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Showing papers by "Royal Central School of Speech and Drama published in 2019"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article confirmed and deepened an understanding of the negative impact of teaching culturally embedded speech standards to actors who are "othered" by a dominant "somatic norm" within a culture.
Abstract: This article confirms and deepens an understanding of the negative impact of teaching culturally embedded speech standards to actors who are “othered” by a dominant “somatic norm” within th...

15 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors consider the challenges of juggling the demands of motherhood in the experience of early career researchers operating in the British neoliberal academy and discuss opportunities to balance motherhood and early career research.
Abstract: This article considers the challenges of juggling the demands of motherhood in the experience of early career researchers operating in the British neoliberal academy, and discusses opportunities fo...

8 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Breath builds intimate and physical connections beyond the individual, at the same time as it also poses challenges to sharing experience with others as mentioned in this paper, however, performance has the capacity to archi...
Abstract: Breath builds intimate and physical connections beyond the individual, at the same time as it also poses challenges to sharing experience with others. However, performance has the capacity to archi...

6 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examines three museums that address Lebanon's history of conflict: the newly opened Beit Beirut on the capital's former Green Line, the Hezbollah-run Mleeta Resistance Tourist Landmark, and the Museum of Lebanon.
Abstract: This article examines three museums that address Lebanon’s history of conflict: the newly opened Beit Beirut on the capital’s former Green Line, the Hezbollah-run Mleeta Resistance Tourist Landmark...

6 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that British universities have historically excluded sections of society from entering and from participating in decision-making, and that the neoliberal university has entrenched these inequalities in insidious ways, and they call for an end to this exclusion.
Abstract: British universities have historically excluded sections of society from entering and from participating in decision-making. The neoliberal university has entrenched these inequalities in insidious...

5 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A feud is an antagonism that is continuous and extended; "a state of prolonged mutual hostility" (OED) as mentioned in this paper, defined as a state of antagonism between two or more people.
Abstract: A feud is an antagonism that is continuous and extended; “a state of prolonged mutual hostility” (OED). Historically, feuds take place between families or communities, or result from failed couples...

5 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used visual analysis to explore the performance techniques offered by the female-focused sex education platform OMGYes, motivated to close a gendered gap in interaction criticism.
Abstract: Grounded in interaction criticism, this article uses visual analysis to explore the performance techniques offered by the female-focused sex education platform OMGYes. Motivated to close a gendered...

4 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
30 Nov 2019
TL;DR: The authors argue for a poetics of appearance as it is constituted by nonconforming acts of critique, arguing for a process of appearance of meaning with differential relation to modernist concerns for interpretation, dissenting from rationalist and objectivist traditions that have dominated theatre and performance criticism.
Abstract: In his work titled ‘Dance Curves: On the Dances of Palucca’ (1926), Wassily Kandisky translates two postures of the German Expressionist choreographer Gret Palucca from photographs into line drawings. The drawings are a study, but they are neither pictorial, nor straightforwardly representational. Staging an encounter between Dance Curves and Hannah Arendt’s investigation into thinking as both an interrupted and interruptive activity, this essay argues for a poetics of appearance as it is constituted by nonconforming acts of critique.Negotiating conflicts that shape a politics of recognition for criticism which deliberately or implicitly refutes utility, I articulate a process of appearance of meaning with differential relation to modernist concerns for interpretation, dissenting from rationalist and objectivist traditions that have dominated theatre and performance criticism since the Enlightenment. What happens when I disavow the drawings from the images, remove them from the source? Perhaps in such a place, we might find critique as a process of deliberately mishandled translation, as an occupation of an idea shifted elsewhere, as a displacement of meaning. Appearance shapes itself around slippages of attention that depart from the work of performance.In this essay, I turn to how these slippages fold outwards from the encounter, to the political nexus between performance and its world. In Arendt, I locate a means through which forms of thinking rendered as criticism constitute a resistant poetics to normative modes of paying attention, operating beyond what Bojana Kunst calls ‘the ready-made possibilities of discourse’ (2015, 13) under neoliberalism, that is, the ‘pre-established models of criticality and reflexivity’ to which art and artistic subjectivity often partake (ibid.)

3 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The role of music and song in the audience reception of the verbatim musical London Road (Taylor 2013; Zavros 2018) has been discussed in this article, with a particular focus on the dialectics and the gestic role of the music and lyrics.
Abstract: This article contributes to discussions about the role of music and song in the audience reception of the “verbatim musical” London Road (Taylor 2013; Zavros 2018). It uses Brechtian philosophy to assess the audience reception, and shows how London Road can illuminate the resonance of Brechtian philosophy with contemporary docu-musical. The first section analyses Brechtian class representations in London Road, with a particular focus on the dialectics and the Gestic role of the music and song. The second section explores how the adaptation from stage to screen further affected the dialectics of the musical and, paradoxically, further served key Brechtian aims. I consider the audience’s reception of both productions. I include my own reception, because I have seen both the stage and screen versions. I focus on two dramaturgical changes in the adaptation from stage to screen: the chronological order of the narrative and the alternation of interview sections and dramatised sections, which resembles the structure of the popular drama-doc genre. Given that reordering and restaging the original verbatim numbers could affect audience reception, I analyse the way the meaning is affected through the Brechtian notions of alienation and the gestic character of music. Throughout, I discuss class representations and relevant dialectical implications.

2 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
07 Feb 2019
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors outline some of the means and implications of attending to living processes in Sesame Dramatherapy sessions, drawing upon three main philosophical streams: Goethean observation, phenomenology and Eugene Gendlin's Philosophy of the Implicit.
Abstract: This essay will outline some of the means and implications of attending to living processes in Sesame Dramatherapy. Broadly defined, living processes are those which exceed rigid, reductive, fixed or thing-like concepts. Insofar as our more mobile concepts often collapse into fixed definitions or signs, we might say that living processes resist conceptualisation altogether. I will consider how to avoid objectifying living processes which, as a category, encompass psychic processes and our experiences of other people and living beings. I will investigate how it is possible to enter into an ‘I-Thou’ relationship with the diverse phenomena of Sesame Dramatherapy sessions, stepping out of ‘I-it’, objectifying ways of relating. In order to do this, I will draw upon three main philosophical streams: Goethean observation, phenomenology and Eugene Gendlin’s Philosophy of the Implicit. Some of the therapeutic implications of this will then be outlined, with particular reference to the creation of meaning and the e...

1 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Performance's cultural pluralisms are addressed in much recent scholarship increasingly informed by interdisciplinary dialogues such as with transnational feminisms, critical race theory, and queer... as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Performance’s cultural pluralisms are addressed in much recent scholarship increasingly informed by interdisciplinary dialogues such as with transnational feminisms, critical race theory, and queer...

Journal ArticleDOI
30 Nov 2019
TL;DR: In this paper, a special issue on the thresholds, borders, and dialogues between Hannah Arendt's work and performance philosophy is presented, bringing together contributions that investigate political resistance, thought, and practice.
Abstract: This editorial introduces this special issue on the thresholds, borders, and dialogues between Hannah Arendt’s work and performance philosophy, bringing together contributions that investigate political resistance, thought, and practice. Arendt’s relevance to our times is ubiquitous: from the near constant citation of The Origins of Totalitarianism in relation to the recent rise in strong-man politics and resurgent ethnic nationalism, to her diagnosis of the plight of refugees, denied even the rights belonging to those that have broken the law, but instead placed outside the law. Contemporary political philosophy also bears numerous influences, in the thinking of Mouffe, Ranciere, Nancy, Agamben, Brown, Butler, and more. For performance philosophy, we might engage with Arendt’s performative notion of politics itself, as exemplified in her idea of ‘spaces of appearance’, but also the performativity of thought, as well as the implications of Arendt’s work for phenomenology, governmentality, rights, and ecology. Contributors to this special issue also think through the relevance of Arendt’s work for an anti-colonial and anti-racist political praxis, and for post and non-human political ethics, judgment, and thinking.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
01 Nov 2019
TL;DR: Findings from this study show cancer-specific sex, relationship and body image issues faced by AYA and provide important direction to the development of interventions – a balance between professional and peer support is needed.
Abstract: Aims Adolescents and young adults (AYA) diagnosed with cancer, broadly those aged 16-29, are known to have distinctive psychosocial and medical needs related to age and transitioning through significant life milestones at the time of diagnosis/treatment. Forming a sexual identity is a key developmental task during this phase, thus understanding the factors that enable the information needs of AYA to be appropriately identified and met is critical. This study expands on previous findings that AYA exhibited significant unmet needs around information provision on sex, body image, and relationships and aims to explore information and support preferences regarding where, how, and from whom AYA want to receive this information. Methods Four young people aged 24-26 years, with a previous cancer diagnosis at age 14-23 years attended an in-depth four-hour workshop. Participatory activities were employed to identify the questions young people had; their support/information preferences; and, their definition of intimacy. The framework approach was used to analyse workshop transcripts. Results Young people’s preferences of information/support provision varied. They wanted trusted sources of information and while some preferred to have face-to-face discussions with healthcare professionals, others felt embarrassed and would prefer an online platform. All acknowledged that listening to peers with cancer talk about sexuality and relationships would ‘normalise’ their questions. Feeling embarrassed (professionals and young people) was a barrier to an open discussion about their needs. Triggers for information and support included: partners (pressures/expectations); lack of sexual drive (managing side effects); body image concerns (weight gain/loss); physical constraints; and fertility concerns. Young people wanted access to information tailored to their needs. Conclusion Findings from this study show cancer-specific sex, relationship and body image issues faced by AYA and provide important direction to the development of interventions – a balance between professional and peer support is needed. Sexual health is a key element of wellbeing and a failure to address it may place AYA at risk for long-term consequences related to sexual, identity and relationships development. This study highlights the importance of conversations relating to sexual consequences of illness and age-appropriate assessment and interventions in other contexts where disease may disrupt young people’s development.

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: The National Theatre's Youth Connections project as mentioned in this paper has been a key component of the UK's National Theatre community work for over 20 years and over 50,000 young actors have taken part in the project.
Abstract: In this chapter Busby explores Youth Connections which forms part of the UK’s National Theatre’s provision for young people. Connections was first launched in 1993 and since then each year the production team has commissioned ten professional and widely respected playwrights to write a play for 13–19 year-olds. To date it has published over 160 plays and over 50,000 young actors have taken part in the project. This chapter considers this key component of the National Theatre community work in four ways. First, Busby discusses the value of youth theatre. Second she focuses on the logistics of Connections itself. Third is a consideration of the position of Connections both within the National Theatre and the wider cultural agenda in the UK. Fourth the potential of the scheme to contribute to personal and social transformation for the participants is explored.

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Dec 2019
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the approaches of five theatre companies working with children and vulnerable youth in London and identify two aspects of intuitive practice, one that resides with the actions and thoughts of the practitioner and the other with the acceptance of intuitive creative offers by participants.
Abstract: This article offers insights into what might constitute intuition in applied theatre practices with vulnerable youth in London. The study will explore the approaches of five theatre companies working with children and vulnerable youth. A lead practitioner from each company has been interviewed, and the interpretation of the data they have provided has offered new insights into the role of intuition as an approach to ensuring applied theatre is responsive to young people living precarious lives. The research identifies two aspects of intuitive practice, one that resides with the actions and thoughts of the practitioner, and the other with the acceptance of intuitive creative offers by participants. The study has also revealed the potential heightening of intuitive responses for practitioners who share history, culture, location or identities with their participants. Altogether the findings from the research offer useful potential considerations of key qualities for an intuitive practitioner, or the Intuit, working specifically with young people in contexts of uncertainty.

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: In this article, Damian Martin proposes that performance criticism operates as a kind of "phenomenological poesis" that is itself a form of creative production, and draws on Hannah Arendt's meditations on the very nature of appearance to aid in that navigation.
Abstract: Diana Damian Martin proposes in this chapter that performance criticism operates as a kind of “phenomenological poesis”—an emergence that is itself a form of creative production. Damian Martin is navigating here the channels the interlink action, perception and thought, and she draws on Hannah Arendt’s meditations on the very nature of appearance to aid in that navigation. Here, as elsewhere, the argument concerns ways of knowing that are always emergent, particularly as Damian Martin’s chief focus is on “live writing”—criticism which responds to the performative event as it unfolds, and as such not only forms part of the performance it is “perceiving”, but, in Damian Martin’s words, “marks its own eventness”.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In March 2017, I travelled to the frontline between the Ukrainian army and Pro-Russian separatist forces in the Donbass region, East Ukraine, as part of a research project into the return of twenti...
Abstract: In March 2017, I travelled to the frontline between the Ukrainian army and Pro-Russian separatist forces in the Donbass region, East Ukraine, as part of a research project into the return of twenti...