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'Out Vile Jelly': Sarah Kane's 'Blasted' & Shakespeare's 'King Lear'
No full textSarah Kane's notorious 1995 debut, Blasted, has been widely though belatedly recognized as a defining example of experiential or ‘in-yer-face’ theatre. However, Graham Saunders here argues that the best playwrights not only innovate in use of language and dramatic form, but also rewrite the classic plays of the past. He believes that too much stress has been placed on the play's radical structure and contemporary sensibility, with the effect of obscuring the influence of Shakespearean tradition on its genesis and content. He clarifies Kane's gradually dawning awareness of the influence of Shakespeare's King Lear on her work and how elements of that tragedy were rewritten in terms of dialogue, recast thematically, and reworked in terms of theatrical image. He sees Blasted as both a response to contemporary reality and an engagement with the history of drama. Graham Saunders is Senior Lecturer in Theatre Studies at the University of the West of England, Bristol, and author of the first full-length study of Kane's work: ‘Love Me or Kill Me’: Sarah Kane and the Theatre of Extremes (Manchester University Press, 2002). An earlier version of this article was given as a paper at the ‘Crucible of Cultures: Anglophone Drama at the Dawn of a New Millennium’ conference in Brussels, May 2001. Saunders is currently working on articles about Samuel Beckett and Edward Bon
"New heads on the block" : case studies of transition to primary headship
No full textThis study contributes to an understanding of the process of transition to primary headship. It examines, from the perspectives of three headteachers, their experiences over the first year as they make the transition to the formal leadership position of headteacher. Their transition is documented through individual case studies in order to highlight the importance of context in school leadership, and analysed further to identify significant emerging themes across the case studies in greater depth. The enquiry has taken place at a time of increasing difficulty in recruitment to headship. As such it presents a relevant contemporary commentary of relevance to practitioners, researchers and policy makers. The study examines, through an interrogation of the literature, factors that influence transition to headship and the two key and inter-related dimensions of the enquiry : the nature of contemporary primary school headship, particularly in the context of school leadership, and the process of transition to headship. This reveals a job rich in complexity and challenge, with the transition of newcomers relatively under researched. Against the background of the literature review, a structure that adopts a grounded theory approach for the research is developed and explained. This qualitative interpretive stance traces the perspectives of the newly appointed headteachers through a total of 12 in-depth interviews. Each interview was reconstructed by the researcher and shared with participants for validation of interpretation to form the basis of the research data. This was then analysed in two stages, firstly to identify the main emerging themes for the case studies, and secondly to identify the main themes for the overall analysis: professional and organisational socialisation; school effectiveness and school improvement and the emotional dimension of headship. The study concludes by reflecting both upon the research findings and outcomes and the identification of the main professional implications of the enquiry.</p
In the Name of the Author: Samuel Beckett, Sarah Kane, and Their Disputed Italian Productions
No full textThis chapter looks at some controversial Italian productions of Beckett’s and Kane’s work with a view to exploring the potential for copyright protection to operate as a covert form of censorship, a means not only to regulate access to theatre scripts but to actively control their interpretation. It considers, in particular, two paradigmatic episodes: the interrupted run, in 2003, of Pippo Delbono’s free take on Sarah Kane’s '4.48 Psychosis', and the prohibition issued by the Beckett Estate on Roberto Bacci’s casting of twin sisters for his 2006 production of 'Waiting for Godot' in Pontedera.
These examples draw attention to the use of licensing as a means of extending the writer’s control from the domain of text into that of performance; as a way, that is, of reasserting the agency of writing in the supposedly independent practice of scenic interpretation. Through a joint discussion of the two disputed productions, the chapter explores their far-reaching implications for the question of intellectual property in the theatre, contributing to a more nuanced view of censorship and its operations in the field of performance
Molecular dynamics or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the membrane
No full textThe rise of antibiotic resistant bacterial species is an international problem. The structure, function and dynamic behaviour of the bacterial cell envelope must be thoroughly understood in order to design novel antimicrobial molecules. This thesis presents the use of molecular dynamics techniques to investigate the function of the Gram-negative outer membrane enzyme LpxR, as well as the subsequent effect of the protein on the dynamics of the outer membrane. LpxR covalently modifies a constituent of the outer membrane, lipopolysaccharide, which can modulate the immune response of the host. Simulations enabled the identification of a putative closed conformation for the protein, as well as a secondary ion binding site. These observations led to the proposition of an evaluated catalytic mechanism for the membrane enzyme.The effect of lipopolysaccharide deacylation on wider membrane properties and dynamics was also investigated. Deacylated lipopolysaccharide induced positive curvature on the membrane when in distinct patches; cardiolipin phospholipids also clustered in areas of the inner leaflet corresponding with the patches of deacylated lipopolysaccharide in the outer leaflet. The application of an electric field to these modified membranes identified structural weaknesses at the interface between deacylated and wildtype lipopolysaccharide. Electroporation of the outer membrane model with OmpA embedded was also performed, and these simulations indicated that the presence of integral proteins may cause localised weakness in the membrane. Finally, the interactions between polymyxin B1, an antimicrobial peptide, and the outer membrane were examined, to gain a further understanding of how the molecule infiltrates the Gram-negative cell envelope. The peptides were observed to permeate through both the outer and inner membrane models, resulting in phospholipid flipflopping, thereby degrading the lipid asymmetry of the outer membrane. Data presented here provide the basis for an updated self-promoted uptake mechanism of cellular infiltration for polymyxin B1
Heartbeat Horizon: Saunders\u27s Presentation to Executive Board of Directors Sept. 2012
No full textSpeech/presentation by Saunders to the Board of Directors. Outlines how Heartbeat changed Saunders\u27s view of God, Jesus, the Bible, and the church; the importance of vision and the compelling drive of Heartbeat\u27s vision; and a proposal for Heartbeat for the next three years of 2012-2015 and the role Saunders feels he should play. Future goals include a book Saunders wants to author, a Heartbeat Institute, and a plan for laying up content and marketing it to a wide audience.
Typed presentation also contains notes and revisions handwritten by Saunders
British Women Playwrights: Censorship and Self-censorship in the Romantic period
No full textBuilding on ground-breaking studies on Romantic-period women playwrights, this chapter delves into a pivotal cultural dynamic characterising the period spanning from the 1770s to the 1820s. On the one hand, numerous women playwrights utilized the stage as a public arena to challenge the tension between public ethics and domestic ideology. On the other hand, constrained by gender-biased societal norms, these writers were aware of the need to employ cautionary strategies and resort to forms of moral and political revision. These adaptive measures included the subtle incorporation of socio-political issues veiled in the language of sentiment, the adoption of pseudonyms or anonymity, the exploration of genre hybridity. and the strategic use of paratexts to cloak audacity beneath self-justificatory and apologetic tones. After an overview of key critical debates in the field, the chapter will provide examples of (self)-censorship in the female theatrical production between the 1770s to the 1820s. By shedding light on the indirect forms of self-censorship employed by female playwrights, the essay underscores the necessity of revisiting censorship history, considering both the silencing of the female dramatic voice and the abiding erasure of female dramatic history from official records
Photograph of Benk Green and Tom B. Saunders III at Saunders Ranch Museum
No full textPhotograph at the Saunders Ranch Museum of author Benk Green and Tom B. Saunders III
Book review: British theatre companies: from fringe to mainstream, edited by Graham Saunders and John Bull
No full textReview of: British theatre companies: 1965–1979. CAST, The People Show, Portable Theatre, Pip Simmons Theatre Group, Welfare State International, 7:84 Theatre Companies, edited by John Bull. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2016; ISBN: 9781408175439 (£21.99).
British theatre companies: 1980–1994. Joint Stock, Gay Sweatshop, Complicite, Forced Entertainment, Women's Theatre Group, Talawa, edited by Graham Saunders. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2016; ISBN: 9781408175484 (£21.99).
British theatre companies: 1995–2014. Mind the Gap, Kneehigh Theatre, Suspect Culture, Stan's Cafe, Blast Theory, Punchdrunk, edited by Liz Tomlin. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2016; ISBN: 9781408177273 (£21.99)Publisher PD
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