Reflections on Crip Imitations as Cultural Space-Making

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-399
Author(s):  
Eliza Chandler ◽  
Megan Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Disability Studies ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
Actor Training ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
Complex Dynamic ◽  
Training Systems ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Disability Simulation ◽  
A Performance

The article reflects on the complexities of deploying imitation as a performance theme within disability arts. The authors are animated by disability arts curator Amanda Cachia’s 2019 exhibition, Automatisme Ambulatoire: Hysteria, Imitation, and Performance, which showcased disabled and nondisabled artists exploring the cultural dynamics of imitation through the performing arts. The article begins by considering how imitation enacts proximal familiarity with difference by discussing disability simulation activities, actor training systems, and forms of cultural appropriation. A disability studies framework is employed to consider how artists engage imitation as an element of disability aesthetics. The analysis is developed in conversation with four examples of disability performance—Helen Dowling’s Breaker, Claire Cunningham’s tributary, Sins Invalid’s performance An Unshamed Claim to Beauty, and Jess Thom’s rendition of Samuel Beckett’s Not I. The article posits that by enacting imitation as a performance theme, disabled artists resist notions that imitation is reserved for bodies read as “neutral,” and attend to how imitation brings disability artists into a complex dynamic of political relationality.

Emandulo: Process and Performance in a Changing South Africa

1994 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 238-261
Author(s):  
Thomas Riccio
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
And Performance ◽  
A Performance

In the spring of 1992 the Natal Performing Arts Council (NAPAC) in Durban, South Africa, invited me to develop a performance based on Zulu traditions with their recently formed Kwasa Group and their long established Loft Theatre. ‘Kwasa’, Zulu for ‘it dawns’, was NAPAC's attempts to address the changing needs of South Africa. Two weeks after white South Africa voted in favour of a nationwide referendum to allow non-whites the ability to vote I began rehearsals for Emandulo.’

scholarly journals Magic on Wheels: A Study of Re-engagement, Re-enactment and Re-staging the Stereotypes of Performativity and Performance of Persons with Disabilities in the Choreography of Syed Sallauddin Pasha

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Radhika Sharma ◽  
◽  
Nagendra Kumar ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Disability Studies ◽  
Performance Studies ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
The Body ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Art And Activism

Amidst society’s segregation of the people among minorities on the basis of gender, race, caste and creed, it is difficult to locate the position of another extreme social minority, i.e. persons with disabilities. But the turn of the century has validated some art and activism performed by persons with disabilities due to which the disabled have marked their position in literature, film and media to some extent, yet they have not secured a position of dignity in the mainstream. To make disabled people visible, Syed Sallauddin Pasha (the father of Indian dance therapy for persons with disabilities) initiates his own Natya Shastra i.e. Classical Wheelchair Dances for differently-abled artists. Drawing upon Syed Sallauddin Pasha’s therapeutic dance choreography, the present paper studies performance arts in the context of differently-abled people, and for this, the paper explores the intersection of Performance Studies and Disability Studies. In performing arts (or dance in particular), the body is the medium of representation, likewise, the body defines the identity in the context of disabled people. Therefore, the paper by studying the intersection of Disability Studies and Performance Studies, explores the stereotypes related to the body by scrutinising the disabled dance bodies on the stage. The paper further attempts to explore the idea of accessibility for persons with disabilities by taking into account the assistive devices and accessible architecture. The study then goes into an analysis of spectators’ response, stare and gaze towards disability dance performances. In a broader context, the paper offers to scrutinise the negative stereotypes attached to disability and disabled dancing bodies on stage by exploring the nuances in Syed Sallauddin Pasha’s choreography.

Against Inclusivity: a Happy Heresy about Theory and Practice

2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 347-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Welton
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Actor Training ◽  
Performance Theory ◽  
Training Systems ◽  
Martial Art ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Theatre Company ◽  
Practice Based Research ◽  
Theatre Studies ◽  
And Performance

Should we suffer boredom in the theatre so long as it can be properly theorized? Dare performance stand alone, without hermeneutical crutches? What are the practicalities of practice-based research? And should we be scared of scare quotes? These are some of the questions asked by Martin Welton, tongue not so much in cheek as brazenly challenging some of the new orthodoxies of theatre studies. Martin Welton is a lecturer in Performance in the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary, University of London. His research interests include perception and performance, theatre and performance theory, actor training systems, and the South Indian martial art kalarippayattu. He also works as a performer, most recently with Sound and Fury Theatre Company, Emilyn Claid, and with his own company Darwin's Beard.

scholarly journals Penciptaan Drama Musikal Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Sweeney Todd:Tukang Cukur Haus Darah)

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Husni Wardhana ◽  
Suharyoso Suharyoso
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
American Music ◽  
Adaptation Process ◽  
Musical Drama ◽  
Musical Comedy ◽  
Amateur Theater ◽  
The Usa ◽  
And Performance ◽  
A Performance

Proses kreatif penyutradaraan Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street memberi banyak pelajarantentang drama musikal. Drama musikal memiliki keunikan tersendiri dalam proses maupun bentuk penyajiannya.Jenis drama ini sangat populer di Amerika, dan merupakan satu-satunya sumbangan Amerika dalam memperkayajenis teater dunia. Cerita ini merupakan kisah legendaris Inggris. Berkali-kali naskah karya Christopher Bond inidimainkan di berbagai benua di dunia, namun bila dilihat dari sejarah penciptaannya, kisah balas dendam seorangtukang cukur ini telah melalui proses adaptasi yang panjang. Beberapa penulis besar di jamannya sebelum melewatitangan kreatif Christopher Bond telah mengkreasi ulang naskah ini. Drama musikal ini berawal dari komedi musikaldan sejak tahun 1920 mengangkat tema-tema serius yang biasa disebut musik Broadway atau musik Amerika. Biasadisajikan dalam panggung besar West End dan Broadway di London, New York, Australia dan Asia. Beberapa kalidipanggungkan oleh kelompok teater sekolah atau kelompok teater amatir. Hampir seluruh pertunjukan drama musikal Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street diiringi dengan musik dan dinyanyikan. Dialog diubahmenjadi nyanyian. Para aktor di tuntut untuk dapat menyanyi, akting, dan menari. Drama musikal merupakanpertunjukan yang menggunakan tiga ciri utama, yakni menyanyi, menari, dan berakting yang mendominasi hampirseluruh pertunjukan.Kata kunci: penyutradaraan, drama musikal, kisah legendaris, Sweeney Todd, teater sekolah.ABSTRACTThe musical drama Sweeney Todd: Th e Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The creative directing process of this drama has given many good lessons to the art work of performing arts, especially to musical drama performance. The musical drama has its own unique characteristics in its process and performance. This type of drama is very popular in the USA, and has been the only contribution from the USA to enrich the typical of world theater. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is as an English legend, especially in England. This script created by Christopher Bond has been performed for several times in all around the globe. Having seen from its creating history, the story of a barber who takes revenge has been through long adaptation process. Some big authors in this era, before proceeded by Christopher Bond’s creative touch, had creatively recreated this script. The musical drama Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was fi rstly created from the musical comedy drama and since 1920 has shown serious themes that are well known as Broadway music or American music. This drama has commonly been shown on a big stage West End and Broadway in London and New York, also in Australia and Asia. Moreover, it has also been performed by groups of school-theater and amateur theater. Most of the musical drama performances Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street are accompanied by music and are sung as well. The dialog is changed into songs. The actors are supposed to be able to sing, to act, and to dance. The musical drama is a performance that uses three main characteristics, namely: singing (solo, ensemble, and choir), dancing (individual and group), and acting, that dominates in most parts of the performance.Key words: directing, musical drama, legend story, Sweeney Todd, theater.

Ancient Greek Tragedy as Performance: the Literature–Performance Problematic

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-32
Author(s):  
Mario Frendo
Keyword(s):  
Performing Arts ◽  
Greek Tragedy ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Early Modernity ◽  
Performance Criticism ◽  
Theatre Studies ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
A Performance

In this article Mario Frendo engages with the idea of ancient Greek tragedy as a performance phenomenon, questioning critiques that approach it exclusively via literary–dramatic methodologies. Based on the premise that ancient Greek tragedy developed within the predominantly oral context of fifth-century BCE Greece, he draws on Hans-Thies Lehmann's study of tragedy and its relation to dramatic theatre, where it is argued that the genre is essentially ‘predramatic’. Considered as such, ancient Greek tragedy cannot be fully investigated using dramatic theories developed since early modernity. In view of this, Walter J. Ong's caution with respect to the rational processes produced by generations of literate culture will be acknowledged and alternative critiques sought, including performance criticism and performance-oriented frameworks such as orality, via which Frendo traces possible critical trajectories that would allow contemporary scholarship to deal with ancient tragedy as a performance rather than literary phenomenon. Reference will be made to Aristotle's use of the term ‘poetry’, and how performance criticism may provide new insight into how the Poetics deals with one of the earliest performance phenomena in the West. Mario Frendo is lecturer of theatre and performance and Head of the Department of Theatre Studies at the School of Performing Arts, University of Malta, where he is director of CaP, a research group focusing on links between culture and performance. His research interests include musicality in theatre, ancient tragedy, and relations between philosophical thought and performance.

A Conversation on Directing Opera

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 246-255
Author(s):  
Katie Mitchell ◽  
Mario Frendo
Keyword(s):  
Performing Arts ◽  
Musical Score ◽  
Senior Lecturer ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Don Giovanni ◽  
National Opera ◽  
Dramatic Text ◽  
Theatre Studies ◽  
And Performance

Katie Mitchell has been directing opera since 1996, when she debuted on the operatic stage with Mozart and Da Ponte’s Don Giovanni at the Welsh National Opera. Since then, she has directed more than twenty-nine operas in major opera houses around the world. Mitchell here speaks of her directorial approach when working with the genre, addressing various aspects of interest for those who want a better grasp of the dynamics of opera-making in the twenty-first century. Ranging from the director’s imprint, or signature on the work they put on the stage, to the relationships forged with people running opera institutions, Mitchell reflects on her experiences when staging opera productions. She sheds light on some fundamental differences between theatre-making and opera production, including the issue of text – the libretto, the dramatic text, and the musical score – and the very basic fact that in opera a director is working with singers, that is, with musicians whose attitude and behaviour on stage is necessarily different from that of actors in the theatre. Running throughout the conversation is Mitchell’s commitment to ensure that young and contemporary audiences do not see opera as a museum artefact but as a living performative experience that resonates with the aesthetics and political imperatives of our contemporary world. She speaks of the uncompromising political imperatives that remain central to her work ethic, even if this means deserting a project before it starts, and reflects on her long-term working relations with opera institutions that are open to new and alternative approaches to opera-making strategies. Mitchell underlines her respect for the specific rules of an art form that, because of its collaborative nature, must allow more space for theatre-makers to venture within its complex performative paths if it wants to secure a place in the future. Mario Frendo is Senior Lecturer of Theatre and Performance and Head of the Department of Theatre Studies at the School of Performing Arts, University of Malta, where he is the director of CaP, a research group focusing on the links between culture and performance.

Distance and Reflexivity: Creating the Stage World of Pantoland

2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 331-339
Author(s):  
Millie Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Performing Arts ◽  
Financial Support ◽  
Extended Version ◽  
Senior Lecturer ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
Forthcoming Book ◽  
The World ◽  
Commercial Theatre ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The University

In pantomime the Dame and comics, and to a lesser extent the immortals, are positioned between the world of the audience and the world of the story, interacting with both, forming a link between the two, and constantly altering the distance thus created between audience and performance. This position allows these characters to exist both within and without the story, to comment on the story, and reflexively to draw attention to the theatricality of the pantomime event. In this article, Millie Taylor concludes that reflexivity and framing allow the pantomime to represent itself as unique, original, anarchic, and fun, and that these devices are significant in the identification of British pantomime as distinct from other types of performance. Millie Taylor worked for many years as a freelance musical director in repertory and commercial theatre and in pantomime. She is now Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts and Music Theatre at the University of Winchester. An earlier version of this article was presented at the Conference on Arts and Humanities in Hawaii (2005), and an extended version will appear in her forthcoming book on British pantomime. Her research has received financial support from the British Academy.

Intangible, invisible and eternally nascent: Designing sound in Australian performing arts

Scene ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 117-132
Author(s):  
Roger Alsop
Keyword(s):  
Performing Arts ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Visual Object ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
A Performance

This article is primarily focused on sound design in the performing arts. While scenography is usually defined as the visual/object elements of a performance design, it is often discussed as including all of the heard and seen elements: sound, costume, lighting, sets, props and projections. The intention is that these elements work synergistically to create a ‘whole-more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts’, with scenography considered a wholistic discipline that embraces many aspects to support the intentions of the creators and the performers in a performance. Scenographic designers provide bespoke or unique solutions required to do this across specific briefs and budgets. While the discussion here centres on sound design for performance in Melbourne, it is intended to apply more broadly, particularly in developing a more complementary, integrated approach to sound in scenography, and regarding education and processes. This is to encourage a more global and inclusive consideration of the topic – to develop discussion, and therefore potential – of the manifold interrelationships in scenographic design in the performing arts. While there is no attempt to explicitly answer a key question or propose a defined theory, this discussion intends to illuminate various issues in sound design for performing arts in order to develop conceptual and practical approaches that enhance the collaborations and synergies possible in scenography for performing arts, ensuring that the whole is indeed more than the sum of its parts.

Perceiving Humor in Traditional Chinese Peking Opera

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-391
Author(s):  
Zhiyi Zhang ◽  
Xiaobing Jin
Keyword(s):  
Performing Arts ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Comprehension Difficulty ◽  
Inverse Proportion ◽  
Peking Opera ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Interview Analysis

Abstract Peking opera epitomizes the traditional Chinese performing arts, and all six factors concerning the story and performance of Peking opera, namely plot, role type, song, speech, acting, and combat, can produce humorous effects among the audience. The present paper is a tentative study on humor and sensing humor in Peking opera. The scale study testified that all six factors were able to produce humorous effects and that they had different degrees of comprehension difficulty and humor for different contributing factors. The degree of comprehension difficulty can assert negative influence upon the degree of humor. Different from the traditionally held nonmonotonic (inverted-U) correlation between the two, a monotonic inverse proportion between the two has been detected. The interview analyses revealed that the humorous effects had something to do with incongruity but that resolution might not necessarily be involved. The scale study and the interview analysis both support this finding.

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