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Actor-Dramaturgs and Atmospheric Dramaturgies: Chekhov Technique in Processes of Collaborative Playwriting
No full textThis chapter builds upon an analysis of the close connections between Chekhov’s practices and those of collaborative play-writing that were developed later in the twentieth-century, as well as the ‘new dramaturgy’ that has emerged in the early twenty-first. It proposes, in brief, a new pathway for Chekhov’s technique in the training, study and practice of dramaturgs and collaborative playwrights and the theorising of dramaturgy that underpins their work. In order to achieve this, I seek ways both of breaking open Chekhov’s practice to reveal some of its essential dramaturgical principles, and of fundamentally transforming it by challenging some of the cultural assumptions that shape both his techniques and the language in which they are articulated. I aim, thereby, to effect a kind of Hegelian sublation of Chekhovian practice, so that it is both negated and carried over in the creation of the new pathway that I seek to establish with and for it.
This process unfolds in three phases in this chapter. The first asserts the basis for this new pathway for Chekhovian practice by analysing significant points of intersection between practices developed at the Chekhov Theatre Studio between 1936 and 1942 and those of twenty-first century dramaturgs and collaborative playwrights. The second section develops a proposal for the development of practices in this new pathway by exploring the application of Chekhov’s technique to the dramaturgical training and development of theatre-makers for collaborative playwriting. This section draws upon the materials gathered in the Michael Chekhov Theatre Studio Deirdre Hurst Du Prey Archive and the findings of my own practice research. This was principally undertaken from 2014-2016 in collaboration with playwright and performer Hannah Davies and our company Common Ground Theatre, based in York. During this period, we made four new productions, written by Davies in collaboraton with me as the director and their performers. Of particular relevance for this study is our 2015 production of Demons, an adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s novel, which was created using some of the same techniques used by the Chekhov Theatre Studio in their adaptation of the same novel as The Possessed (1939). I also draw, here, on the findings of the 2016 New Pathways Practice Symposium on Michael Chekhov, Collaborative Playwriting and Dramaturgy (led by me and attended by a variety of playwrights, dramaturgs and collaborative theatre-makers). Following this proposal for a neo-Chekhovian dramaturgical training, the chapter’s third section elaborates a theoretical basis for this new pathway: a conception of dramaturgy rooted in Chekhov’s understanding of atmospheres. The material covered in this exploration of the phenomenon of atmosphere is, in fact, no less practical than the previous section, but my exploration of it here is framed as a neo-Chekhovian account of the theory of dramaturgy, to be read in partnership with the proposal for dramaturgical practice that precedes it.
In sum, this chapter argues that the excision of dramaturgy from accounts of Chekhov’s technique has crucially limited our understanding of its potential and that, by bringing the two together, some crucial limitations of Chekhov’s approach can be overcome. Furthermore, the discipline of dramaturgy stands to gain a great deal from both practical interventions and theoretical insights grounded in a reappropriation of Chekhov’s technique for a form of dramaturgy that reflects not only the shifts in aesthetic tastes in the sixty-five years since his death, but the political and cultural specificities of twenty-first century performance
Chapter Three The Expressive Voice in Performance: Chekhov’s Techniques for Voice and Singing in Michael Chekhov Technique in the Twenty-First Century: New Pathways.
No full textIn this chapter, I examine archival evidence of voice practice during, and since, the time of Chekhov’s Dartington Studio. The results of this examination suggest a lack of integration between approaches to voice and Chekhov’s techniques during his lifetime and point the way towards an interdisciplinary model for the ongoing development of new pathways in this area. I will discuss two examples of interdisciplinary approaches to voice and Chekhov that have emerged in the early part of the 21st Century and show how these approaches offer a model for further interdisciplinary exploration of Chekhov for Voice and Singing
Decentering Listening: Toward an Anti-Discriminatory Approach to Accent and Dialect Training for the Actor
No full textThis article reports on the findings of practice-based research into the development of anti-discriminatory accents and dialects training for actors with diverse intersecting identities. The author reviews an earlier strand of research into speech training within a UK conservatory that identified a bias toward Received Pronunciation reinforced by colonized listening practices. This article explores the impact of those listening practices on accent and dialect training. The author responds to the challenges inherent in providing training that both develops high-level skills and meets industry needs, while aiming to center the experiences of somatically othered students. The author develops their previous decolonizing model into a decentering framework for an approach to training actors that draws on critical pedagogy and asks students to cross the border from the conservatory into the community. This approach to accent and dialect training builds on verbatim and documentary theatre-making techniques, resulting in a practice that values empathy, listening, embodied practice, and autonomy, and the approach allows actors to perform “multiple authenticities,” while offering the potential for political insurgency within the performing arts industries
Theatre Studios: A Political History of Ensemble Theatre-Making
No full textTheatre Studios explores the history of the studio model of theatre-making in England, first established by Konstantin Stanislavsky, Jacques Copeau and others in the early twentieth century, and later developed in the UK primarily by Michel Saint-Denis, George Devine, Michael Chekhov and Joan Littlewood, whose studios are the focus of this study.
Cornford offers in-depth accounts of the radical, collective work of these leading experimental theatre companies of the mid-twentieth century, considering the approaches to ensemble theatre-making that they developed and their remnants in the newly publicly-funded UK theatre establishment of the 1960s. In the process, this book develops an approach to understanding the politics of artistic practices rooted in the work of John Dewey, Antonio Gramsci and the standpoint feminists. It concludes by considering the legacy of the studio movement for twenty-first century theatre, partly by tracking its echoes in the work of Secret Theatre at the Lyric, Hammersmith (2013-2015).
Students and makers of theatre alike will find in this book a provocative and illuminating analysis of the politics of performance-making and a history of the theatre as a site for developing counterhegemonic, radically democratic, anti-individualist forms of cultural production
Digital Methods for Dance Historical Inquiry (REF 2021 Practice Research Submission)
No full textThis multi-component output investigates the complex questions and problems that make the collection, analysis, and visualization of data meaningful for dance historical analysis. While digital research methods have impacted most humanities and arts disciplines, the field of dance studies has yet to fully identify how it can benefit from these analytic approaches, which also limits its participation in ongoing interdisciplinary conversations.
Across the three phases of work are a core set of concerns regarding the ways in which digital methods are particularly suited to accounting for the scale and distribution of information necessary to better understand the translation, circulation, and transmission of dance. We therefore combine methodological approaches from the interpretive humanities with others drawn from data analysis and the digital humanities. The core of the research sits on the foundation of a creative and curatorial ‘digital humanities practice’ that contributes to an understanding of how digital humanities can both address and open up intellectual and methodological problems that matter to us as dance scholars. The inquiry develops through an iterative process of manually curating datasets, crafted from undigitized materials held by seven archives across the United States, which finds meaning and expression in tandem with exploratory visualization. At the same time as this practice supports all written components, we also argue that it manifests as research in itself that depend on a deep engagement with and interpretation of archival materials.
Earlier seed-funded phases of the project (2014–16 and 2016–18) laid the foundation for the ongoing third phase, which is supported by a three-year AHRC Research Grant (2018–21, AH/R012989/1). Although the research is ongoing, interest has been significant, resulting in nine invited talks to date. All datasets and print publications since 2016 are equally co-authored by Harmony Bench and Kate Elswit
Concert (REF 2021 Practice Research Submission)
No full textConcert illuminates Michael Chekhov’s little-known principles on interdisciplinary theatre practice and design. It develops Chekhov’s ideas in a dance-theatre production, which I directed for the Dublin Dance Festival and the Baryshnikov Arts Centre, New York. In line with Chekhov’s propositions that artists must work beyond the parameters of their assigned roles and expertise, I elaborated a collaborative rehearsal methodology that prioritised a direct exchange between performer Colin Dunne and sound designer Mel Mercier, a relationship traditionally overlooked in theatre production yet central to Chekhov’s philosophy. I address the importance of design in Chekhov’s acting technique which has largely been ignored in Chekhov scholarship.
Concert expands the prevailing understanding of Chekhov’s method; elaborates the technique in a devised, sound-driven performance in unconventional ways, answering Chekhov’s demand for creating new forms and ways of producing theatre; and illustrates the restitution of the performer at the heart of a creative dialogue most commonly reserved for the director and designer.
Following a period of research (2013–19) at the Michael Chekhov Studio Dartington Hall archive, I led a series of international practical workshops for theatre designers, directors and performers. In collaboration with scenographer Aldona Cunningham, we tested Chekhov’s exercises on aesthetics and form. Findings from these workshops fed into directing Concert: I placed design at the centre of the devising process, creating a rehearsal method where Dunne experimented with scenographic materials to create performance and choreographic motifs, and Mercier came to consider his sound propositions as psychophysical inspiration for Dunne. A new model for contemporary theatre-making emerged, born directly from the performer-designer exchange.
Between 2017 and 2019, Concert toured internationally to over 8,000 people. I disseminated my insights in a series of public talks in the UK, Australia and USA; in my practice book on Chekhov’s technique; a book chapter and a published interview
Editorial
No full textThis is the editorial for the special issue of the Journal of Applied Arts and Health Issue 11.1 and 11.2 on puppetry and healt
Theatre Studios: A Political History of Ensemble Theatre-Making
No full textTheatre Studios explores the history of the studio model of theatre-making in England, first established by Konstantin Stanislavsky, Jacques Copeau and others in the early twentieth century, and later developed in the UK primarily by Michel Saint-Denis, George Devine, Michael Chekhov and Joan Littlewood, whose studios are the focus of this study.
Cornford offers in-depth accounts of the radical, collective work of these leading experimental theatre companies of the mid-twentieth century, considering the approaches to ensemble theatre-making that they developed and their remnants in the newly publicly-funded UK theatre establishment of the 1960s. In the process, this book develops an approach to understanding the politics of artistic practices rooted in the work of John Dewey, Antonio Gramsci and the standpoint feminists. It concludes by considering the legacy of the studio movement for twenty-first century theatre, partly by tracking its echoes in the work of Secret Theatre at the Lyric, Hammersmith (2013-2015).
Students and makers of theatre alike will find in this book a provocative and illuminating analysis of the politics of performance-making and a history of the theatre as a site for developing counterhegemonic, radically democratic, anti-individualist forms of cultural production
The Heuristic Pedagogue: Navigating Myths and Truths in Pursuit of an Equitable Approach to Voice Training
No full textThis article reflects on a 5-year period of research into equitable approaches to actor training and voice. This reflection is performed as a conversation between two of the author’s voices; the pedagogue that has lived the experiences and the academic that has framed and written about those experiences. The discussion reflects on the challenges of voicing the lived experiences of the researcher within an academic frame. The author describes a heuristic process of research that has challenged them to move out of their comfort zone and has decentred their value system in response to the experiences of acting students with diverse intersectional identities. The author draws on principles of critical and radical pedagogy to propose an alternate framework for actor training with three interrelated strands; the Pedagogies of Method, Acculturation and Instruction
Sheep Pig Goat (REF 2021 Practice Research Submission)
No full textSheep Pig Goat is a performance-based research project, commissioned and presented publicly as a “creative research studio” by Wellcome Collection (the public engagement arm of Wellcome Trust) during the exhibition Making Nature (December 2016–May 2017).
The project brought together performers from across artforms (dancers, singers, musicians), a number of livestock animals (sheep, pigs and goats) and academic researchers from various disciplines (history, design, philosophy, political theory, biology, literature) to explore, in public, a set of interrelated questions concerned with interspecies empathy, understanding and communication.
The key methodology of the research was a series of improvised performative encounters between human and non-human agents. These were framed by public conversations involving visitors to the research studio (members of the general public) and a series of panel presentations and discussions with visiting academics.
Following this initial public presentation of the research, a short film was made of the project. This was screened in the galleries at Wellcome Collection as part of a follow-on exhibition, ‘A Museum of Modern Nature’ (June–October 2017). Subsequently, an extensive archive entry for Wellcome Library was commissioned and created. The project was further developed at the University of Surrey School of Veterinary Medicine in 2020. This iteration expanded the multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary reach of the project, bringing the perspectives of veterinary scientists into the project for the first time.
Key findings of the research concern methodological advancements in Human-Animal studies, specifically the need for multi- and interdisciplinary approaches, and multivalent perspectives, in order for non-human animals to begin to be seen as active subjects rather than passive objects. The project also impacted pedagogies and practices in a Veterinary School setting. It has led to numerous creative and scholarly outcomes and responses, including a published interview, podcast and three symposium presentations