Showing papers by "Royal Central School of Speech and Drama published in 2015"
TL;DR: The article concludes by noting some ways in which intergenerational theater projects might seek to work through the embodiment of the historical quotidian as a mode of resistance to normativity’s recirculation.
Abstract: This article examines the tendencies of LGBT intergenerational theater projects. By engaging with ideas of queer time, temporal drag, and the pervasive heteronormative imagery of heritability and inheritance, this article explores the possibility that LGBT intergenerational projects may generate some of the problems they aim to challenge. Through the lens of queer time, the article describes the normativity generated in LGBT intergenerational theater projects as a form of restrictive interpellation. The article explores the temporal complexities at play in such theater productions as The Front Room, a specific LGBT intergenerational theater project performed in the United Kingdom in 2011. The article concludes by noting some ways in which intergenerational theater projects might seek to work through the embodiment of the historical quotidian as a mode of resistance to normativity’s recirculation.
16 citations
TL;DR: This article explored the effect that non-traditional uses of audio description (AD) have on the audience during a performance, and how they trouble normative understandings of aesthetics and representation, by analysing two pieces created by Extant Theatre, the UK's only professional theatre company of visually impaired people.
Abstract: This paper will explore the effect that creative, non-traditional uses of audio description (AD) have on the audience during a performance, and how they trouble normative understandings of aesthetics and representation. This will be done by analysing two pieces created by Extant Theatre, the UK's only professional theatre company of visually impaired people. Both pieces use highly visual forms of performance in order to highlight the necessity of descriptive access for both practitioners and spectators experiencing these pieces, as well as the effect that description can have on the comprehension of an image. I will dissect these performances by juxtaposing my experience as a practitioner in these pieces with some of the methodological structures inherent within disability studies and identity politics, such as Rosemary Garland-Thomson's research on staring. AD, in its standard form, is an access tool for blind and visually impaired spectators that is almost always placed on top of an already completed pe...
10 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider two theatrical responses to the 2011 London riots: the premiere of Gillian Slovo's The Riots at the Tricycle and the revival of Edward Bond's Saved at the Lyric Hammersmith.
Abstract: Alain Badiou has argued that the England riots of 2011, in dialogue with societal upheavals around the world that same year, demonstrated fundamental crises in our governing social, economic and political discourses. Whilst institutional responses to the riots treated them as an aberration, Badiou believes them to be symptomatic of a broader rebirth of ‘history’ – the coalescing of past and present events into a congruent trajectory with powerful implications for the future. Using Badiou’s argument as a starting point, this article considers two theatrical responses to the riots – Nicholas Kent’s premiere of Gillian Slovo’s The Riots at the Tricycle, and Sean Holmes’ revival of Edward Bond’s Saved at the Lyric Hammersmith. By looking at the ways in which the productions sought to historicise the riots, I unpick both their interpretations of these events, and the contributions they were able to make to the urgent and ongoing discussions that the riots have generated.
9 citations
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TL;DR: A short article exploring the relationship between pedagogy and utopia for the 20th anniversary of Research in Drama Education is presented in this paper, where the authors explore the relationships between education and utopias.
Abstract: A short article exploring the relationship between pedagogy and utopia for the 20th anniversary of Research in Drama Education
8 citations
8 citations
12 Jun 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, the early twentieth-century Spanish folkloric song-form of Copla is adapted by appropriating elements found in American musical theatre, namely, musical revue, book-based musical, and juke box-style shows.
Abstract: My Practice as Research consists in adapting the early twentieth-century Spanish folkloric song-form of Copla, by appropriating elements found in American musical theatre, namely, musical revue, book-based musical, and juke box-style shows. The outcome of this practical research is to create an imagined model for Spanish contemporary musical theatre while critically reflecting on the intercultural practice that is implicit in this project. In this paper, I discuss three intercultural processes of my practice through the critical lens of theorists Pavis and of Lo and Gilbert; and I comment on the ‘readability’ of the Copla song by a multicultural audience of 21st Century London. I hypothesise that by appropriating elements found in Anglo-style musical theatre a new hybrid intercultural songform (English Copla) should shed light on the development of contemporary musical theatre. Moreover, I offer a means to interrogate current definitions of interculturalism and its operation through creative practice. T he Copla Musical : los intercambios entre el musical ingles y espanol Mi investigacion consiste en la adaptacion de la copla, genero folklorico-teatral de principios del siglo XX, mediante la apropiacion de elementos de la tradicion del teatro musical americano, en concreto, de la comedia musical, el drama musical y el jukebox. Los objetivos de esta investigacion son crear un modelo imaginario para la evolucion del musical espanol contemporaneo y, al mismo tiempo, hacer una reflexion sobre la practica intercultural implicita en el proyecto. En este articulo explico tres procesos interculturales a traves de las teorias de Pavis y Lo and Gilbert; y hablo sobre la legibilidad de la copla frente a un publico multicultural del siglo XXI en la cosmopolita Londres. Mi hipotesis propone que, mediante la apropiacion de elementos del teatro musical anglosajon, un nuevo hibrido cultural (la copla inglesa) puede iluminar el desarrollo del musical contemporaneo e interrogar las definiciones actuales del interculturalismo y su funcionamiento.
8 citations
10 Apr 2015
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that performance philosophy can be seen as a form of philosophy in its own right, and that what performance offers is not simply another system of representation but a possible democratic thought of the Real itself.
Abstract: Performance philosophy commences with an impertinent gesture when it describes itself as inaugurating a ‘new field’ of study. Accompanying that claim is a radical proposition that ‘performance thinks’; that it should be counted as a form of philosophising in its own right. But in what sense can performance be construed as ‘genuinely’ philosophical thought? Taking my cue from Laura Cull’s alignment of performance philosophy with Laruelle’s practice of ‘non philosophy’ – and specifically, with its introduction of ‘democracy’ into the dispositives of ‘standard’ philosophy in order to challenge its transcendental authority over the Real – I argue that performance philosophy might be seen to enact a similar disruption of the ‘dispositives’ of performance theory. This, however, is only partly what is at stake in the fundamental proposition of performance philosophy, and I conclude by suggesting that a more radical proposal lies behind its assertion of a new ‘field’ – one that does not reduce it to an empirical fact, but grasps it as a radical ‘utopian’ hypothesis designed to ‘open up’ the philosophical dimension of performance itself; utopian because what performance offers – seen in this way - is not simply another system of representation but a possible democratic thought of the Real itself.
6 citations
TL;DR: This article conducted a survey of over 1800 spectators for theatre and dance in Tyneside in northeastern England, as well as a parallel set of focus groups, in the spring of 2014.
Abstract: What values do theatre and dance hold for audience members? And how do these values differ between subsidised, amateur, and commercial performance? This paper addresses these questions through a survey of over 1800 spectators for theatre and dance in Tyneside in northeastern England, as well as a parallel set of focus groups, in the spring of 2014. These methods, which are designed for comprehensiveness and comparability, are being used across Europe by the Project on European Theatre Systems, a working group of theatre sociologists. Our research showed two sets of values which performances achieved; one was a common measure of performance quality, while the other described the values particular to subsidised work. This allows us to articulate both the general value of the arts and the particular values which subsidy (attempts to) facilitate. This has implications for both understandings of cultural value and for cultural policy, as the distinction between the two groups was not clean. We also found that ...
6 citations
TL;DR: In 2014, Low and Chatikobo as discussed by the authors discussed where applied theatre is located in a South African context and discussed the role of applied theatre in the development of the arts in South Africa.
Abstract: This is an edited transcript of a conversation between Kat Low and Munyaradzi Chatikobo, (Chati), who is the Funding and Partnership Manager for Drama For Life, an academic and community engagement programme. Kat was interested in Chati's perspective on where applied theatre is located in a South African context. The conversation took place in 2014.
5 citations
TL;DR: The depiction of ecological heroes has been prevalent in much ecological performance work, particularly presenting Indigenous peoples as responsible ecological sentinels warning of the harmful impa... as mentioned in this paper, which has been used in many ecological performance works.
Abstract: The depiction of ecological heroes has been prevalent in much ecological performance work, particularly presenting Indigenous peoples as responsible ecological sentinels warning of the harmful impa...
3 citations
TL;DR: The Performance Making Diploma at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (Central) won the Guardian University Award for Student Diversity and Widening Participation 2015 as discussed by the authors, which is a one-year, part-time diploma.
Abstract: In its second year, the Performance Making Diploma at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (Central), won the Guardian University Award for Student Diversity and Widening Participation 2015. A one-year, part-time diploma, the first cohort has graduated and many have undertaken their first venture in professional work. This Points and Practice piece is an edited version of an email interview between Sally Mackey and Liselle Terret. Together with Nick Llewellyn from Access All Areas, Liselle created the Diploma.