1,720,963 research outputs found
The Boys of St Crispian
No full text<i>The Boys of St Crispian</i> is the first in a trilogy based on several years of research and investigation into young Australian male identity. This work is the culmination of an intensive development period in South America with the Brazilian theatre company Taanteatro, where those\ud
initial inspirations were taken and transformed through the evolutionary 'magic' of Theatre of Tensions — a method of theatre making invented by Taanteatro. At the time of writing, the second work <i>Nineteen</i> is in pre-production with a season scheduled at the <i>Brisbane Powerhouse</i> later in the year, and the third and final instalment, <i>Egbert</i>, is in one of many drafts to come. \ud
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The theme of identity formation, however, is the undeniable thread binding these works together. Born from concern of the dangerous behaviours often exhibited by\ud
young men as they attempt to replicate images of themselves drawn in the eyes of others; these works strive to articulate and highlight some of the issues faced by young males in attempting to define themselves in a world that often seems to bash against their desires and needs, ultimately shaping them into images of something they are not and were never meant to be
Articulating the inarticulate: Performance and intervention in masculine gender (re)presentation
No full textThere is an increasingly accepted connection between issues surrounding male identity and destructive and anti-social behaviours. These expressions of unhealthy notions of masculinity have been the focus of various initiatives and investigations into contemporary male health and wellbeing. Issues such as alcohol and drug abuse, violence against others, self-harm and suicide have been the subjects of official reports, research projects, social welfare campaigns and even television shows. The theatre, as a site for social intervention, can thus contribute to this increasing focus on, and attempts to shift, outdated and unhealthy understandings of 'what it means to be a man'.\ud
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This paper examines the interventionist nature of theatre to explore, unpack and attempt to alter perceptions of the contemporary Australian male identity through the fusing of Ethnotheatre, Ethnodrama and Theatre of Tensions. As a result, theatre can intercept long-held, traditional (re)presentations of masculinity in order to reinvent them, thereby offering perceptibly healthier alternatives to masculine ways of being
Carrie the Musical
No full textWhen Carrie the Musical first debuted in 1988 it (in)famously closed eight days later, earning the dubious title of being one of the biggest flops in the history of Broadway. This revived version of the work, the Queensland premiere of the production, presented at the Brisbane Powerhouse in January 2016, was a calculated experiment in the commercialisation of an historical flop into a contemporary success. Through collaboration between some of Brisbane's most promising young creatives, designers, choreographers musicians and performers, this production became one of the Brisbane Powerhouse's most successful shows and gained local, national and international recognition for its achievements. By pushing the boundaries of the most current trends in contemporary Australian directing and performance making, the creative team was able to draw on their innovative capacity as independent theatre makers to turn a once-maligned work into a modern-day financial and critical success
(Re)presenting Masculinity: A theatre director’s critical observations of, and theatrical experimentations with, (re)presentations of masculinity in selected works of contemporary Australian theatre
No full textThe “crisis of masculinity” has become a catchphrase synonymous with reports of alcohol-fuelled violence, depression and, even, suicide amongst Australian males, particularly young men aged between 18 and 30. This thesis explores, through the practices of theatre, the notion that there is a link between these kinds of destructive behaviours and the concept of masculinity, particularly as it may be understood in an Australian context. By analysing theatrical (re)presentations of young Australian males, onstage during performance and in the rehearsal room, this thesis seeks to generate a deeper understanding of what “masculinity” actually means in an Australian theatre context. By challenging mainstream constructions of masculinity, this study raises questions of change and subversion in identity impasses. Notions of masculinity are explored via staged (re)presentations of men in recent productions of contemporary Australian theatre: Ruben Guthrie by Brendan Cowell, Blackrock by Nick Enright and two new works created as part of this project, Yesterday’s Hero and FUCK!Dance. There is also a short foray into representations of masculinity and notions of nationhood in two Noël Coward productions, Ways and Means and Fumed Oak. The underlying argument is that masculinity is a performance, both onstage and off and, through manipulating how masculinity is (re)presented onstage, we may also begin to uncover how society more generally perceives masculinity. Such shifts begin to challenge/alter/subvert mainstream notions by encouraging critical reflection through theatre-makers and audiences about how we, as a society, may be encouraging our men to emulate an image of masculinity that could be causing them harm
Ma Ma Ma Mad
No full textMa Ma Ma Mad is an autobiographical work, written and performed by Singaporean-Australian theatre maker Merlynn Tong. This production, presented at the Brisbane Powerhouse in December 2015, was a multi-genre work incorporating aspects of Butoh, physical theatre, cabaret and contemporary monologue. More than an experiment in mixed performative forms, however, this particular production was also an exercise in inter-cultural collaboration as well as gender in (and of) performance. Heavily influenced by the creator's experiences growing up in urban Southeast Asia, the director's specialisation in contemporary Australian theatre and experience telling uniquely Australian stories worked to manipulate the form in an endeavour to succinctly speak to local audiences, without pandering to entrenched stereotypes or diluting the underlying Chinese-Singaporean themes. The success of this production was also somewhat of a personal challenge for the creatives, after being told by some of Brisbane's most influential theatre venues and festivals that they would rather not support the work because a) it was a one woman show, and b) it was a one woman show about an Asian woman; and therefore would not sell well. One very influential local producer even said that he already had a one-woman show about an Asian person programmed, so he couldn't possibly program another. Operating in such a biased and out-of-touch artistic environment was seen as an easy challenge for the artists involved, which resulted in a highly successful and critically acclaimed sell-out run of Ma Ma Ma Mad, followed by offers to tour the work nationally and internationally. As such, this production also stands as a practical example of the ingrained and patriarchal structures of the Australian arts scene, and how art can work to break down the very barriers that it has helped to construct through a lack of vision and diversity amongst its leaders
Appalling behaviour
No full text'Appalling Behaviour' is a critically acclaimed contemporary Australian monologue, written by AWGIE Award winning playwright, Stephen House. This production, directed and creatively adapted by Shane Pike, was presented at the Brisbane Powerhouse in February 2016, as part of Queensland's LGBTIQ festival, Melt. This adaptation of the work experimented with notions of gender, taking the original script and manipulating character and scene to investigate expressions of identity beyond the traditional notions of binary gender-norms. To this end, the sole character (and actor) was (re)presented as a homeless bi-sexual queen with the aim of inferring that gender un/ab-normative characters can exist not only as disruptors/comments on/agitators of traditional expectations of performed gender (both onstage and off), but can also exist as accepted characters in and of themselves. Put simply: can a bi-sexual queen just be an actor/character in a play, or do all gender extra-normative characters inherently exist as political, social and cultural challengers? If so, why is this the case and should we be aiming for this kind of character to be an accepted part of the performative fabric, seamless and fitting within any onstage situation and play (why can't Willy Loman, King Lear or Nora be gender non-normative), or should such (re)presentations always exist as 'different'? Is it time for individual expressions of gender to just 'be' and be accepted as givens, or are we not quite there yet
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Legacies of War--[Ten percent terror]
No full textTen Percent Terror brings together leading creatives from the fields of contemporary theatre, contemporary dance, music theatre, circus and digital arts in the first collaboration of its kind. Commissioned by Brisbane Powerhouse, with support from the Anzac Centenary Arts and Culture Fund and in partnership with Dancenorth and Company 2, this is an inter-disciplinary work that combines theatrical narrative with eloquent physicality, through circus and dance, to express certain truths of the soldiers' experience. This production will be a circus-narrative that uses the form and language of circus to express the key themes of risk, panic and brotherhood. Ten Percent Terror is intended to be a work of scale, yet also intimacy: of stillness and panic, inertia and chaos. Project partners, Dancenorth and Company 2, share the vision to use contemporary artistic disciplines to connect younger and modern audiences to the ANZAC legacy, perhaps offering a connection for those audiences that they may not find through more traditional art forms.\ud
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The development process has included a community research project in Townsville, conducted by Shane Pike, which explored contemporary Australians’ stories through interviews with serving military personnel and the local community, as well as collecting photographic documentation and other artefacts from around Townsville. This was followed by an archival research project in Brisbane, where Pike reviewed letters, photographs and personal accounts of soldiers from WW1. The results of these projects will be used by the creative team to inform the development of Ten Percent Terror.\ud
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Given Townsville’s reputation as Australia’s ‘garrison’ city, the project partners plan to deliver the world premiere performance of Ten Percent Terror in Townsville in late 2015. It is intended that Ten Percent Terror will receive its Brisbane premiere in November 2015 at Brisbane Powerhouse, as part of a four-performance season.\ud
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This expert panel included discussion of the project and its place in analysing key aspects of Australia's wartime history
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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