1. Platform 10.1 Are We on the Same Page

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

1. Platform 10.1 Are We on the Same Page Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts Vol.10, No.1 Spring 2016 ‘Are We On The Same Page?’ ISSN: 1751- 0171 1 Platform, Vol. 10, No. 1, Are We On The Same Page?, Spring 2016 Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts Editors James Rowson and Catherine Love Book Review Editor Poppy Corbett Editorial Board Siobhan O’Neill, Adam Rush and Raz Weiner Advisory Board Mojisola Adebayo (Goldsmiths); Elaine Aston (Lancaster University); Peter Boenisch (University of Surrey); Matthew Cohen (Royal Holloway, University of London); Helen Gilbert (RHUL); Janelle Reinelt (University of Warwick); Joseph Roach (Yale University); Dan Rebellato (RHUL); Helen Nicholson (RHUL); Brian Singleton (Trinity College Dublin); Patrick Lonergan (National University of Ireland, Galway); John Bull (University of Reading); Helena Hammond (University of Roehampton); Sophie Nield (RHUL) Platform is based at, and generously supported by, the Department of Drama & Theatre, Royal Holloway, University of London. Copyright © 2016 Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts. All rights reserved. No part of this journal may be reproduced or utilised in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. Submission Information Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts is published biannually. Contributions are Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts is published biannually. Contributions are particularly welcome from postgraduate researchers, postdoctoral researchers, and early-career academics in theatre and performing arts. We welcome the submission of academic papers, performance responses, photo essays, book reviews, interviews, and new dramatic writing. Platform also welcomes practice- based research papers. Papers should not exceed 4500 words (including notes and references). Practice-based papers should normally include images in JPEG format (300ppi). Reviews should be around 1000 words. Photo essays should not exceed 2000 words and 10 pictures. All contributions should be formatted according to the MLA style guidelines (see Gibaldi’s MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers) and should include a 200-word abstract of the article submitted as well as the article itself. Authors should also send a 50 word bio with their submission. Submissions should be sent electronically as email attachments to [email protected]. Peer Review Policy All articles are subject to peer review. All articles are anonymously refereed by two or more independent peer reviewers, in addition to review by the editorial board. Books for review should be sent to James Rowson, Department of Drama and Theatre, Royal Holloway University of London, Katherine Worth Building, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX For all enquiries, please contact the editors at [email protected]. For free access to archived issues, go to http://www.rhul.ac.uk/dramaandtheatre/platform/home.aspx. Issue and cover design: James Rowson and Catherine Love Cover image: Tim Crouch performing An Oak Tree, Photograph by Greg Veit (2015). @PlatformJournal 2 CONTENTS Editorial 5 Notes on Contributors 8 Tim Crouch’s Transferable 10 Jack Belloli Skills: Textual Revision as (University of Distributed Determination in My Cambridge) Arm and The Author “That Space”: Across Text and 29 Verónica Performance in Suspect Culture’s Rodríguez One Way Street (University of Barcelona) Dramaturgies of Spontaniety 53 Filippo Romanell (Theatre Practioner) Celebrating Ten Years of Platform 75 3 Platform, Vol. 10, No. 1, Are We On The Same Page?, Spring 2016 Book Reviews Howard Barker’s Theatre: 85 Richard Ashby Wrestling with Catastrophe edited (Royal by James Reynolds and Andy Holloway, Smith University of London) A Good Night Out for the Girls: 89 Cath Badham Popular Feminisms in (University of Contemporary Theatre and Sheffield) Performance by Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harris The Illuminated Theatre: Studies 93 Marina Ní on the Suffering of Images by Joe Dhubháin Kelleher (National University of Ireland) Voice and New Writing 1997- 98 Lucy Tyler 2007: Articulating the Demos by (University of Maggie Inchley Reading) 4 Editorial Editorial The contested relationship between text and performance has long underscored developments in British theatre. Frequently, text and its use in theatre-making processes has functioned as a way of distinguishing between different artists, establishing simplistic and misleading categories such as ‘text-based’ and ‘non-text-based’. At the same time, the work of practitioners themselves defies such labels, often mixing approaches that are simultaneously interested in the possibilities of text and in the richness of theatre’s many non-textual elements, including phys- icality, design, music and multimedia. More recently, publications such as Duška Radosavlje- vić’s Theatre-Making: Interplay Between Text and Performance in the 21st Century have offered a refreshingly different take on contemporary theatre practice, moving beyond reductive divi- sions between dramatic theatre and devised performance. There are also indications that theatre as a sector is beginning to break down such divides, with the National Theatre’s recent merging of its Studio and Literary Department serving as the most prom- inent example of this shift. This latest issue of Platform responds to the one-day symposium of the same title, organised by Catherine Love and Caitlin Gowans and hosted by the Department of Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London in Septem- ber 2015. The event brought together scholars, practitioners and commentators, offering a number of different perspectives on the intersection of text and performance in British theatre contexts. Speakers included Tim Crouch, Duška Radosavljević, Andy Field, Jacqueline Bolton, Andrew Haydon and Vicky An- gelaki. Among other issues, the symposium discussed the con- tinuing schism between supposedly ‘text-based’ and ‘non-text- 5 Platform, Vol. 10, No. 1, Are We On The Same Page?, Spring 2016 based’ theatre, the contrast between approaches to text in Britain and continental Europe, the role of institutions in perpetuating or challenging binaries between different theatrical forms and the slippery concept of the ‘open text’. The contributions in this issue suggest a range of ap- proaches to the ideas addressed at the symposium. In the first article, “Tim Crouch’s Transferable Skills: Textual Revision as Distributed Determination in My Arm and The Author”, Jack Belloli presents an innovative contribution to the burgeoning scholarship on the work of theatre-maker Tim Crouch. Drawing on Richard Sennett and Tim Ingold’s notions of “skill”, Belloli explores the nature of indeterminacy in the performances of two of Crouch’s best-known productions. Foregrounding the textu- al revisions made to the scripts and stage directions, the paper demonstrates the liminality of Crouch’s playtexts and how the staging of these two plays provoke the audience to consider the boundaries between the acts of writing and performing. Next, exploring the intersection of text and performance in the work of Scottish experimental theatre company Suspect Culture, Verónica Rodríguez analyses the company’s 1995 pro- duction One Way Street: Ten Walks in the Former East. Her paper interrogates the feature of fragmentation in this work in particular and Suspect Culture’s devising methodologies more broadly, arguing that text and performance in the company’s work “appear as undone and interpenetrated”. In an issue that examines the relationship between text and performance it seems appropriate to conclude this edition of Platform with two pieces of new theatre writing. Filippo Ro- manell’s “Dramaturgies of Spontaneity” includes two disparate extracts from his plays Attempts on Friendship (2014) and Vice Device (2015). In a self-reflective passage before the extracts, Romanell muses on his own writing practices and methods, dis- 6 Editorial cussing theatre scholar Małgorzata Sugiera’s theory of imma- nence as a method to achieve spontaneity in dramatic perfor- mance. This issue also marks the 10th anniversary of Platform, which was founded at Royal Holloway in 2006 by a team of postgraduate research students including Vicky Angelaki, Ma- rissia Fragou and Kene Igweonu. To celebrate this milestone in the life of the journal, within these pages a selection of previous editors share their memories, experiences and hopes for the fu- ture of Platform. The editorial board of Platform would like to express our sincere gratitude to the department of Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London, where this journal is based. Their continued advice and enthusiastic support of this publication has been invaluable. Developing, reviewing, writ- ing for, and publishing a print journal is an important method of learning for postgraduates and early career researchers, the funding of which demonstrates Royal Holloway’s commitment to providing opportunities for new research and the develop- ment of research skill. We are also grateful to the peer and ac- ademic reviewers for their time and thoughtful feedback. Their support has provided assistance to the research of all who have submitted to this issue. We would also like to thank Palgrave Macmillan, Bloomsbury and Routledge for book review copies. Finally, we give special thanks to all our contributors who have shared their research and practice. James Rowson and Catherine Love, Editors 7 Platform, Vol. 10, No. 1, Are We On The Same Page?, Spring 2016 Notes on Contributors Richard Ashby Richard Ashby is a PhD student
Recommended publications
  • Redgrove Papers: Letters
    Redgrove Papers: letters Archive Date Sent To Sent By Item Description Ref. No. Noel Peter Answer to Kantaris' letter (page 365) offering back-up from scientific references for where his information came 1 . 01 27/07/1983 Kantaris Redgrove from - this letter is pasted into Notebook one, Ref No 1, on page 365. Peter Letter offering some book references in connection with dream, mesmerism, and the Unconscious - this letter is 1 . 01 07/09/1983 John Beer Redgrove pasted into Notebook one, Ref No 1, on page 380. Letter thanking him for a review in the Times (entitled 'Rhetoric, Vision, and Toes' - Nye reviews Robert Lowell's Robert Peter 'Life Studies', Peter Redgrove's 'The Man Named East', and Gavin Ewart's 'The Young Pobbles Guide To His Toes', 1 . 01 11/05/1985 Nye Redgrove Times, 25th April 1985, p. 11); discusses weather-sensitivity, and mentions John Layard. This letter is pasted into Notebook one, Ref No 1, on page 373. Extract of a letter to Latham, discussing background work on 'The Black Goddess', making reference to masers, John Peter 1 . 01 16/05/1985 pheromones, and field measurements in a disco - this letter is pasted into Notebook one, Ref No 1, on page 229 Latham Redgrove (see 73 . 01 record). John Peter Same as letter on page 229 but with six and a half extra lines showing - this letter is pasted into Notebook one, Ref 1 . 01 16/05/1985 Latham Redgrove No 1, on page 263 (this is actually the complete letter without Redgrove's signature - see 73 .
    [Show full text]
  • The Power of Theatre
    THE POWER OF THEATRE Speech delivered by Graham Sheffield for the opening of the National Taichung Theater, Taiwan on 1st October 2016. People use the phrase “powerful” in so many ways when it comes to art, and theatre in particular - take last night's performance of Wagner's Das Rheingold, for example And yet, when it comes to the specifics of that so- called “power”, it becomes much harder to pin down. So I was excited to be asked to talk about the subJect here in Taiwan – and thank you so much for the invitation to come here on my first visit. I feel very honoured, as well as delighted, to be here. I thought I’d use the occasion to investigate the subJect through my own experience throughout my life, through the work of the British Council, and also through the observations of several distinguished professionals in the business, writers, actors, producers and directors, all of whom who've been very generous with their time. The opening for this talk occurred to me a few weeks ago in Liverpool in the north west of England – an old port city, now much revived through investment into the arts, both in terms of its infrastructure and its artists. It’s a very cosmopolitan city – birthplace of the Beatles, home to artistic institutions including Tate Liverpool, FACT arts centre, the International Slavery Museum, the Everyman Theatre, as well as Paul McCartney's school for the performing arts. It has a large and diverse population, home to the oldest black and Chinese communities in England, and known historically for its large Irish and Welsh populations.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Publication
    ARTS COUNCIL CONTENTS C hairina;,'~ Introduction 4 The Arts Council of Great Britain, as a 5 publicly accountable body, publishes an Sui kA• 1r. -C;eneral's Preface 8 Annual Report to provide Parliament and Departmental Report s 14 the general public with an overview of th e Scotland year's work and to record ail grants an d Wales 15 guarantees offered in support of the arts . Council 16 Membership of Council and Staff 17 A description of the highlights of th e Advisory Panels and Committee s 18 Council's work and discussion of its policie s Staff 23 appear in the newspaper Arts in Action Annual Accounts 25 which is published in conjunction with thi s Funds, Exhibitions, SchewsandAuvrd~ Report and can be obtained, free of charge , from the Arts Council Shop, 8 Long Acre , London WC2 and arts outlets throughou t the country . The objects for which the Arts Council of Great Britain is established are : I To develop and improve the knowledge , understanding and practice of the arts ; 2 To increase the accessibility of the arts to the public throughout Great Britain ; 3 To co-operate with governmen t departments, local authorities and othe r bodies to achieve these objects. CHAIRMAN'S INTRODUCTION and performing artists and of helping t o wherever possible both Mth local build up the audiences which must be th e authorities and with private sponsors. real support for the arts . It is the actua l event, the coming together of artist an d The Arts Council is very conscious that th e audience, which matters .
    [Show full text]
  • Discover NLS, Where You Will Find Epic Journeys Undertaken
    ✶ F TOM KITCHIN EXPLORES REE T he culinary gems in our archive ✶ The magazine of the National Library of Scotland www.nls.uk | Issue 23 Summer 2013 RETURN TO TREASURE ISLAND WOMEN OF SCIENCE INSIDE P ICTURinG AFRICA Livingstone’s expedition into the heart of Africa Theatre fit for aKing’s NATIONAL THEATRE OF SCOTLAND and ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY present DUNSINANE BY DAVID GREIG DIRECTED BY ROXANA SILBERT Tue 4 to Sat 8 June 2013 Tue 1 to Sat 5 October 2013 A major new stage adaptation by Ayub Khan-Din Based on the book by E.R. Braithwaite Mon 7 to Sat 12 October 2013 Tue 29 October to Sat 2 November 2013 MANSFIELD PARK By Jane Austen Tue 5 to Sat 9 November 2013 Sat 30 November 2013 to Sun 19 January 2014 * BOX OFFICE 0131 529 6000 GROUPS (8+) 0131 529 6005 * KING’S theatre edtheatres.com EDINBURGH *Booking fees. Registered charity SC018605. King’s Theatre, 2 Leven Street, Edinburgh, EH3 9LQ WELCOME ✶ TOM KITCHIN EXPLORES FREE The culinary gems in our archive ✶ The magazine of the National Library of Scotland www.nls.uk | Issue 23 Summer 2013 S tep into summer RETURN TO TREASURE ISLAND WOMEN OF SCIENCE at the Library As the summer months approach many of us will naturally INSIDE PICTURING be contemplating warmer climes and exotic shores for fresh AFRICA Livingstone’s expedition into perspectives and adventure. That spirit of exploration the heart of Africa appropriately takes centre stage in this latest issue of Discover NLS, where you will find epic journeys undertaken 01 NLS-spring13_COVER.indd 1 03/06/2013 10:41 in the name of science, religious evangelism and pure DISCOVER NLS swashbuckling enterprise.
    [Show full text]
  • Book of Abstracts
    ABSTRACTS AND BIOGRAPHIES Thursday, October 11, 2018 9.45 PANEL: Across Languages Chair: Claire Hélie (Lille University) 1. Maggie Rose (Milan University) Importing new British plays to Italy. Rethinking the role of the theatre translator Over the last three decades I have worked as a co-translator and a cultural mediator between the UK and Italy, bringing plays by Alan Bennett, Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill, Claire Dowie, David Greig, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Hanif Kureishi, Liz Lochhead, Sabrina Mahfouz, Rani Moorthy, among others,to the Italian stage. Bearing in mind a complex web of Italo-British relations, I will discuss how my strategies of cultural mediation have evolved over the years as a response to significant changes in the two theatre systems. I will explore why the task of finding a publisher and a producer\director for some British authors has been more difficult than for others, the stage and critical success of certain dramatists in Italy more limited. I will look specifically at the Italian ‘journeys’ of the following writers: Caryl Churchill and my co-translation of Top Girls (1986) and A Mouthful of Birds, Edward Bond and my co-translation of The War Plays for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and Alan Bennett and my co-translation of The History Boys at Teatro Elfo Pucini from 2011-3013, at Teatro Elfo Puccini and national tours. Maggie Rose teaches British Theatre Studies and Performance at the University of Milan and spends part of the year in the UK for her writing and research. She is a member of the Scottish Society of Playwrights and her plays have been performed in the UK and in Italy.
    [Show full text]
  • Versión Repositorio
    Universidad de Salamanca Facultad de Filología Departamento de Filología Inglesa THE EMERGING SPACES OF SCOTTISH DRAMA AND THEATRE IN THE 1990s Tesis para optar al grado de doctor presentada por András Beck Directora: Olga Barrios Herrero V°B° Olga Barrios Herrero András Beck Salamanca, 2015 This dissertation is dedicated to my maternal grandparents, János (b. 1922) and Mária Viola (b. 1931), whose faith, hope and love helped them survive the darkest moments of the twentieth century. May the sufferings of their generation never be forgotten. Acknowledgements On the academic side, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Olga Barrios for the excellent supervision of my work. Her minute corrections, stimulating suggestions and continued guidance towards the completion of this dissertation always pointed me in the right direction. I greatly benefited from her personalised, down-to-earth approach to supervising projects and her dedication to students, for which working with her was a privilege. Particular thanks go to Deana Nichols for kindly looking over some of my chapters, providing insightful feedback and sharing my enthusiasm for contemporary Scottish drama and theatre. I am equally grateful to Mária Kurdi and Gertrud Szamosi, whose excellent courses on theatre and Scotland, respectively, were decisive for the direction my PhD studies took and who welcomed me back at the University of Pécs for my research stay. I would especially like to thank the encouragement and intellectual inspiration received from Ian Brown, Danièle Berton-Charrière and Jean Berton at the meetings of the French Society for Scottish Studies (Société Française d’Etudes Ecossaises ) and beyond.
    [Show full text]
  • David Greig's Theatre
    THE “POLETHICS” OF THE MEDIATED/TIZED SPECTATOR IN THE GLOBAL-TECHNOLOGIZED AGE: DAVID GREIG’S THEATRE Verónica Rodríguez Universidad de Barcelona Abstract: Contemporary Scottish playwright David Greig’s dramaturgy has been concerned with the massive changes wrought across the world by neoliberal globalization in the last two decades. A political triple turn comprising ethics, the media and the spectator, and a shift between the notion “‘mediatized’ reiterative ‘expectator’” to “mediated performing spectator” within the “polethic” frame of ‘relationality’ in Greig’s works are argued in this article. It is further argued that the plays examined (Damascus, The American Pilot, Brewers Fayre and Fragile) use productive strategies like diffusion, reversibility and interchangeability, which foreground the asymmetries of the global/technologized age “polethically” mediating the global performing spectator. Key Words: Globalization, David Greig, Media, Spectator, Ethics, Politics. Recibido: 18/07/2012 Aceptado: 05/09/2012 TRIPLE TURN: ETHICS, MEDIA & SPECTATORSHIP IN THE GLOBAL-TECHNOLOGIZED AGE In his short review of Michael Kustov’s Theatre@risk, David Greig states that “[t]he thrust of Kustow’s argument is that in a corporate, mediated, screened world the last public space – public in the true sense – is the theatre” (Glasgow Sunday Herald)1 adding that he shares “his passion and confidence that theatre is the necessary art form of the century” (ibid.). Greig’s theatre emerges as a creative response in this milieu by raising questions around the role of ethics, the media and spectators in the context of the global-technologized age when the idea of the nation is being 1 This review appears at the beginning of the 2000’s Methuen edition of Kustov’s Theare@risk.
    [Show full text]
  • Dramatising the Political in Contemporary Scottish Theatre & Performance
    Dramatising the Political in Contemporary Scottish Theatre & Performance with Dr Rania Karoula The session will start at 12:00 BST. Dramatising the Political in Contemporary Scottish Theatre and Performance Dr Rania Karoula Teaching Fellow in Literature and Theatre [email protected] Images: 1. Leaflet for the original production of Europe, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh 1994. 2. Poster for the play The Cheviot, the stag and the black black oil at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, 1973. 3. Black Watch, photo by Manuel Harlan (NTS). 4. Alison Peebles as Queen Elizabeth I. Photo by Sean Hudson. 5. Production photo of The Suppliant Women, Royal Lyceum, 2016. Defining the ‘political’ in theatre • ‘Political theatre is intellectual theatre. Political meaning is “read” by the spectator’. (Michael Kirby) • ‘The political realm rises directly out of acting together, the “sharing of words and deeds”. The theatre is the political art par excellence; only there is the political sphere transposed into art. By the same token, it is the only art whose sole subject is man in his relationship to others’. (Hannah Arendt) • ‘The theatre can never “cause” a social change. It can articulate pressure towards one, help people celebrate their strengths and maybe build self- confidence…Above all, it can be the way people find their voice, their solidarity and their collective determination’. (John McGrath) • ‘The history of political theatre is also a history of how to use spaces other than the proscenium arch’. (Olga Taxidou) What is contemporary drama? • Theatre
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    S K E N È Journal of Theatre and Drama Studies 5:2 2019 SKENÈ Journal of Theatre and Drama Studies Founded by Guido Avezzù, Silvia Bigliazzi, and Alessandro Serpieri Executive Editor Guido Avezzù. General Editors Guido Avezzù, Silvia Bigliazzi. Editorial Board Simona Brunetti, Francesco Lupi, Nicola Pasqualicchio, Susan Payne, Gherardo Ugolini. Managing Editor Francesco Lupi. Assistant Managing Editors Valentina Adami, Emanuel Stelzer, Roberta Zanoni. Books Reviews Editors Chiara Battisti, Sidia Fiorato Staff Francesco Dall’Olio, Bianca Del Villano, Marco Duranti, Carina Louise Fernandes, Maria Serena Marchesi, Antonietta Provenza, Savina Stevanato. Advisory Board Anna Maria Belardinelli, Anton Bierl, Enoch Brater, Jean-Christophe Cavallin, Richard Allen Cave, Rosy Colombo, Claudia Corti, Marco De Marinis, Tobias Döring, Pavel Drábek, Paul Edmondson, Keir Douglas Elam, Ewan Fernie, Patrick Finglass, Enrico Giaccherini, Mark Griffith, Daniela Guardamagna, Stephen Halliwell, Robert Henke, Pierre Judet de la Combe, Eric Nicholson, Guido Paduano, Franco Perrelli, Didier Plassard, Donna Shalev, Susanne Wofford. Copyright © 2019 SKENÈ Published in December 2019 All rights reserved. ISSN 2421-4353 No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher. SKENÈ Theatre and Drama Studies http://skenejournal.skeneproject.it [email protected] Dir. Resp. (aut. Trib. di Verona): Guido Avezzù P.O. Box 149 c/o Mail Boxes Etc. (MBE150) – Viale Col. Galliano, 51, 37138, Verona (I) Contents Manuela Giordano
    [Show full text]
  • The Arts Council of Great Britain
    A-YUAAt J`2 101" The Arts Council Twenty-ninth of Great Britain annual report and accounts year ended 31 March 1974 ARTS COUNCIL OF GREAT BR(fAMm REFERENCE ONLY DO NOT REAAOVE I j,FROM THE LIBRARY ISBN 0 7287 0036 0 Published by the Arts Council of Great Britai n 105 Piccadilly, London wIV oAu Designed and printed at Shenval Press, Englan d Text set in `Monotype' Times New Roman 327 and 334 Membership of the Council , Committees and Panels Council Committees of the Art Pane l Patrick Gibson (Chairman ) Exhibitions Sub-Committee Sir John Witt (Vice-Chairman ) Photography Committee The Marchioness of Anglesey Serpentine Gallery Committee Professor Harold C . Baldry Performance Art Committee The Lord Balfour of Burleigh Alan Bowness The following co-opted members serve on the Lady Casson Photography Committee : Colonel Sir William Crawshay, DSO, TD Michael Elliott Bill Gaskins The Viscount Esher, CBE Ron McCormic k The Lord Feather, CBE Professor Aaron Scharf Sir William Glock, CBE Pete Turner Stuart Hampshire Jeremy Hutchinson, Q c and the Performance Art Committee : J. W. Lambert, CBE, DsC Dr A. H. Marshall, CB E Gavin Henderso n James Morris Adrian Henri Neil Paterson Ted Littl e Professor Roy Shaw Roland Miller Peter Williams, OBE Drama Panel Art Panel J. W. Lambert, CBE, DsC (Chairman) The Viscount Esher, CBE (Chairman) Dr A. H. Marshall, CBE (Deputy Chairman) Alan Bowness (Deputy Chairman ) Ian B. Albery Miss Nancy Balfour, OBE Alfred Bradley Victor Burgi n Miss Susanna Capo n Michael Compton Peter Cheeseman Theo Crosby Professor Philip Collins Hubert Dalwood Miss Jane Edgeworth, MBE The Marquess of Dufferin and Av a Richard Findlater Dennis Farr Ian Giles William Feaver Bernard Gos s Patrick George Len Graham David Hockney G.
    [Show full text]
  • New Scottish Drama at Home and in the German-Speaking Theatre
    Michael Raab (Frankfurt) No More Beautiful Losers: New Scottish Drama at Home and in the German-Speaking Theatre About the reception of new Scottish plays in London, the dramatist David Greig writes that the critics there “feel most comfortable with Scottish work when it fits their understanding of Scots – violent and funny poor people who are slightly frightening. The softer voices, the poetic voices, and the experimental voices are met with bemusement, apathy or patronising disdain”. But, surprisingly, on a 2002 list of ten playwrights thought to be “the future of British theatre” by The Guardian four were Scots. Most of their works were staged at the Traverse Theatre, Scotland’s equivalent to the Royal Court. The establishment of a non-building-based new National Theatre for Scotland further boosted an already lively scene. In a small nation of five million people 600,000 regularly go to the theatre. Joyce McMillan, critic for The Scotsman, emphasizes the importance of devolution after the successful referendum in 1997 for the development of Scottish playwriting. In her opinion it gave young authors the confidence to say, “We’re cool enough, postmodern enough and mature enough not to be spending a lot of time thinking about being Scottish.” The essay examines the enormous formal breadth of new Scottish drama from its ‘annus mirabilis’ in 2002 until today, as well as its reception in the German-speaking theatre. Describes you as a pair of ‘Celtic lyricists’, you could sue the buggers. (John Byrne: Colquhoun and MacBryde) Joyce McMillan, critic for The Scotsman, emphasizes the importance of devolution after the successful referendum in 1997 for the development of Scottish playwriting.
    [Show full text]
  • Contemporary Duologues
    The Good Audition Guides : edited and introduced by London www.nickhernbooks.co.uk Contents nd May by Jack Thorne Anne Boleyn by Howard Brenton Blue Stockings by Jessica Swale Britannia Waves the Rules by Gareth Farr Chicken Shop by Anna Jordan Chimerica by Lucy Kirkwood Fault Lines by Ali Taylor God’s Property by Arinze Kene Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons by Sam Steiner Love and Information by Caryl Churchill Moth by Declan Greene Pandas by Rona Munro Pronoun by Evan Placey Rafta, Rafta… by Ayub Khan Din Ramallah by David Greig The River by Jez Butterworth Scarborough by Fiona Evans Scuttlers by Rona Munro Sex with a Stranger by Stefan Golaszewski Spinning by Deirdre Kinahan Tiger Country by Nina Raine Unbroken by Alexandra Wood Unscorched by Luke Owen While You Lie by Sam Holcroft Yen by Anna Jordan Introduction Whether you are doing theatre studies at school, taking part in a youth theatre, at drama school (perhaps in your final year and looking for showcase material), or attending a professional acting workshop, the duologue will arguably provide the most intense form of character exploration and analysis. It will draw on all the essential skills of the actor - namely playing an objective, identifying obstacles, incorporating backstory, staying in the moment and listening. It is what any Stanislavsky-based acting technique is all about, and a well-crafted duologue will allow you to put all these elements into practice.* The twenty-five duologues in this volume are from plays that have largely been written post- . With the odd exception the characters range in age from fourteen to forty.
    [Show full text]