Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

About: Royal Central School of Speech and Drama is a education organization based out in London, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Political theatre & Queer. The organization has 57 authors who have published 94 publications receiving 332 citations. The organization is also known as: CSSD & The Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art.

The Antidote: theorising recovery engaged theatre-making as a process of affective attunement and agonistic activism

Abstract: Reflecting on The Antidote, created with performers in recovery from addiction, this paper theorises theatre-making practice that attends to being as formed through affective and emotive relation w...

Chapter 3: Applied Theatre: A Space ‘Safe Enough’ to Take Risks?

Abstract: This chapter engages with the concepts of space using three different conceptualisations: physical, virtual, and metaphorical spaces. Examining a series of exercises and performances created by the participants, I argue that the participants developed an understanding of spatial practices and a verbal and embodied vocabulary about space from their re-enactments, which enabled them to make links between safety from crime and sexual safety, as well as exploring positions of resistance in later exercises. It notes how the performance-making space enabled better understanding. By creating a space for new knowledges to emerge, knowledges developed on the participants’ own terms. The chapter addresses the idea that a site of resistance can create different perspectives from which to consider other alternatives.

9 August 1967/ the pyjamas

Abstract: Commemoration of the anniversary of the deaths of Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell brings centre-stage an event which has caused difficulties for those writing about Orton. These difficulties mainly originate in John Lahr’s biography, which used the deaths as a frame for viewing Orton’s life and work. This essay attempts to think afresh about those deaths by drawing on texts that pre-date the biography, namely the news reports of witness evidence at the inquest. These texts have very different tone and detail from the biography but get lost under the memory- and archive-management which characterises the early Orton industry. In following where the news reports lead us, the essay takes the opportunity to ask questions about the concept of anniversary.

Chapter 4: ‘If You Want to Be Safe, You Must Stay at Home’: Dialogical Spaces and Repressive Outcomes

Abstract: This chapter addresses the concept of risk-taking in applied theatre practice. Drawing from an example from the OPOS project, where a scene exploring the negotiation of safe sex led to the establishment of a moral discourse, this chapter asks key questions about the role of the applied theatre practitioner in these settings, ultimately considering if the practice is a form of ‘nudging’ towards more acceptable behaviour. It also considers the tactical possibilities inherent in applied theatre practice and the risks facing both the participants and the facilitator. These discussions are contextualised within a consideration of sexual transactions in South Africa. Placing these concerns within the challenges of working in a neoliberal climate, I consider how we, as applied theatre practitioners, negotiate the impulse to nudge our participants and how we consider the intentions of our practice.

Performing the Intercultural City

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...