Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
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Giraffe Time
No full textThe disciplines of Theatre and Photography invite differing responses to time. The Photographer navigates the technological practicalities of shutter speed and exposure required in “taking a shot,” while the Actor evolves her own human register of time, recognizing how it may alter when playing a part. To inhabit these disciplines from the outset, we adopt the roles of an Actor and a Photographer. We extend our dialogue to include non-human animals, thereby creating a common focus for our observations. Giraffes, parrots, and gorillas are chosen for their distance from, ability to imitate, and proximity to humans, respectively. Their inclusion helps us describe a space in which time can be observed. Although they are not acting, the animals we choose to work with are nevertheless staged before an audience in wildlife parks or zoos. Our intention is to “take” time, as a Photographer might, to frame the scenes described. Joint autobiographical texts narrating our encounters with these animals are interrupted by individual “close-up” sections, where the Photographer and Actor draw on their own subject areas proposing individual perspectives. The aim overall is to see what our eyes, in our exchanges with the animal, will reveal as knowledge
Performance Lighting Design: How to Light for the Stage, Concerts and Live Events
No full textA practical guide to the art and technique of lighting for the stage, this book explains the complex mixture of craft, collaboration and creativity behind successful lighting design. The designer paints with light - revealing form and composing a living picture from collections of objects and bodies in a given space. This handbook for professional practice walks you through how to achieve this, from first concept to development of design ideas, planning to realisation and, finally, public performance.
Now fully revised, this second edition has been brought up to date to consider advances made in the technology used for lighting design for live performance. It introduces new concepts and ways of working; includes a section on analysing the finished design; and discusses recent research into contemporary lighting practice, addressing emerging trends, particularly for drama. Combining practical information with aesthetic considerations, Performance Lighting Design is the ideal book for students and practitioners of stage lighting working on the contemporary stage
Theatre & Dance
No full textThis succinct and engaging text explores the interdependence between theatre and dance. Making a compelling case for the significance of resisting genre distinctions in the arts, Kate Elswit demonstrates why and how the ampersand between theatre and dance needs to be understood as the rule, rather than the exception. This illuminating guide focuses on the interconnected ecosystems of practice that constitute performance history, the expansion of theatre and dance forms on contemporary North American and European stages, and the disciplinary methods that scholars use today to understand such practices, both past and present
Trumping Taste: On the Gustatory and the Rise of the Post-Factual
No full textThis article examines three images of Donald Trump eating from the 2016 presidential campaign; it argues that these images demonstrate a nostalgic and problematic view of class politics and illustrate the paradox of contemporary neoliberal populist politics in the west
Critical Interruptions
No full textCritical Interruptions Vol I follows Steakhouse: Live Writing, a pilot project undertaken as part of Steakhouse Live’s LONGER WETTER FASTER BETTER festival in October 2016. It brings together artists, curators and producers, writers and critics to think through their relationship with criticism, revealing passionately held and often conflicting opinions on what criticism is and where it resides
Re-membering AIDS, Dis-membering Form
No full textIn the context of a volume that deals with HIV and AIDS in twenty-first-century performance, this chapter considers the role and importance of the past for future works. It engages with recent ideas of queer temporalities in order to make the case that historical performances about HIV and AIDS should form part of the lexicon of twenty-first-century narratives. In order to explore the way in which the past might be attended in plays and productions dealing with HIV and AIDS, this discussion turns to a club performance in London, UK. The club or cabaret setting is a key place for queer performance (though not as thoroughly studied as productions on more formal stages) in that it engages with an audience in ways, perhaps, mainstream theatre tends not to. Consequently, this discussion moves from historical representations of HIV and AIDS that happened on stages in conventional theatre buildings to an emblematic show in a club setting. In order to deal with the past in the present, I explore the knotty problem that although narratives of HIV and AIDS carry heavy histories, they are often forgotten, or written over. With an eye on writing on queer temporalities, this chapter examines the way in which some (highly selective and along a UK/US axis) representations of HIV, AIDS, people living with HIV and people living with AIDS are constructed dramaturgically. The discussion ranges from looking at historical plays, particularly Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, and places them up against a small scale a club performance by UK drag performer Bourgeoisies, who also connects to an unsolidified lineage of AIDS and HIV narratives and discourses
Perspectives: Hi-Tech Everything: A Fragmented Report from the Heart of Techno-Consumerism
No full textIn September 2017, I represented Philips at Europe’s biggest consumer electronics fair, IFA, in Berlin. Curious to find out how the dreams of a smooth technologised world are constructed and disseminated from the inside, I applied for a job with a PR agency that represents Philips Consumer Lifestyle at trade fairs worldwide. After attending an interview and submitting various kinds of photo and video footage I was hired to promote the latest innovations in ‘Male Grooming’
