Exception and the Rule: Agamben, Stuff Happens, and Representation in the Post-Truth Age

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-72
Author(s):  
Alex D. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Performing Arts ◽  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Political Theatre ◽  
Theatre Studies ◽  
Ethical Authorship ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
The University ◽  
Artistic Director ◽  
Invasion Of Iraq

The contemporary post-truth environment imposes limitations and ethical consid erations upon the political theatre-maker’s ability to highlight political leaders’ exceptional acts of deception. By unpacking and applying Giorgio Agamben’s writing on the State of Exception to post-truth political performances, Alex D. Wilson discusses in this article how political deception is an exceptional act of sovereign power and how the state of exception is an inherently performative phenomenon. The inherent challenges this state of affairs presents to the theatre are discussed with particular reference to David Hare’s Stuff Happens (2004), which, it is argued, falls into its own state of exception in terms of its approach to truth. Alex D. Wilson is a PhD candidate in Theatre Studies at the University of Otago, who recently completed an MA which explored ethical authorship of British theatrical work produced in response to the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. He is the artistic director of Arcade, a Dunedin-based performing arts company.

scholarly journals The Opera House in Damascus and the ‘State of Exception’ in Syria

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziad Adwan
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Design Features ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Totalitarian Regime ◽  
Theatre Studies ◽  
Opera House ◽  
Dramatic Arts ◽  
Artistic Director ◽  
The Relationship

In this article Ziad Adwan examines the relationship between the Opera House in Damascus and the Al-Assad dynasty. Hafez Al-Assad ordered the building of the Opera House but it remained unfinished at his death. His son Bashar opened it after three decades of construction. Leaving the institution unfinished was, it is argued here, due to uncertainty regarding its identity, place in the bureaucratic hierarchy, and meaning in a totalitarian regime. Theatre institutions were driven to take oppositional positions against one another, and the Opera House intensified the enmity. No theatres were built during the reign of Hafez Al-Assad, and while the Opera House was a hope for many Syrians, it also played a role in dividing them. Adwan concludes that the exceptional design features and location of the Opera House have marked its activities and that in relation to the Al-Assad dynasty it has become a critical focus in the Syrian war. Ziad Adwan is a theatre practitioner, who completed his PhD in Theatre Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. He taught at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus (2009–2013) and has acted in plays and films, as well as working as a director. He was the artistic director of Invisible Stories, a series of street theatre events in different places in Damascus. Adwan is currently affiliated with the Global Theatre Histories research project at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich.

Inverting the Formula: Devising through Adaptation

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 240-253
Author(s):  
Frank Camilleri
Keyword(s):  
Performing Arts ◽  
Associate Professor ◽  
First Century ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Theatre Studies ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Performance Project ◽  
Or Organization ◽  
The University ◽  
Artistic Director

Adaptation in contemporary performance takes on different forms and engages various strategies. In this article, Frank Camilleri explores the subject in terms of compositional devising via his practice as research in the area. He considers adaptation as a process of adjustment and modification that occurs at the level of format or organization, and which results from a change in context. He proposes terminological and structural frameworks, namely types, movements, modes, and phases of adaption. These taxonomies are then subsequently exemplified through three case studies from the author's performance and pedagogical work. Frank Camilleri is Associate Professor in Theatre Studies at the University of Malta, where he is Director of the School of Performing Arts and leads P21 (Performance 21), the research centre for Twenty-first Century Studies in Performance. He is Artistic Director of Icarus Performance Project and co-edits the Routledge/Icarus ‘Theatre as a Laboratory’ series.

‘Yours Neutrally, Habitational Action’: Performance between Theatre and Dance

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-263
Author(s):  
Frank Camilleri
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Associate Professor ◽  
Actor Training ◽  
Central Aspect ◽  
Theatre Studies ◽  
The Cross ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Performance Project ◽  
The University ◽  
Artistic Director

A milestone development in a practice-as-research investigation led to the identification of ‘habitational action’ as a term that resists a priori restrictions of inner–outer problematics when discussing performer processes. In this article Frank Camilleri cross-references the term with ‘neutral action’ to locate it conceptually and historically; first with Jacques Lecoq's pedagogical mask work, and then with Yvonne Rainer's conceptualization of the ‘neutral doer’. The cross-referencing to specific theatre and dance contexts is also intended to problematize psychophysicality as a central aspect of current actor training discourse. Frank Camilleri is Associate Professor in Theatre Studies at the University of Malta and Artistic Director of Icarus Performance Project. In 2007 he co-founded Icarus Publishing with Odin Teatret and the Grotowski Institute. He is also Visiting Professor in Theatre and Performance at the University of Huddersfield.

THE NINA VANCE ALLEY THEATRE PAPERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON LIBRARIES SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

2008 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-128
Author(s):  
Tammy Ravas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
The United States ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
University Of Houston ◽  
Special Collections ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The University ◽  
Artistic Director

The University of Houston (UH) Libraries' Special Collections possesses several groups of papers and other items related to theatre and the performing arts, one of which is the Nina Vance Alley Theatre Papers. These items were donated to Special Collections in 2000. What follows is a brief biography of Nina Vance and history of the Alley as well as some highlights of items contained within this collection. Nina Vance was the Alley's first artistic director, from 1947 until her death in 1980. Along with Margo Jones and Zelda Fichandler, she helped shape the American regional-theatre movement in the later twentieth century. During her tenure at the Alley she directed 102 plays, produced 245 shows, and was awarded major grants, including significant funding from the Ford Foundation. Despite Vance's achievements in these areas, as well as in establishing the Alley as a respected theatre in the United States and across the world, few works of scholarship exist on her career. This could be partially due to the fact that many primary sources on the Alley Theatre and its founder, such as those found at the UH Libraries' Special Collections, have not been well publicized.

scholarly journals Projektarbejde og akademisk IT-skoling

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (15) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Heilesen ◽  
Søren Davidsen
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
International Research ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
The State ◽  
Project Work ◽  
Digital Competence ◽  
Actual Range ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
The University

Artiklen redegør for en kortlægning i 2015 af de studerendes brug af IT-værktøjer i forbindelse med projektarbejde på Roskilde Universitet. På grundlag af en spørgeskemaundersøgelse samt interviews med 12 studerende forklares anvendelsen af IT-værktøjer i projektarbejdets forskellige faser. Som ramme for undersøgelsen diskuteres begrebet ”akademisk digital skoling”, og der trækkes linjer til internationale undersøgelser, som synes at bekræfte, at studerende reelt bruger et fåtal af IT-værktøjer, og at disse i hovedsagen ikke er udviklet til akademiske formål. Undersøgelsens resultater sammenholdes med det udvalg af IT-værktøjer, universitetet stiller til rådighed for ansatte og studerende. Afslutningsvis diskuteres de mulige årsager til tingenes tilstand, samt hvordan det vil være muligt at hæve niveauet af den akademiske digitale skoling. This paper introduces a 2015 survey of Roskilde University students' use of IT-tools in project work. Based on a survey and qualitative interviews, the use of IT-tools in various phases of project work is illustrated and discussed. The concept "academic digital competence" is introduced as a framework for the study, and parallels are drawn to international research confirming that students tend to use only a limited number of IT-tools, the majority of which were not developed for academic purposes. The survey results are compared to the actual range of IT-tools that the university offers freely to faculty and students. In conclusion, the authors discuss the reasons for the state of affairs and how to strengthen academic digital competences.

Hospitality and the Ethics of Improvisation in the Work of Ingemar Lindh

2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 246-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Camilleri
Keyword(s):  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
History Of ◽  
Theatre Studies ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Performance Project ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
The University ◽  
Artistic Director ◽  
Collective Improvisation

Ingemar Lindh's work on the principles of collective improvisation has crucial implications for the history of twentieth-century laboratory theatre. His early work with Étienne Decroux and Jerzy Grotowski contributed to the development of a unique practice that resists directorial montage, fixed scores, and choreography; and the ethical dimension that accompanies Lindh's research on collective improvisation is illuminating for a more holistic understanding of the technical and aesthetic considerations in theatre. In this article, Frank Camilleri discusses some of the key aspects of this dimension, notably the dynamics of hospitality and encounter that inform Lindh's approach and the question of responsibility in the actor's work. Frank Camilleri is Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies at the University of Kent. From 2004 to 2008 he was Academic Coordinator of Theatre Studies at the University of Malta. He is also Artistic Director of Icarus Performance Project – an ongoing research laboratory that investigates the intermediary space between training and performance processes. Camilleri's work with Lindh in the mid-1990s was instrumental for the development of this research practice.

Theatre and Social Issues in Malawi: Performers, Audiences, Aesthetics

1988 ◽  
Vol 4 (14) ◽  
pp. 173-180
Author(s):  
David Kerr
Keyword(s):  
Performing Arts ◽  
Third World ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Popular Theatre ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Third World ◽  
The University ◽  
Artistic Director ◽  
University Of Malawi

Theatre workers in the Third World have largely rejected both the outward trappings and the underlying aesthetic assumptions of the colonial styles they first inherited: but the impulse to evolve or rediscover indigenous forms has often involved the imposition of a would-be ‘popular’ theatre form by an elite of university-educated animateurs. David Kerr has described these as ‘induced’ forms, and here analyzes the process by which one such experiment, in Malawi, was both adopted and assimilated by villagers, for the better understanding of whose social problems it was conceived. From 1974 to 1980 David Kerr was artistic director of the Chikwakwa Theatre project in Zambia (described in the first series of Theatre Quarterly, III, No. 10), since when he has been teaching in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts in the University of Malawi, and serving as co-ordinator to the Travelling Theatre project there.

The Performative Self: Improvisation for Self and Other

2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Performing Arts ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Theatre Studies ◽  
The University

This paper was prepared for the ‘Postmodernism and Spirituality’ conference held at the University of Central Lancashire in April this year, and Ruth Quinn has now reworked the piece in the light of Clive Barker's article in NTQ69, ‘In Search of the Lost Mode: Improvisation and All that Jazz’. Ruth Quinn first studied Theology at Oxford, but has been teaching Drama and Theatre Studies for eleven years, currently at the University of Central Lancashire within the Contemporary Performing Arts Department. Here she outlines some of the key elements of improvisation and how the dynamic between self and other develops in an actor's training.

scholarly journals Of Crossroads and Undercurrents: Ingemar Lindh's Practice of Collective Improvisation and Jerzy Grotowski

2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 299-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Camilleri
Keyword(s):  
Senior Lecturer ◽  
Individual Work ◽  
Physical Action ◽  
Specific Focus ◽  
Theatre Studies ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Performance Project ◽  
The University ◽  
Artistic Director ◽  
Jerzy Grotowski

In this article Frank Camilleri discusses the historical and professional links between Ingemar Lindh and Jerzy Grotowski, with a specific focus on the nature and implications of their separate work on physical action. Lindh's practice, particularly his research on the ‘disinterested act’, is read in the context of Grotowski's ‘doing’ in Art as Vehicle. The individual work of the two practitioners on vocal and vibration techniques is seen as integral to their research on physical action. Frank Camilleri is Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies at the University of Kent and Artistic Director of Icarus Performance Project (Malta). He served as Academic Coordinator of Theatre Studies at the University of Malta from 2004 to 2008, and in 2007 co-founded Icarus Publishing Enterprise with Odin Teatret and the Grotowski Institute.

Fighting in the Streets: Dramaturgies of Popular Protest, 1968—1989

1997 ◽  
Vol 13 (51) ◽  
pp. 255-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baz Kershaw
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Lateral Approach ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Political Theatre ◽  
Cultural Intervention ◽  
Hard Times ◽  
Theatre Studies ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The University ◽  
The Welfare State

Everybody would agree that agitational political theatre has fallen on hard times, but whether this is due to a changed political climate, a changed theatre, or a more politicized relationship between companies and funding bodies remains a matter for debate. Here, Baz Kershaw adopts a lateral approach to the problem, looking not at dramatized forms of protest but at protest as an action which has itself become increasingly theatricalized – in part owing to its own tactics and choices, in part to the ways in which media coverage creates its own version of politics as performance. After looking at the major focuses of protest in two decades after 1968, Baz Kershaw examines the ways in which political and performance theory has and has not addressed the issue. Presently Head of the Department of Theatre Studies in the University of Lancaster, his previous publications includeEngineers of the Imagination: the Welfare State Handbook(with Tony Coult, 1983) andthe Politics of Performance: Political Theatre as Cultural Intervention(1992).

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