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.

Puppet theatre under COVID-19. (Special Issue: Puppetry, disability, health and well-being.)

Abstract: Puppetry is a resilient art form, as has been evidenced by the response of puppeteers to the recent COVID-19 pandemic Perhaps this is fitting, as puppeteers have a long history of travelling to perform and adapting their performances to changing circumstances In this report, we provide a sample of puppetry projects that are taking place around the world and some insights from puppeteers on how they are working through COVID-19;using puppetry to teach about COVID-19 and teaching puppetry in general;to entertain and to perform puppetry that is offered as ritual at a time of crisis

Editorial: taking a snapshot of theatre and performance studies

Abstract: When, in September 2018, Tom Cornford, Glenn Odom and Marilena Zaroulia joined the editorial team of Studies in Theatre and Performance as new Associate editors, we were presented with the task tha...

'Mine are the Dead Spaces': A Discussion of Bunker Work's Atmospheres, Limits and Routines

Abstract: The abandoned bunker is burdened with dereliction, haunted by catastrophe averted. Yet a repurposed former place-for-war can facilitate a peaceful working afterlife. Here, the nature of this afterl...

‘The Biggest Youth Theatre Festival on the Planet’: National Theatre Youth Connections

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.

Listening: Headphone Theatre and Auditory Performance

Abstract: The listener is a central figure in theatre aurality, as part of an audience, and as a lone attender, often indulged in a private experience that is characterised by intimate technologies (either sporting some sort of headset or glued to a phone, but not necessarily in conversation). This chapter explores theatre from the perspective of the ear through analysis of the different types of auditory performance that are created by headphone theatre. The focus is on the theatre in the dark of Glen Neath and David Rosenberg, specifically Ring (2013), the auditory experience of binaural recording and the auralisation of the spaces and events that surround its audience. This is a form of immersive theatre which is deceptively guided through theatre sound. The intimate aurality of Ring makes the audience both the subject of and subject to this form of theatre. We seem to appear in this production against our will. However, exploring the auditory phenomenology and the physiology of listening to this form of theatre demonstrates how immersion, usually thought of as an all-encompassing experience, is created through directional sound and specific audience engagement. The acoustic spaces of theatre in the dark are redrawn through sound and they are generated through the auditory performance of our listening. This chapter will consider audience as an act and listening as generative.