier (Sorcerer) appears and speaks only once. (1) In original play, however, there is no such character. In Yuan drama, role type Bu-er refers to an old woman. In this play, it refers to wife of miser Gu Ren (or Kou-jin) when she first appears in play. In this instance, Gautier apparently misread character bu in role type, as same character also has meaning fortune-telling that led to Gautier's translation of it as Sorcier. But in text of play that follows, Gautier translated role type correctly. Had Gautier translated role type correctly first time it appears in play, character's speech would have been assigned to actress played miser's wife. Accidentally, Gautier's innocent mistake made possible Dullin's first performance in a play and his first taste of and East Asian as well. The production of L'Avare chinois was hailed as a great success not only for Gautier but also for Odeon, its director Andre Antoine, and its players. (2) A revival of play was scheduled shortly afterwards on February 6 to meet demands of audience. (3) Prior to productions of play, Gautier spoke extensively to audience about play and in general. French critic Maximin Roll was greatly impressed by Gautier's thorough familiarity with her subject. (4) Gautier reminded her French audiences of long history of that had produced countless dramatic works as well as Chinas Molieres and Shakespeares whose genius had not been fully acknowledged by Europeans. (5) Gautier's lectures must have benefited Dullin in his first encounter with theater. As director of production, Andre Antoine took pleasure in presenting with very particular care this curious comedy. (6) Antoine's production was characterized, as usual, by his meticulous attention to historical authenticity and local color and by his care for picturesqueness and for truth. (7) It was claimed as the precise reconstitution of a theatrical performance in Celestial-Empire. (8) Maximin Roll affirmed as a matter of fact that artists at Odeon had dedicated themselves to making production truly Chinese from its mise en scene to its costuming. (9) According to Paul Leautaud (Maurice Boissard), L'Avare chinois was well played by actors, who knew value of a gesture, a pose, a tone of voice, and knew how to be, of appearance and tone, real Chinese. …

Adorno e Beckett: aporias da autonomia do drama

O artigo procura situar a interpretação proposta por Theodor W. Adorno para a peça "Fim de partida", de Samuel Beckett, no contexto de sua concepção de autonomia da arte. Segundo a hipótese do trabalho, o conceito de autonomia subjaz ao diagnóstico histórico de Adorno a respeito do gênero dramático, o qual justifica sua leitura da peça como uma paródia do drama. O artigo busca mostrar os acertos dessa leitura perante a recepção inicial da peça, e também seus limites, uma vez que resulta em uma abordagem da experiência teatral focada primordialmente na consideração do texto teatral, em detrimento da encenação.

Shakespeare’s Unreformed Fictions by Gillian Woods (review)

Gillian Woods. Unreformed Fictions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. xi + 239. $110.00. The title of Gillian Woods's impressive new book, Unreformed Fictions, contains its central argument compressed form. Woods uses the word to describe the seemingly phrases, motifs, Latin tags, story lines, objects, and visual images that percolate through both early modern English culture and plays. This apparently Catholic material--the first example Woods gives is the ubiquitous phrase th'mass--could, and indeed often did, function an unreformed manner, without denoting straightforwardly theology (4). interest the unreformed, Woods argues, is primarily artistic and literary rather than theological--hence the word fiction her title. Taking seriously that Shakespeare's works ... are primarily stories rather than polemics (20), Woods traces manipulation of unreformed material along the chains of created by deeply concerned with the ethical and aesthetic ramifications of playing. As it reconnect[s] historical understanding of post-Reformation culture to the aesthetic and theatrical experience of the plays (21), the book provides rich, nuanced cultural analysis, and welcome intervention recent studies religion post-Reformation England. In each chapter Woods identifies (22) raised by encounter with unreformed material. The first chapter argues that 1 Henry IV asks how history play remembers the pre-Reformation past (23), demonstrating that although the play projects the Reformation binary of and Protestant backwards onto the figures of Joan of Arc and Talbot, it also suggests that such oppositional thinking is ultimately unsustainable (55). Here Woods links the theatrical re-presenting of history to sixteenth-century Eucharistic theology: the body of the actor playing is highlighting the absence of the 'real presence' of Talbot and so associating the phenomenological effects of theater with Protestant Eucharist that was a divinely instituted memorial, not repeated sacrifice (48). Though this first chapter is suggestive, the potential of Woods's approach is more fully realized the book's second chapter, on Love's Labour's Lost. Here Woods associates the topical constellation of (60) that refer to politico-religious controversies 1590s France with the slipperiness of created by the punning, wordplay, vow making and breaking, poetry writing, and witty repartee that is this play's most obvious feature. As critics have long noted, the name Navarre is reference to Henri IV of France--an association strengthened, in case we miss the point (59), by Berowne, Longaville, Dumaine, and Boyet, all names of men who were followers of the historical Navarre. Woods argues that Navarre, the heroic Protestant leader who notoriously converted to Catholicism 1593, represented person who had changed and person who was change itself (71); play, the conversion of converts name to comic role sets up (paradoxically) chain of dislocations (69), so that sectarian conflict and changeability are identified with linguistic slipperiness and generic incongruity. Shakespeare--playfully yet also seriously--puts fractured and ironic representation of the ... convert play where language and signs constantly mislead (71). The unreformed onomastics serve to enlarge the dramas broader linguistic concerns about the slipperiness of meaning (75). Whereas chapter 2 the unreformed material is topical, chapter 3, on Measure for Measure and All's Well that Ends Well, it is explicitly theatrical. The representational problem considered here is the seeming of the Catholic-costumed characters these plays: the Duke his Friars cloak, Isabella dressed (possibly) as novitiate, Helen her pilgrim's robes. …

A Study on Gao Xingjian's Acting Method--focused on his theory of Neutral Actor

Gao Xinjian``s acting method is established through his insight from the pursuit of Modern Eastern Theatre of His theory of three states of acting or neutral actor is based on his idea of theatre, such as supposition of stage, on-the-spotness communication of theatre. Firstly Gao Xingjian tried to break away the great influence of the Stanislavskii acting method which became a main stream in Communist China, Secondly he tried to overcome the crisis of modern western drama which could not solve the contradiction between pursuit of self and alienation in society through the eastern way of thinking. He referred surely all the western drama theories, but also the traditional Chinese theatre experiences. Because eastern theatre is the theatre of the actor in essence, the actors of Chinese theatre as the subject of the theatre, could established the unique institution of Jiaose, role(major) playing system. Gao observed carefully the process in which actor creates the character in the Chinese theatre through ``Jiaose`` and presented this theory. If an actor with his own self enter into a state of neutral actor, standing on the stage and performing a character, he can be very cool-headed and can observe himself and the character with cold mind. Then he can perform in and out the character freely. To keep the distance of alienation, he suggested to presume an existence of the Third eye, to use a mask or make up, or changing the person pronoun. For example, the second personal pronoun ``you`` can make distance and objectify the role, the third personal pronoun ``he(she)`` can alienate the character. The actor also can become neutral from himself or character and feel free to express any kind of feelings or ideas. He believes a neutral actor in his cold mind state will become creative enough to find the way to express his feeling or psychological activities into visible image and action. He already had found how the traditional method of acting meet the eastern way of thinking and spirit of Zen. Gao Xingjian started his creating job from the contemplation on his personal self and on the world, and is continuously pursuing absolute freedom. He wants to establish the value of individual and stand up to the oppression of the power, so he needed to cognize himself. From it, he tried to get the universal truth, so he thought he, also the actors who create the worlds on stage need to keep the cold mind. At this point his acting method and his method of writing encounters. Because playwright``s pursuit of a unique theatre form comes from his cognition of life, he said. This is why in his theatrical work, the theory of three states of acting(theatre) and the neutral actor as the practicing method become coherent with the situation, characters, words and music of his play.

“La Terre” (1921) d’André Antoine, un film dans le sillage de la mise en scène de 1902

In 1921, nineteen years after his staging of La Terre, André Antoine shot a film based on Zola’s famous novel. It may be tempting to see in this second adaptation of La Terre a sign of exhaustion on the part of a director already in his sixties. On the contrary, the film represents the culmination of his previous research. Without denying the specifically cinematographic dimension of the film, this paper aims to stress the continuity with the 1902 stage adaptation. A number of choices made almost two decades earlier concerning both the script and the staging reappear in the film, while the weak points in the earlier adaptation, of which Antoine was well aware, are remedied in his cinematographic version. Thus, La Terre benefited from both Antoine’s theatrical experience and the medium of the cinema.

What UK Spectators Know: Understanding How We Come to Value Theatre

This essay reexamines the role of empirical research in scholarship on spectators. Within the context of political debates in the UK about cultural value and, in particular, the value of the performing arts in relation to other claims on public funding, it reports on attempts to counter the historical battle between instrumental and intrinsic value with new information on what spectators actually value in their theatregoing experiences. After reviewing public-policy debates with regard to these questions, the essay moves on to describe a research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council during 2013–14 on “Theatre Spectatorship and Value Attribution” (TSVA). The objectives of TSVA were to drill down into audience experiences of attending theatre, focusing on phenomenological self-description and analysis in order to understand how those specific experiences were valued (or not) by spectators. The Royal Shakespeare Company, the Young Vic, and the Theatre Royal Plymouth (Drum) collaborated with researchers to study spectators in relation to fourteen productions. Surveys, structured interviews, and creative workshops were employed to collect the data. TVSA also investigated whether changes occur in audience spectators’ thinking about their theatre experience over time. The project found that sociality is interwoven with value in theatre experiences, and that social interaction, stimulating thought, and connections to spectators’ lives and the world are deeply valued attributes of the sample. The essay concludes with an appraisal of the research results and suggestions for future research that would combine empirical with analytic methods.

Blueprints, Informatics, Predictive Analytics: Tools of the Twenty-first-Century Dramaturg as Performance Geneticist

Blueprints, Informatics, Predictive Analytics: Tools of the Twenty-first-Century Dramaturg as Performance Geneticist Jules Odendahl-James (bio) ID: Investigation Dramaturgy For the past decade, I have been studying the Janus face of forensic science as it manifests on mainstream crime television shows. Of particular interest has been the way these programs dramatize the shift from data to story by the infusion of circumstantial evidence that appears to logically supply the why and how for the what and who. In this way, twenty-first-century crime television enacts two interdependent definitions of the forensic: physical matter subjected to scientific scrutiny that results in its designation as admissible in a court of law; and the very processes of legal argumentation that transform such physical evidence into the judge- and jury-validated version of events that will convict or exonerate a defendant (Odendahl-James 637). Despite their protagonists’ pronouncements that “people lie, evidence doesn’t,”1 forensic television confirms that data without context are just informational strands. They require story to manifest as knowledge. I had been laboring under the impression that my research on the forensic existed separately from my dramaturgical practice until I found myself in discussions with colleagues in Digital Humanities. Sitting at a similar juncture point between data and story, collection and interpretation, these scholars spoke about heated resistance to digital platforms and computational processes expressed by some disciplinary vanguards who tended to cast such tools and approaches as threats to always-already under-valued traditional interpretive research methods in the arts and humanities. These conversations echoed concerns that I heard from theatre faculty at other institutions, who described how a new wave of assessment protocols were influencing administrative decisions from funding to hiring to curriculum in the twenty-first-century university’s increasingly operational mission. Both of these constituencies gnawed a similar bone of contention: the concern that quantitative systems flatten, stratify, and commodify the dynamic, collaborative, and transformative processes of performing arts’ creative research and practice into number-models focused almost exclusively on which students obtain (or not) so-called good jobs and whether tuition costs are offset by graduates’ future economic successes. As these debates about Big Data’s surveilling eyes, quantitative drives, and consumerist agendas were playing out in the higher education public sphere,2 at academic conferences, and within the pages of commissioned reports,3 I began noticing what might be called a “little Big Data” insurgency. In July 2012, I was asked to participate in a public panel of women theatre artists and educators to talk about our experiences in local theatre.4 Our gathering was spurred by the outcry over the Guthrie Theater’s fiftieth anniversary season announcement, notable for its absences more than its features: not one woman playwright or writer of color and only one female co-director across two stages with twelve theatrical offerings.5 It was also one of many events taking place in mid- to large-scale theatre cities across the United States as women and artists of color began their own programs of data collection and analysis, sharing their findings through online platforms and social media [End Page 211] with the goal of connecting hard numbers to anecdotal evidence describing the lack of gender and racial parity in American theatre. I began to collect data: basic statistics about the past year’s season, how many plays written by women had been produced, how many women had been hired to direct, and what companies had women serving in executive capacities in their artistic and management structures. It was material I had already started collecting through indirect means by maintaining my own “master” season calendar. That document’s impetus was twofold: first, to direct students to off-campus productions that would broaden their experience of local theatre; and second, to identify the emerging narrative of that year’s tri-city theatre offerings with which our theatre studies season at Duke would be in conversation. It was this second, specifically dramaturgical purpose that allowed me to contribute more than just stark percentages at the public meeting. I could see the ways in which this data could be articulated as information, a more refined and contextualized understanding of how...

Developing social skills in autistic children through ‘Relaxed Performances’

Families living with autism often feel unable to attend social and cultural events, largely due to the fear of their child attracting negative or even aggressive reactions from others. The ‘joint attention’ that is part of the theatre experience, however, may be a powerful factor in the development of social and communication skills for such children. ‘Relaxed performances’ offer an opportunity for them to access and engage with theatre by making special arrangements designed to reduce tensions associated with visits to public places. Aspects of the production such as the use of lighting and sound effects which may trigger adverse reactions are also adjusted. This paper reports on how one local theatre drew on the findings of a national project to mount a ‘relaxed performance’ of their annual pantomime. It discusses the theatre's preparations and presents evidence of the impact the event had on local children with autism and their families. The success of both the national project and this local one marks a new beginning for improved access to the theatre for an audience that has hitherto felt largely excluded.

Restoring the Art of Healing: A Transcultural Psychiatry Case Report

This paper reflects part of the 5 years experience in theatre and mental health developed by the Centre for Culture, Science and Health of the Office of Public Health, Rio de Janeiro. One selected Psychiatric Hospital Case is reported, and a short discussion about health and culture interplays under the proposed theoretical framework. It highlights historical experiences showing the importance of cultural and symbolic practices in mental and general health such as those studied by the Brazilian Psychiatrist Nise da Silveira and the contemporary paradigmatic shift of Biology and Health Sciences.

On Photographs at War: Images of the South African 6th Armored Division in Italy 1944–1945

The photography of the South African 6th Armored Division campaign in Italy in the World War II affords this essay its occasion for a consideration of the relation of photography to the political and historical project to which it pretends. The essay takes a loosely semiotic interest in the “signification” of war and of time, extending the sense of that process to encompass not only the mediation of concepts of the world, but also their invention against the disordering current of time. Its analysis of photographic signs form the campaign offers some specific insights into the particulars of the South African experience in the Italian theater, but more into the general compact between photography and history.

АКТОРСЬКЕ ВИРАЖЕННЯ РОЛІ В ТЕАТРІ ТА КІНО

The article deals with the difference in actor’s impersonationin theatre and cinema. Creative ways and means of expressing distinguishing traits of character in theatre and cinema are considered. The acting technique of experience in theatre and film roles is analyzed.

A mark on the Canvas

This essay considers the meaning and importance of gesture on stage and screen. It analyses how gesture is used by actors as a means to advance narrative and to communicate feeling. Drawing on her own experiences in theatre and television, Jenkins addresses the crucial, critically instructive differences that exist between how an actor approaches gesture in on-camera acting and in acting on stage. The essay also reflects on how Jenkins’s training, particularly with Yat Malmgren, has influenced her outlook on gesture which she perceives as a vital dimension to the actor’s craft.

Review: Drive: Journeys through Film, Cities and Landscapes, by Iain Borden; Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future, 1940–1990, by Wim de Wit and Christopher James Alexander, eds.; and Car Country: An Environmental History, by Christopher W. Wells

Drive: Journeys through Film, Cities and Landscapes London: Reaktion Books, 2013, 280 pp., 40 color and 40 b/w illus. $28, ISBN 9781780230269, by Iain Borden. Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future, 1940–1990 Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2013, 320 pp., 112 color and 102 b/w illus. $59.95, ISBN 9781606061282, by Wim de Wit and Christopher James Alexander, eds.. Car Country: An Environmental History Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2012, 464 pp., 7 maps and 44 b/w illus. $40, ISBN 9780295992150, by Christopher W. Wells. In July 2013, a New York Times headline proclaimed “the end of car culture.” Though the summer driving season offered plenty of evidence to the contrary, recent data indicate that fewer Americans are driving fewer miles in fewer cars, and even forgoing the adolescent ritual of getting a driver’s license upon turning sixteen. Thus, the Times felt confident in declaring that the country’s century-old love affair with the automobile was finally, inevitably, running out of gas. But if the romance with the car is cooling down, studying its fraught legacy is still plenty hot, as a spate of recent publications makes clear. In fact, in the hundred years since the first Model Ts rolled off the assembly line at Highland Park, Michigan, the car and its social, spatial, and economic impact have been under almost continual scrutiny, producing triumphant Fordist narratives and muckraking antisprawl screeds in almost equal measure. More nuanced, scholarly studies emerged in the last quarter of the twentieth century with The Automobile and American Culture (1980; David L. Lewis and Laurence Goldstein, eds.), a notable early example that attempted a comprehensive analysis of what its editors called the “auto-consciousness” of the United States. The continued evolution of that consciousness is fully evident in the three books under review here, each of which tackles a distinct aspect of the culture of automobility. In Car Country , Christopher W. Wells tracks its environmental evolution; in Drive , Iain Borden scrutinizes its experiential representation; in Overdrive , seventeen contributors examine its urban and architectural influence in Los Angeles, the world’s original autopia. Unsurprisingly, all three books deal principally with twentieth-century developments in the United States, though each pushes these parameters in important ways. Car Country begins with the infrastructural consequences of streetcars and railways in the 1880s. Overdrive , which …

Reception material in the Ingmar Bergman Archives: Letters, essays, drawings

Abstract This article considers documents relating to two different sections of the Ingmar Bergman Archives, emphasizing some of the social and cultural characteristics of the material. Analysis of letters from ordinary film spectators constitutes one portion. Another concerns Bergman’s employment as manager and director of the municipal children’s theatre Sagoteatern (The Fairy-Tale Theatre) in Stockholm (1941–1942). In both cases, the auteur archive becomes a site for examining the spectator rather than the auteur. The article examines how the chosen material may convey knowledge about spectatorship, and specific social and personal experiences of cinema and theatre, by making visible a range of cultural practices seldom associated with auteurism or ‘film art’, which nonetheless can be incorporated in an auteur archive.

“Hey, asshole: you had your say”: The Performance of Theatre Criticism

“Hey, asshole: you had your say”:The Performance of Theatre Criticism Oona Hatton (bio) In April 2010, Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) staged a production of The Taming of the Shrew with a new induction by playwright Neil LaBute. In a review for Time Out Chicago (TOC), theatre critic Caitlin Montanye Parrish lauded the production’s direction, designers, and ensemble, but was unimpressed by LaBute’s additions: “don’t look for meaning in the contemporary scaffolding,” she warns. Within hours, a writer identifying her-/himself as LaBute left a scathing response in the comments section of the online review. Calling Parrish’s piece a “sorry excuse for theatrical criticism,” “neil labute” launched a spirited exchange that grew to include over fifty comments from an estimated twenty-five participants.1 Posters expounded on the challenges of subsisting as an artist, the nature of Chicago’s theatre community, neil labute’s true identity, and, sporadically, the production in question. Throughout, the role of the critic remained labute’s central concern. Denouncing them as “freeloaders,” he writes, “critics are the one element that is of little or no use to the creative process (and one of the very few who don’t ever pay for a ticket!) even the audience lends some creative element to the experience of theater—the critic will always be reactive and parasitic.”2 Labute’s retort and the posts that follow exemplify the rapid and abundant response to which any contemporary theatre review is subject. The comments thread illustrates how the internet has transformed criticism by offering readers/consumers the chance to weigh in, immediately and visibly.3 In an era of compulsive (even compulsory) public assessment, the web is rife with similar discussions, equal parts adulation and bile, profundity and pettiness. Nevertheless, “L’Affaire LaBute Parrish” is a unique and fertile case study among them.4 There is, first of all, labute’s active participation; sixteen of the sixty posts are his (the next most frequent commenter has six). An array of stakeholders take part in the conversation, including posters who identify as theatre artists, spectators, and reviewers. References to Chicago theatre anchor the discussion in a specific time and place, making it a useful record of local history. At the same time, the thread demonstrates how theatrical criticism circulates both locally and more broadly in the era of electronic information. (The discussion spawned conversations on at least two other Chicago theatre blogs, as well as earning mention in the comments section of a review of another LaBute production in New York.)5 This essay describes a creative and scholarly project designed to explore public response to online theatre reviews, a phenomenon I term crowdsourcing theatre criticism. Briefly, the project is an adaptation of the TOC/labute comments thread into an online radio play performed by Chicago actors. The play dramatizes shifting trends in theatre reviewing, interrogating assumptions, including my own, about who is eligible to participate in theatre criticism; it is also an inquiry into the form that criticism might take. I argue that the piece contains five strata of commentary, beginning with Parrish’s review of CST’s production of Shrew; labute’s critique of that review follows. The third layer is composed of the subsequent posts, which take up the arguments made by both Parrish and labute, as well as bringing in related concerns about the production and consumption of theatre. Fourth is my mediation of the comments as director and editor of the radio play. Finally, in their performance of the text, the actors provide their perspectives on the ideas and identities presented by the posters. The resulting piece is more than the sum of its parts. Due to the interacting layers of commentary, the number of distinct voices, the range of themes, and the relative accessibility of the [End Page 103] digital recording, I argue that this “performance of criticism” offers a viable, even superior alternative to the traditional theatre review. To develop this idea, I begin with a brief discussion of current debates on theatre criticism, then turn to the play, describing the critical work accomplished (or attempted) by each round of commentators, including how she/he/they engage their predecessors in...

Directing When You Are Not a Director: A Creative Process

Directing When You Are Not a Director:A Creative Process Nathan Gabriel (bio) As theatre practitioners, audience members entrust us with the valuable asset of their time. They give us hours of their lives that they will never get back in exchange for the possibility of a transformative theatrical experience. When creating college theatre, we have an academic responsibility to the students working on the show, but more than that we have an opportunity—an opportunity to offer up an experience that entertains, enlightens, and fills an audience with knowledge about how to live a little better in this world. And the one person who leads that experience from start to finish is the director. Directing, with all its potential and responsibility, is a commonly required duty for theatre faculty, regardless of their training or experience. While it can be a pleasure for some, faculty members who are not trained as directors may view it as daunting and not be aware of how to take full advantage of this exciting artistic opportunity. I have prepared the following Notes from the Field in an effort to keep unseasoned faculty directors from becoming overwhelmed, and to aid them as they approach the invigorating task of directing a play. Note that this is a “crash course” that lays out only some of the methodologies available to directors, but by following this guide, you will have a solid foundation and can then move on to craft your own approach. For more information, I encourage you to read the full texts I reference throughout the article. A Sense of Direction (1984) and The Director’s Craft (2009) by William Ball and Katie Mitchell, respectively, are particularly good resources for new directors. So as to be as applicable to as many readers as possible, this Notes assumes that the play is a traditional, published work; that there is no dramaturge assigned to the production; and that the playwright is not available as a resource. The Creative Process The creative process refers to a course of action that anyone producing a creative act must go through, both internally and externally. Traditionally, it can be broken down into five distinct steps. As defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (1997), those steps are: preparation, incubation, inspiration, evaluation, and elaboration (79). You must go through all five of these steps, and each one leads to the next. I use these steps as a framework for what follows, and as we move through the process I will lay out what directing-related information you must acquire along the way to achieve the most successful production possible because good directing is more than just making a rehearsal schedule and playing onstage traffic cop, although it is both of those things as well. Good directing is doing research (preparation), giving yourself time to have ideas (incubation), fully understanding the play (inspiration), rehearsing effectively (evaluation), and then bringing all those ideas fully to life (elaboration). Allow me to walk you through this process, creative step by creative step. [End Page 151] Step 1: Preparation Csikszentmihalyi describes preparation as “becoming immersed, consciously or not, in a set of problematic issues that are interesting and arouse curiosity” (79). For directors, this can be translated as “researching the play.” Specifically, it is research that leads to a deeper understanding of the text, which will lead you to a plan of attack for approaching rehearsal and technical production. While there are many ways to perform this research, detailed below, the most important thing that any director, but especially a new one, can do to help make his production a success is to start early. The more time you give yourself to work, the more research you can do; the more you research, the more you will understand the play; and the more you understand the play, the more your subconscious can do the work of being creative and give you ideas about how to direct the production. Read About the Play Start your research by attempting to discover what the originating impulse was for the playwright. This will tell you much about what the play is trying to communicate...