Studies in Theatre and Performance最新文献

ABSTRACT

This is part 1 of 3 of a conversation and a practice of listening about and speaking of composting grief. The exchange, between melissandre varin and Carmen Wong, was initiated via voice notes, voicemails, and WhatsApp recordings and was transcribed and composed/composted visually with illustrations by N. Drofiak.

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This contribution is a photo-essay comprising ten images of author’s actions (and ongoing project, Free Bitch / Fr33 b1tch) during lockdown in 2021 on Gadigal Land, Warrang.

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This article reflects on the special interests, friendships, tastes, and pleasures of those who are perceived as deviating from the norm, are labelled “activists”, and are expected to educate others on topics surrounding their own communities or marginalisations. This article creates a space of honesty in which one can exist beyond marginalisations.

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Place can shape and influence audience behavior during a performance. This is especially noticeable in the site-specific immersive theatre model, where the performance occurs in a non-theatre setting and audiences have an active role. In this article, we argue that ‘place schema’ – a term from the interdisciplinary field of environment-behavior studies – provides a conceptual framework for better understanding audience behavior within immersive theatre environments. We know how to behave in a theatre building because we have codified experiences regarding the environment in our minds called place schemata. They help us process spatial information, predict what is likely to happen, and decide how to take action accordingly. However, if this spatial information does not match the ‘theatre schema’ we have in our minds, as is often the case in an immersive theatre setting, we would need to update our existing schema. In this article, we examine Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More (2011 New York production, which is still running) to evaluate how audiences carry the behavioral rules of traditional theatre schema into immersive theatres and consider how expectations, roles, and rules of place influence the relationship between the audience and setting.

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A windy day in May in a small village Velo Grabje on top of the hill of the island of Hvar. A small, centuries old, chapel and a dry, dusty island’s landscape is the only mise en scene for the performance of the medieval saint play which is just about to take place in front of around 40 visitors. As the wind carries their entrance song and waves their costumes, long black and white black tunics, a group of well-coordinated men of all ages, deliver a well know story of the life and suffering of Saint Lawrence. They deftly pronounce the verses from the sixteenth century, largely incomprehensive to the contemporary ear. Yet the costumes which in a plain and accessible way distinguish the good from the evil personae (the Christians in white tunics, the pagans in black ones, obviously); the overemphasised gestures of these characters; along with the stage directions read aloud; render the plot easy to follow. The fact that for many visitors (me included), this is not the first time they witness the performance, but one in many stagings which they will have seen, only makes the apprehension of the plot easier. This is their play!

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Combining phenomenological methods with practice-based research, this article explores what and how directorial strategies influence stage presence. Drawing on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology and Joseph Chaikin’s idea of heightened awareness, in particular, it describes directorial strategies that can heighten awareness in the interdependent actor–audience relationship. Adopting the vocative method addresses the research questions by providing phenomenological descriptions of and reflections on the author’s lived experiences as a spectator and an actor. From first-person accounts of lived experience in performance, ‘giving and taking stimulation’ and performing ‘face-to-face’ prove to be two practical strategies for heightening awareness by placing the actor and spectator into each other’s perceptual focus, thereby enhancing stage presence.

ABSTRACT

This article approaches the idea of architecture, theatre and cultural democracy as relational concepts, and considers the theatre building as a cultural artefact which both manifests and embodies power relations. We use the case study of Liverpool’s PurpleDoor to explore this idea. We consider theatre buildings as cultural artefacts to focus attention on the impact of material or physical factors and the power of cultural institutions to orient specific forms of behaviour and activity around themselves. In seeing architectural design as an embodiment of politics, philosophy and cultural policy, the article considers both the practical and theoretical dimensions of the future of a theatre architecture concerned with cultural democracy. The interconnection between political ideas of theatre’s contemporary social role and the material construction of the building – the performative nature of the performance space – become vital in recognising and re-prioritising values designed to address the intersectional nature of power systems afflicting the cultural sector and enabling citizen usage of cultural space. The article situates PurpleDoor in an historical lineage which articulates the aspiration to become both a site for critical inquiry and a contemporary manifestation of cultural democracy for 21^st century British theatre.