Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
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Willful Distraction: Katie Mitchell, Auteurism and the Canon
No full textThis lecture/essay uses Sara Ahmed's conception of 'willfulness' to consider the repeated accusations, levelled by critics against director Katie Mitchell, of 'auteurism' and productions whose effect is 'distracting'. It argues, via a close analysis of Mitchell's productions of three canonical works for the stage - Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor, Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and Strindberg's Miss Julie, that Mitchell's project is deliberately and productively to distract from the political agenda that underpins these works' canonical status. In these stagings, Mitchell distracts - that is, draws attention away, both literally and figuratively - from narratives that sustain patriarchal and class oppression, in order to expose and counteract their interlocking functions. The essay concludes with a consideration, by contrast, of Mitchell's tacit acceptance of the hegemonic position of whiteness in the contemporary European theatre, and argues for a similar project to distract from its political agenda
Review: FITEI: Community and Memory
No full textDiana Damian Martin writes on how Porto’s international theatre festival FITEI explores ideas of community, memory, and the past
Peter Boenisch and Thomas Ostermeier, The Theatre of Thomas Ostermeier and Peter M. Boenisch, Directing Scenes and Senses: The Thinking of Regie.
No full textA review of The Theatre of Thomas Ostermeier and Directing Scenes and Senses: The Thinking of Regie Manchester
Theatre Aurality
No full textThis book explores the critical field of theatre sound and the sonic phenomena of theatre. It draws together a wide range of related topics, including sound design and sonic sonographies, voice as a performance of sound, listening as auditory performance, and audience as resonance. It explores radical forms of sonic performance and our engagement in it, from the creation of sonic subjectivities to noise as a politics of sound. The introductory chapters trace the innate aurality of theatre and the history of sound effects and design, while also interrogating why the art of theatre sound was delayed and underrepresented in philosophy as well as theatre and performance theory. Subsequent chapters explore the emergence of aurally engaged theatre practice and focus on examples of contemporary sound in and as theatre, including theatre in the dark, headphone theatre and immersive theatre, amongst others, through theories of perception and philosophies of listening, vocality, sonority and noise
Deterritorising the Research Space: Artistic Research, Embodied Knowledge, and the Academy
No full textArtistic research has in recent years concerned itself with the nature of practice and how this may be framed as research.
These debates may have blinded us to a more fundamental concern: territorial claims to the research space made by
other forces. Competition for access to material and human resources, funds, space, and infrastructural support, among
others, drive debates about the academic status of performance within higher education. The main objective of this article is to demonstrate how the ideological imbalances underpinning the concepts of artistic knowledge and research
in Higher Education have contributed to this territorialization. In a milieu of overmanagement, these imbalances often go
unquestioned largely because of the university’s ever-decreasing role in interrogating the agenda set by others who stand to benefit from it
"Otro" Teatro Español: Supresión e Inscripción en la Escena Española de Los Siglos XX y XXI.
No full textA substantially revised and updated Spanish-language version of my 2003 monograph, ‘Other' Spanish theatres, this book looks at the trajectories of six key figures in twentieth and twenty-first century theatre. Arguing for a revisionist history of Spanish theatre that recognises the contributions made by actors and directors to our understanding of how theatre is made and travels across local, national and international borders, this is a book that asks questions about how history is constructed and made ‘official’.
I have made a fair number of changes to the original manuscript and rewritten much of it. Published in Spanish, it needs a slightly different context and I’ve wanted to ensure the work of practitioners still working is brought up to date. (I’m very grateful to the book’s diligent translator Mar Diestro-Dópido here!) There’s been some extraordinary work produced over the twenty-first century: Nuria Espert playing Lear at 80; La Cubana restaging an earlier hit in a very different socio-political context; Lluís Pasqual returning as Artistic Director of the Lliure. It was important to explore how trajectories develop and also how the legacy of practitioners who died in the previous century has shifted, as with Enrique Rambal’s recognition in Marcos Ordóñez’s 2002 novel Comedia con fantasmas and Casares’s influence 20 years after her death. Spain has changed also.
I rewrote the book during a recession that imposed VAT at 21% on theatre tickets, that cut state subsidy, and generated a leaner aesthetic in stagings. The value of culture was being questioned at a time when a large proportion of the population was unemployed and facing dire economic conditions. What role does theatre play during these times? How does it generate public debate? How does it present alternative viewpoints? In addition, issues of historical memory have gained a greater prominence and shaped how work is made and received. As the world changes so theatre changes too, it’s a living, breathing entity, a mirror on the society that produces it
Informal Learning in a Digital Landscape: A Higher Education Drama Conservatoire Case Study
No full textHuman beings are learning all the time. Regardless of whether or not they are enrolled in formal education, people are constantly learning from everyday experiences through problems they have solved and interactions they have encountered. Humans learn from family, friends, peers and colleagues as well as through their own natural curiosity. This informal learning is a powerful part of the learning experience, and is important to lifelong learners of all ages. Informal learning is important to education, in the workplace, during leisure activities and in social situations. The impact of informal learning is therefore quite considerable.
Formal learning in the classroom is well-documented and exhaustively researched, but is limited by the need for an expert to design and scaffold that learning space. Even non-formal (self-regulated or self-directed) learning involves a goal, or a specific aim, and is usually guided by a curriculum. In contrast, informal learning is generally lacking in a clearly defined aim, is rarely – if ever – assessed, and can occur in any environment, at any time, and by anyone. This book aims to highlight examples of the many different forms that informal learning can take, and to assess its impact on educational situations and on learning in the workplace.
Drawn from educational and workplace settings from expert contributors across the globe, the studies in this volume cover a broad range of environments and disciplines. Presented is a collection of case studies, expert reviews and original research, which illustrate different forms of informal learning, and provide examples of how the potential for informal learning can be harnessed in practice. From the experiences of workplace learners, adult learners, virtual learning communities, older learners, clinicians and volunteers, this volume addresses the role of informal learning in a variety of working and learning environments. By addressing the development of skills, identities, learning approaches and professional relationships, an impression of the role of informal learning in educational development is also highlighted. Finally, via examples of ubiquitous learning using mobile technologies, revisions to curricula, the use of games in learning, and the use of “pop-up schools”, this volume highlights how informal learning can be embedded in learning activities that lead to profound changes in how people see the world.
This book would be of interest to educators and managers alike, and aims to highlight that informal learning occurs all around us, and if we recognise it and its impact, then we can enhance our potential as lifelong learners and make work and educational environments richer and more effective
Theatre and Governance in Britain, 1500-1900: Democracy, Disorder and the State
No full textThis book begins with a simple observation - that just as the theatre resurfaced during the late Renaissance, so too government as we understand it today also began to appear. Their mutually entwining history was to have a profound influence on the development of the modern British stage. This volume proposes a new reading of theatre's relation to the public sphere. Employing a series of historical case studies drawn from the London theatre, Tony Fisher shows why the stage was of such great concern to government by offering close readings of well-known religious, moral, political, economic and legal disputes over the role, purpose and function of the stage in the 'well-ordered society'. In framing these disputes in relation to what Michel Foucault called the emerging 'art of government', this book draws out - for the first time - a full genealogy of the governmental 'discourse on the theatre'.
* Proposes a new reading of well-known controversies over the social history of the stage, allowing a better understanding of the complex interplay between theatre, politics, economics and government
* Presents a theoretical as well as historical methodology, using the tools of 'discourse analysis' and concept of 'governmentality' developed by Michel Foucault
* Offers a critical, systematic and historically-grounded reappraisal of the 'anti-theatrical prejudice' proposed by Jonah Barish, revealing that prejudice targeted 'common' tastes generally, rather than theatre as such
Read more at http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/arts-theatre-culture/british-theatre/theatre-and-governance-britain-15001900-democracy-disorder-and-state#XoM5tTH0phQJIeTi.9
