Theater and Performance Studies Research Papers (original) (raw)

The current museographical approach seems to go towards a form of interdisciplinarity, which leverages the encounter between visual and performing arts. From the Tate Gallery in London to the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, this dialogue not only gives rise to aesthetic experiences but also defines new forms of exhibitions: choreographed exhibitions. Within a migration from the black box to the white cube, the theatrical body becomes a work of art, through a process of objectivation. Likewise, the exhibition space turns into a hybrid place of creation. Through a kind of ontological negotiation between different art languages, the beholder is thus called into question: his participation is choreographed, as well as the very act of observation.

Lorenzo Mango, Studing acting during avantgards age. Some methodological
issues
The avantgard theatre of 1900 has changed completely the theatrical style,
counterposing the concepts of representation, the mise-en-scene and the
centrality of the literary text.
According to that, the concept of acting has changed deeply. New scenic
conditions didn't consider as important the problems connected with acting
a specific character and two new phenomena were born such as the change
of position of acting and the improvement of it.
The former considers the work of the actor as a physical action during the
development of the stories, not contemplating his interpretation of a
specific character. The latter is referred to the insertion of non-theatrical
phenomena in the world of acting such as dance, happening and
performance.
The main point of these procedures is the centrality of the presence,
considered as the most important thing concerning the actors.

- by lorenzo mango
- •
- Performing Arts, Theatre Studies, Theatre History, Performance Studies

One of the most powerful ways to remedy the forgetfulness that obscures ancient fragmentary drama, in other words to “establish remedies for forgetfulness” as Palamedes claims to have done for the Greeks in the fr. 578 from the homonymous but lost tragedy by Euripides, is to expose the ancient material to the circumstances of contemporary performance. The surviving fragments of ancient Greek dramas are pieces of text which by definition are out of context since they are dislocated parts of a traumatised ancient play: the connection between text and Trauma is considered to be both literal and metaphorical. Yet, there are elements of theatricality inherent to these fragments and this is why they have been used in contemporary performances in various ways and approaches. Theodoros Terzopoulos has used fragments of lost tragedies by Aeschylus to create the performance Epigonoi in 2003 which was first presented in Germany and then toured internationally. From a chorus of five men the suffering bodies of Achilles, Actaeon, Ajax, Heracles and Philoctetes stand out and expose the tragic fate of those who collide with the divine, while the female character of Europe watches the consequences of war, herself a victim of it. In this paper the use of ancient tragic fragments for the creation of contemporary performances will be discussed and evaluated whether it is an appropriate pathway to follow against letting ancient fragmentary drama be forgotten. After presenting and analysing Terzopoulos' Epigonoi, the performativity of fragments will be argued along with their suitability as theatrical material for contemporary dramaturgy that explores the issue of fragmentation in life and in the narrative and also the issue of Trauma itself.

Dramatic reality is a core concept in drama therapy, and perhaps also the most genuine feature of the field. All drama therapists draw on dramatic reality in some form, both in their clinical practice and in their theoretical thinking. This paper explores the concept of dramatic reality in drama therapy from a philosophical angle, in a way that is unattached to a particular model or a specific approach: first, the article defines the concept's scope and boundaries, with reference to its modes as informed by Schechner's notion of performance activities; then it describes the main features and properties of dramatic reality, while looking at their implications in a therapeutic setting. Finally, it points out the four main tasks that drama therapists are called on to perform in connection with dramatic reality.

- by Susana Pendzik
- •
- Psychology, Play Therapy, Psychodrama, Philosophy
- by Kathryn M . Syssoyeva
- •
- Theatre Studies, Theatre History, Postdramatic theatre, Devised Theatre

This book is available from Focal Press.

In her close professional relationship to composers, such as Luciano Berio, John Cage, Hans Werner Henze, Igor Stravinsky and Sylvano Bussotti, Cathy Berberian has productively tainted historical preconceptions about the authorial “work” and the role of the singer in the realization of the composer’s creation. Her flamboyant character on the concert stage, where she showcased her more popular work, captured the public’s imagination. The success of this performer–audience rapport was intrinsic to the singer’s performative persona; however Pieter Verstraete argues that through her own composed work ("Stripsody" is the best known), Berberian presented a myriad of personas. She achieved this primarily by deconstructing her own voice as instrument and object, thereby subverting the stability of her relationship to the authorial power of the musical score. Consequently, Berberian’s work invites us to rethink the authorial position of the composer in relation to the singer/performer as well as the enhanced position of the listener whose function it is to imagine such personas in relation to seeing and hearing the performer’s singing body over a number of changing instances.

- by Wolfgang Gruber and +1
- •
- Teaching and Learning, E-learning, Higher Education, Learning and Teaching

O presente trabalho vem contemplar em que medidas o conceito de Teatro Essencial, criado por Denise Stoklos, consegue se aproximar efetivamente das propostas originais da Arte Minimalista. Neste trabalho, deve-se compreender o Minimalismo em suas distintas expressões artísticas: cinema, teatro, literatura, pintura etc. Para isso, discutir-se-ão os pontos de encontro entre ambas as correntes artísticas com o objetivo de efetuar uma busca investigativa no horizonte de uma corrente pós-dramática brasileira, a qual hoje é objeto de estudo e exportação intelectual no exterior, como é o Teatro Essencial de Denise Stoklos. Assim, será possível compreender novas medidas investigativas nas perspectivas alternativas do teatro brasileiro contemporâneo.

- by Davi Giordano
- •
- Theatre Studies, Minimalism, Theatre Theory, Theatre
- by Joseph Cermatori
- •
- Queer Studies, Modernism (Literature), Dance Studies, Performance Studies

b e g i n n i n g i n sixteenth-century England, a distinct criminal culture of rogues, vagabonds, gypsies, beggars, cony-catchers, cutpurses, and prostitutes emerged and Xourished. This community was self-deWned by the criminal conduct and dissident thought promoted by its members, and oYcially deWned by and against the dominant preconceptions of English cultural normality. In this book I argue that this amalgamated criminal culture, consisting of a diverse population with much racial, ethnic, and etiological ambiguity, was united by its own aesthetic, ideology, language, and lifestyle. In eVect, this criminal culture constituted a subnation that illegitimately occupied material and conceptual space within the English nation. With its own laws and customs, it was both independent of and dependent on England's oYcial (mainstream) culture. It was selfgoverning but needed the law-abiding populace for food and shelter and as a social entity against which to deWne itself. I also argue that the enduring presence of this criminal culture markedly aVected the oYcial culture's aesthetic sensibilities, systems of belief, and socioeconomic organization. It was both conducted by and a conductor for what I call "transversal power." 1 Before describing my "transversal theory" that explains "transversal power" and accounts for the terms, methods, and arguments that drive this study, I want to consider, as a point of entrance, the remarkable resemblance between discussions of the sociohistorical actuality, representation, and inXuence of early modern England's organized crime and that c h a p t e r o n e

- by Bryan Reynolds
- •
- Critical Theory, Cultural History, Cultural Studies, English Literature

Sycorax shapes a powerful figure and narrative thread through colonial and postcolonial thinking. This essay, written in the 1990s, lays out some of the influential ways in which the figure of Sycorax influenced postcolonial feminist... more

Der Beitrag basiert auf einem Vortrag im Rahmen der Salzburger Festspiel-Dialoge 2012.
Er behandelt anlässlich der von Sven-Eric Bechtolf inszenierten Urfassung der Ariadne die Oper des Autorenduos Strauss/Hofmannsthal als Formexperiment unter folgenden thematischen und formalen Aspekten:
- Rezeptionsgeschichte des Ariadne-Mythos, wie sie dem Autorenduo Hofmannsthal und Strauss um 1900 vorlag,
- Kontrast zwischen den divergierenden Frauenfiguren Ariadne und Zerbinetta und ihren Lebenshaltungen
- Thematik der Verwandlung mit Bezug auf den Dionysos Mythos
- Komödie als Kunst der Kontraste.

Dieser Essay ist der Versuch eine konkrete Erfahrung mit einem künstlerischen Projekt zu beschreiben. Einem Projekt, das offensichtlich nachdenkt über unsere Kultur(en), unsere Zeit und sich als Inszenierung, als Theater–Performance mit der Inszeniertheit und Theatralität unserer alltäglichen Kultur selbst auseinandersetzt. Von dieser Erfahrung und meiner doppelten «Involviertheit» in dieses Projekt (als Zuschauerin und Regieassistentin) ausgehend möchte ich einige (Ein-)Sichten und Anregungen formulieren, die sich mir, vermutlich gerade durch diese «Involviertheit» in das Projekt, eröffnet haben.

- by Anja Schulthess
- •
- Aesthetics, Aesthetics and Politics, Theater and Performance Studies
- by Deirdre Barrett
- •
- History, Neuroscience, Media Sociology, Psychology

Machiavelli’s feminist interpreters have increasingly turned to his comedy La Mandragola to problematize the vision of “masculine” virtù and self-sufficiency often attributed to his thought. Insofar as La Mandragola problematizes this vision of political action, however, this chapter argues that readers need to interrogate another character type celebrated therein: that of the detached yet unfailingly perceptive advisor whose depiction as La Mandragola’s chief strategist, Ligurio, is almost universally taken to stand in for Machiavelli himself. In investigating the place of women’s labor in Machiavelli’s oeuvre, I seek to question this analogy. To do so, I turn to re-examine the details behind La Mandragola’s authorship and performance, arguing that key sections of La Mandragola were in fact co-written by Machiavelli and Barbera Salutati, a Florentine singer and actress chiefly remembered as Machiavelli’s “love interest” in current-day scholarship, yet whose actual contribution to Machiavelli’s intellectual work goes largely unnoticed. Revisiting La Mandragola as a co-written and co-produced text raises significant political theoretic concerns. Specifically, I argue that the contextual dynamics of co-authorship challenge readers to question the rhetorical presentation of the masterful strategist—of Ligurio as Machiavelli—in their understanding of “Machiavellian” political agency.

- by Boris Litvin
- •
- Political Theory, Feminism, Machiavelli, Theater and Performance Studies

Ausgehend von Jacques Rancières Überlegungen zu „Der unwissende Lehrmeister: fünf Lektionen über die intellektuelle Emanzipation“ (2007) und „Der emanzipierte Zuschauer“ (2008) interessiert sich diese internationale und interdisziplinäre Tagung für die epistemologische Erkundung, die Hinterfragung sowie die Neuperspektivierung der Zuschauenden- und Rezeptionspositionen in Bezug auf die Potentialität von Theater und Performancekünsten in reflexiven und inklusiven Gesellschaften.

- by Koku G. Nonoa
- •
- Gender Studies, Performing Arts, Dance Studies, Disability Studies

El 5 de julio de 2019 falleció el dramaturgo Ricardo Monti, un activo partícipe de los movimientos culturales que se desarrollaron en oposición a la última dictadura cívico-militar. Un autor provocador estéticamente, un agudo crítico social y un tejedor constante de redes de solidaridad. En este caso buscaremos recorrer algunas de las coordenadas de su trayectoria, particularmente su producción y compromiso en el marco de la última dictadura cívico-militar.

- by Rosanna Raymond
- •
- Economics, Globalization, Indigeneity, Postcolonial Theatre

Die Masterarbeit beschäftigt sich dem Phänomen des Publikums unter dem Aspekt der Inszenierung. Sie untersucht zunächst die Begriffs- und Erscheinungsgeschichte von "Publika" in den bildenden und darstellenden Künsten sowie der Theaterwissenschaft. In einem zweiten Teil werden zeitgenössische Inszenierungen analysiert, die das Publikum explizit als Teil der Inszenierung der Aufführung begreifen.

- by Felix Worpenberg
- •
- Audience, Partizipation, Audience Participation, Theater and Performance Studies
- by Bryan Reynolds
- •
- Critical Theory, European Studies, Performing Arts, Theatre Studies

Precies twee jaar na de mislukte coup tegen Erdoğan vaardigde het Turkse regime op 15 juli 2018 een decreet uit dat de autonomie van alle kunstenaars aan staatsinstellingen aan banden legt. Het is een zoveelste aanval tegen de vrije kunsten in Turkije, terwijl de politieke ruimte intussen één groot theater lijkt te worden. Wat staat er tussen de macht en het verzet op het spel?

- by Pieter Verstraete
- •
- Censorship, Theatre History, Protest, Turkey And Europe

The theatre buildings of Takieh Dowlat existed once in Tehran and the Royal Albert Hall in London has certain resemblance the firs glance. In the presented article discussed the matter of architectural documentation of both buildings in order to reveal the methodical features of the mentioned buildings. Actually as much the buildings are look like to each other, any case they are different in architectural aspects of comparison held below For that reason in the passage are documented both of the buildings and compared in the solutions of planar, Façade, volumetric and space compositions, as well as typological parts included: lobby, hall, stage, auxiliary rooms etc.

- by Sarah Malek
- •
- Theater and Performance Studies

In questo saggio dedicato alla teoria della comunicazione teatrale, Elena Marino (Università di Trento) riprende in considerazione il rapporto tra testo e rappresentazione, attarversamento un ripensamento della Poetica di Aristotele e delle forme di composizione e fruizione delle opere teatrali. Il testo teatrale nasce in simbiosi con la comunicazione visuale e solo in seguito trova una riduzione a testo scritto destinato alla lattura: un fatto, questo, che ha indebitamente sminuito la rilevanza dell'opsis, e che spesso ha portato a non comprendere nella giusta prospettiva le indicazioni di Aristotele sul teatro.

- by Elena R. Marino
- •
- Greek Literature, Drama, Greek Theatre, Drama and Theater
- by Alessandro Lattanzi
- •
- Music History, Opera, Eighteenth-Century Music, Naples
- by Garrett Eisler
- •
- Musical Theatre, Theatre Studies, Theatre History, Modern American Theatre

Εξετάζεται το έθιμο των παραστάσεων της Πάρου κατά τη Μεγάλη Παρασκευή, όπου οι κάτοικοι των χωριών (Μάρπησσα και Λεύκες, κυρίως) γίνονται σκηνοθέτες και ηθοποιοί και αναπαριστούν τα Πάθη του Χριστού σε ζωντανές αυτοσχέδιες σκηνές (tablaux vivants) που στήνουν σε κεντρικά σημεία του χωριού. Η μελέτη στηρίζεται σε επιτόπια έρευνα του Πεφάνη για το Κέντρο Ερεύνης της Ελληνικής Λαογραφίας της Ακαδημίας Αθηνών, κατά την οποία συνελέχθησαν πληροφορίες από αυτόπτες μάρτυρες, αλλά και από τους διοργανωτές των παραστάσεων, σχετικά με το παρελθόν του εθίμου, τη σύνδεσή του με την τοπική κοινωνία, τη συμμετοχή των κατοίκων και το ενδιαφέρον τους για τον λαϊκό πολιτισμό της ιδιαίτερης πατρίδας τους. Διαπιστώνεται ότι το έθιμο βρίσκεται στο μεταίχμιο ανάμεσα στο φοκλόρ και την αυθεντική λαϊκή παράδοση, τη θρησκευτική λατρεία και το λαϊκό θέατρο. Η έρευνα απέδειξε ότι ενώ στα παλαιότερα χρόνια, τα θέματα που οπτικοποιούσαν οι παραστάσεις ήταν λιγότερα, με την πάροδο του χρόνου και την καλύτερη οργάνωση του εθίμου αυξάνονταν, με αποτέλεσμα να ανέρχονται πλέον σήμερα σε δώδεκα (Aνάσταση του Λαζάρου, Bαϊφόρος, Νυπτήρ, Mυστικός Δείπνος, Πόντιος Πιλάτος, το όρος των Eλαιών, Γολγοθάς, Aπαγχονισμός του Iούδα, Σταύρωση, Aποκαθήλωση, Eπιτάφειος Θρήνος, Aνάσταση) και να προσελκύουν το ενδιαφέρον των ντόπιων, αλλά και πολλών τουριστών. Επίσης, ενώ παλαιότερα τα κοστούμια ήταν αυτοσχέδια και ο φωτισμός αρκείτο σε κεριά ή λάμπες πετρελαίου, σήμερα τα κοστούμια έχουν ως πρότυπά τους τις ενδυμασίες από τις ιερές εικόνες, ενώ για τους φωτισμούς χρησιμοποιούνται πλέον ειδικοί προβολείς κρυμμένοι γύρω από το σκηνικό της κάθε παράστασης. Ως προς το ιστορικό και θεαρολογικό περιβάλλον, μέσα στο οποίο εντάσσονται οι παραστάσεις της Πάρου, τα προβλήματα είναι πολλά και ο ερευνητής δεν μπορεί παρά να επιχειρήσει μια πρώτη μόνο προσέγγιση. Εντοπίζονται πάντως τρεις σημαντικοί σταθμοί: το θρησκευτικό θέατρο του δυτικού Mεσαίωνα, η θεατρική δραστηριότητα των καθολικών θρησκευτικών ταγμάτων και των ορθόδοξων φροντιστηρίων και το κυκλαδίτικο θέατρο κατά την Aντιμεταρρύθμιση. Tο θέμα βεβαίως δεν εξαντλείται εδώ. Xρειάζεται απαιτητικότερη έρευνα σε παλαιότερες εποχές στην Πάρο και στις Kυκλάδες γενικότερα, αλλά και μια συγκριτική μελέτη των παριανών παραστάσεων με τις αντίστοιχες τελετές της καθολικής Eυρώπης, των Φιλιππίνων και της Λατινικής Aμερικής.

- by George P . Pefanis
- •
- Cultural Studies, Folklore, Performance Studies, Folk Theatre

The paper investigates different constructions of space in Christoph Schlingensief’s theatrical work, exploring connections with Frederick Kiesler’s thoughts on theatre, space and movement. It considers Kiesler’s most important conceptions, including the Raumbühne (1924), his vision of the Endless House, the Universal, and his theory of ‚Correalism‘. Against this background, the paper describes Schlingensief’s spatial arrangements as flowing spaces which connect architectural and cinematic modes of perception.

- by Teresa Kovacs
- •
- Theatre Studies, Theater and film, Avant-Garde Theater, Experimental Theatre

Absent-space: Areas unmarked by articulation or determination. The "absence" may be physical (existing on subterranean levels), historical (gaps or caesuras of archived narratives) or epistemological (the absent source from unexplained phenomena). Absent-spaces or traces thereof, often in relation to articulatory spaces, can spark investigations and travel, opening new avenues of experience, sensation, and thought.

- by Bryan Reynolds
- •
- Critical Theory, Theatre Studies, Self and Identity, Design (Theatre Studies)

Atmosphären sind fragile Dinge. Dennoch werden wir kontinuierlich von ihnen beeinflusst. Gelegentlich sind wir in der Lage, eine Atmosphäre zu erzeugen, öfter aber erleben wir sie und lassen uns auf sie ein. In dieser Schrift möchte ich einen allgemeinen Blick auf das Thema der Atmosphären im Kunstfeld richten, ein Thema, welches uns direkt zum Szenischen und zur Gesellschaft des Spektakels führt. Des weiteren möchte ich auf den Einfluss der Oper auf die bildende Kunst verweisen und werde mich unter anderem auch mit den Gewinnerinnen der letzten zwei Biennali di Venezia auseinandersetzen; Anne Imhof (*1978) und Lina Lapelytė (*1984). Von diesen Beispielen aus gelangen wir wir zum eigentlichen Kern dieser Schrift; die Psychogeographie in der Kunst. Zur Feststellung werde ich mich an Landkarten von Video-Games sowie der Loci-Methode bedienen, Begriffe wie Raumerfahrung und Gesamtkunstwerk schließen sich von alleine an. Die Problematik des Mentalen Raumgefühls wird zur wichtigen Frage dieser Schrift, die ich so gut wie möglich untersuchen möchte. Die folgende Arbeit, die als Abschluss einer fünfjährigen Erfahrung meines Lebens dient, schlägt den Takt für meine späteren künstlerischen Recherchen.

- by William Egginton
- •
- Film Studies, Film Theory, Theater and film, Theater and Performance Studies
- by Ingrid Maier and +1
- •
- 17th-C. Broadsides, Theater and Performance Studies, German-Russian Relations, History of the Theater

Tagen von 17 Uhr bis Mitternacht auf einer Rundbühne in der Eingangshalle des New Yorker Guggenheim Museums auf, um dort, so hieß es in der Ankündigung, an den ersten sechs Abenden ein Reenactment je einer Performance aus den 1960er oder 70er Jahren zu präsentieren und diese als Seven Easy Pieces betitelte Veranstaltungsreihe am letzten Abend mit einer neuen Produktion abzuschließen. Neben fünf Reenactments der Performances von Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, VALIE EXPORT, Gina Pane und Joseph Beuys stand auch das Reenactment einer ihrer eigenen Performances -Lips of Thomas (1975) -auf dem Programm. Wie der Pressemitteilung zu entnehmen war, ging es Abramović mit diesem Projekt zum einen um die erneute Realisierung von einigen wegweisenden Arbeiten aus der Geschichte der Performance Art und zum anderen um die gleichzeitige mediale Dokumentation dieser Realisierungen. Die Idee, Performances erneut aufzuführen, taucht in Abramovićs Werk seit längerem auf. Schon in Biography (seit 1992) hat sie Elemente und Topoi ihrer früheren Arbeiten aufgegriffen, verknüpft und neu kontextuiert. Mit der Interpretation von Performances anderer Künstlerinnen und Künstler begab sie sich nun allerdings auf persönliches Neuland.

- by Sandra Umathum
- •
- Performance Art, Reenactment, Marina Abramovic, Theater and Performance Studies
- by Freddie Rokem and +1
- •
- Theatre Studies, Performance Studies, Walter Benjamin, Franz Kafka

Estrangement, making strange, theater, embodiment, awareness, aesthetic politics, Soviet

On December 20, 2015, the Palace Theatre announced the casting of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a new play by Jack Thorne, based on a story by Potter creator J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Thorne himself. Set nineteen years in the future, the play introduces theatre into the Harry Potter universe, 1 though the Wizarding World of Harry Potter areas of Universal Studios theme parks have long featured live performances. While news from London's theatre district, the West End, rarely instigates an international cause célèbre, this announcement delighted and surprised Harry Potter fans around the world in its casting of Numa Dumezweni as the strong-willed female lead, Hermione Granger. An accomplished British actress born in Swaziland to South African parents, Dumezweni would become the second actress to portray Hermione following Emma Watson's star-making turn in the eight Harry Potter films produced by Warner Bros between 2001 and 2011. Unlike Watson, however, Dumezweni was black. The ensuing controversy provides a productive inroad into examining race in the world of Harry Potter, not only for the questions it raises about the authorship and ownership of popular texts, but also for the specific constraints and attendant cultures that come with media and its afterlife. Adapting a print text for the stage means entering a new medium and, in the process, a new culture of common practices and expectations, both of the artists and of the audience. This chapter explores these nuances to complicate our understanding of not only the decision to cast Dumezweni, but to further understand how race operates across the Harry Potter universe and media culture more broadly. Though I am a White critic, I ground my discussion of this controversy in the commentaries, critiques, and theories developed by scholars of color so that I might challenge received accounts of this evocative moment in Harry Potter fandom. I will examine this case study through three different lenses: the cultural differences between film and theatre as media and industries; the enduring debate over " colorblind casting " (hereafter, nontraditional casting) in the theatre, 2 in particular, but gradually more across media culture; and the increasingly visible tension between authorship and ownership of popular texts that takes places online in what Henry Jenkins has called " convergence culture " —that is, to borrow from the subtitle of his landmark book, " where old and new media collide. " In so doing, I drawn upon and expand our understanding of race and media through a critical examination of the Harry Potter universe, the culture industries, and convergence culture. 1 I use " the Harry Potter universe " to encompass the world of Harry Potter, which includes the seven books, but also the supplemental books, films, online materials in Pottermore, theme park attractions, and other extensions that further develop the world in the spirit of transmedia storytelling, all under the supervision of J. K. Rowling. 2 Though " colorblind casting " is often used across the culture industries to discuss the practice of casting white roles or roles where race is not specified with actors of colors, I will use " nontraditional casting " because not only does it encompass casting practices beyond questions of race, but it conscientiously avoids the casual ableism of the term. I will only use the term hereafter when quoting others.

- by Peter C . Kunze
- •
- Theatre Studies, Race and Ethnicity, Media Industries, Theater and film

Throughout the ages, from ancient Greek theatre to the postmodern, acting styles have been changing, adapting and developing. In order to understand what these approaches meant to both performer and audience, it is important to understand the various theories of the self which inform these approaches to acting. By delving into the assumptions about the self that underlie any approach to acting we can reveal that such theories are not absolute or universal, but on the contrary, are informed by practitioners' changing cultural, historical and personal contexts. Arjun Appadurai in his "topographies", Phillip Zarrilli in his "implicit theories of the self", Joseph Roach in his discussion of celebrity and stardom in America as being privileged above text and even performance , and Thomas Khun, are all theorists who have attempted to identify and explicate the phenomenon of changing epistomologies in their re-evaluation of their respective disciplines. Two approaches to acting which can be informed and explained by such theories are: Vsevolod Meyerhold’s system of Biomechanics in Bolshevic Russia, and Lee Strasberg's Method in the USA. Both The Method, and Biomechanics, although in many ways diametrically opposed, developed systems of acting which assumed an empirical and objective science of absolute self that was accepted as a given in the Platonic dualism of mind and body.

- by Jessica Holmlund
- •
- Theatre Studies, Performance Studies, Biomechanics, Theater and film

"When cinema began, there was a worldwide prophecy: "The theater is going to die!" And later on television arose. Immediately, other prophets announced that television would be the end of theater. Notice how the theater lives upon deaths and resurrections. From time to time, someone comes along to deliver its death certificate. But the theater is alive, the theater is a most salubrious cadaver."
- Nelson Rodrigues

- by Sarah J. Townsend
- •
- Brazilian Studies, Theater and film, Nelson Rodrigues, Brazilian Theatre

This paper discusses Japanese director Sakurai Daizou's theatre productions known as the "tent theatre," a genre which first emerged during the Tokyo student movement in the late 1960s. The study focuses on Sakurai's collaborative productions, particularly the theatre's style and politics. Japanese tent theatres are distinctive in their combination of itinerary performance and temporary, guerrilla stage arrangement. Sakurai's theatre is a descendent of this tradition of political theatre; however, it departs from the other postmodernist Japanese aesthetics of the 1960s and 1970s while rendering folklores mixed in avant-garde abstract fragmentations as its signature dramaturgy. This essay discusses Sakurai's unique insistence on collaborative productions in light of the international theatre network he and his troupe members established in Taiwan and Beijing since the early 1990s. The discussion of Sakurai's collaborative art practice will contribute to the conversation on the post-1968 generation of socially engaged art from a non-European perspective, challenging the scope related to the problem of reification.