Alice Williams the Production of Luck
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Alice Williams The Production of Luck: Learning to Act, in the Discipline of Theatre Anthropology. A thesis submitted to fulfil requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, at the The University of Sydney, 2020 For little girls, everywhere. Acknowledgements Thank you to my associate supervisor Laleen Jayamanne for editing all of my drafts, and all the other unspeakable gifts you have given me over the years that you have been my teacher. Thankyou for encouraging me, and helping me learn how to let my experiences speak. Thank you to my supervisor Richard Smith for your patience, acceptance of my work, valuable guidance and feedback. Thank you to Marion Burford for reading my chapters, Grace Cochrane and others at 7 am for your advice, feedback and support. Lucy Watson for being a generous collaborator. Chris Jefferis for fixing my page numbers. Marcus Coombs for buying me dinner. Isadora Pei, Vilja Itkonen and all at Odin Teatret for your openness, rigour, generosity and support, I hope you find your work has been acknowledged in this thesis. Thesis Abstract The Production of Luck: Learning to Act, in the Discipline of Theatre Anthropology. Theatre Anthropology is a discipline with a unique place in the history of theatre. It is neither solely practical nor theoretical, but enacts and theorises the relationship between action and thought, reflecting how transformations in one area inform the development of the other. This field is the work of Eugenio Barba, actors of Odin Teatret, scholars and performers of the International School of Theatre Anthropology. Until recently, Theatre Anthropology has, predominantly, been received within the categorical bounds of theatre history, intercultural theatre debates, and performance analysis. This has been necessary for the constitution of the field, however, it is also important that theatre literature meets this field on its own terms, as an interdisciplinary model for action and thought. This thesis, The Production of Luck: Learning to Act, in the Discipline of Theatre Anthropology , is an auto – ethnographic contribution to this field. Based on my experience as a young artist in workshops at Odin Teatret, it develops a theory of luck built on vitalist and ancient notions of thought. Luck is understood as realising conscious or unconscious intentions, unintentionally. Luck is defined discursively, as well as through action. The actions I have taken in this thesis are a form of evolution within my own scholarly and theatrical practice, as well as a contribution to the literature of this field. The thesis' concept of luck is explored through theatrical techniques developed by Odin Teatret and the International School of Theatre Anthropology that overcome projected knowledge, paradoxically, by working with the determinism of the body. Working between practical, theoretical and interdisciplinary research, the thesis connects Theatre Anthropology with social discourses which are implicit in its work, but from which it has often distanced itself due to the historical concerns with working between theatre cultures. It is able to do this as it is a practical study of my own actions. The benefit of this discussion is that we are able to see dynamic principles of Theatre Anthropology at play in the formation of 'higher order' faculties such as speech, language and thought between fields. The benefit of making these relationships clear is the increased capacity for action between cultures and disciplines. The principles can be traced through the actor's work, through disciplines such as neurology, psycho – therapy, politics and philosophy, articulating a broad 'pre – expressive' language of transformation. This thesis is written from my development as a young artist, finding the realisation of my own intentions unintentionally. It is a joyful account of my creative process, and the foundation of technical knowhow the research has offered to my development. By speaking through the body it articulates the value of Theatre Anthropology for my own context, offering a new vision for theatre that goes beyond the bodies we know. It frames theatre as an evolutionary act of encountering the unknown. Alice Williams, T he Wolf, Holstebro Festuge 2017, Photo Credit: Eva Hallgren. Table of Contents: Introduction: Seven Years Bad Luck 1 Chapter 1: Pulling Strings, the Snuff Puppet Ramayana 37 Chapter 2: Theatre and Resistance: Odin Week Festival 2012 59 Chapter 3: Snakes and Ladders: An Historiography of Theatre Anthropology 93 Chapter 4: How the Body Speaks: Actions and Evolutions at ISTA, 2016 117 Chapter 5: A Case for Luck: The Production of Luck in a Social Context 154 Chapter 6: The Mouth of The Wolf: Residential Development at Nordisk Teatr Laboratorium – Odin Teatret, 2017 182 Chapter 7: The Chronic Life: “I came because I was told my father lived here...” 209 Conclusion: From Not Knowing, To Knowing How Not To Know 238 Bibliography 245 List of Illustrations: Alice Williams, The Wolf , Holstebro Festuge 2017, Photo Credit: Eva Hallgren. Isadora Pei, Alice Williams, Eugenio Barba, Holstebro Festuge 2014, Photo Credit: Teresa Ruggeri. Alice Williams, The Seagull, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2014, Photo Credit: Unknown. Various Artists, Animal Glyph , Holstebro Festuge, 2017, Photo credit: Unknown. Performance still The Tale of the Wolf , Goleniow: Human Mosaic Festival 2018 Photo Credit: unknown. Julia Varley and Ulrik Skeel, W ild Island, Holstebro Festuge, 2017, Photo Credit: Monica Bleige. This is to certify that to the best of my knowledge, the content of this thesis is my own work. It contains material published in Real Time 123, Williams, Alice “From the Ashes, Renewal” on p. 179. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or other purposes. Alice Williams As supervisor for the candidature upon which this thesis is based, I can confirm that the authorship attribution statements above are correct Richard Smith 1 Introduction: Seven Years Bad Luck In 2011 I heard Ian Pidd speak as part of the Kickstart program for young artists organised by the Next Wave Festival, a Melbourne based festival of emerging artists and art forms. Pidd is a festival director and performer working in communities in Australia and internationally. Founder and co-Artistic Director of the Village Festival and Junction Arts Festival, he has been a board member and policy advisor to Asia Link arts foundation, other public and private bodies including Australia Council for the Arts, Sidney Myer Foundation, Arts Victoria, and City of Melbourne. He is an independent director, and has worked with the macabrely named Melbourne based theatre collective Snuff Puppets over a ten year period. Pidd's Next Wave presentation was like a breath of fresh air. A clown in casual dress, with curly hair, bald crown and checked pants, he booted suggestions into the expectant crowd like we were AFL fans waiting to catch footballs signed with good advice. There were no power points, just comments like, make sure you eat together with your team, and, if you meet tech people who are good at their jobs, treat them well. Pidd emphasised attention to detail. He reflected it was the process of how an event takes place that creates its cultural value. The most important part of Ian Pidd's presentation, for this thesis, was the story he told about luck. Pidd described a 2008 collaboration between Snuff Puppets and Theatre Gandrik 1 for the Yogya festival in Indonesia. The collaboration, called the Snuff Puppet Ramayana, was presented in the Yogyakarta suburb Bantul. Pidd described the group rehearsing in a pandopo , 1 A prominent Indonesian theatre group dissenting against the Suharto regime in the Nineteen Nineties through traditional and contemporary theatre. 2 a covered structure open on all sides, where local people could already see the performance taking shape. The community would watch the rehearsals and comment on aspects of the Ramayana and its interpretation. He reflected on traditional performances where spectators surround the performance, behind as well as in front of the stage, chatting throughout the performance, sleeping, dipping in and out of attention. He began to question whether spectators would receive anything from the performance, rehearsed without secrecy or novelty, already on public display. He asked Theatre Gandrik what spectators would gain from the performance. The response was, the performance would produce luck for the city throughout the rest of the year. Far from superstition, this anecdote provides an insight into what is at stake in the living exchange between theatre and its spectators. Beyond novelty, theatre is an exchange between people that affects a transformation, though exactly what is exchanged may be unknown. This is the first meaning of 'luck' in this thesis, the exchange produced by theatre, the effects of which may be unknown. But how does enacting known stories produce an unknown effect? Production implies a system of knowledge. Luck implies an unknown effect. Knowing how to produce the unknown frames the relationship between theatre and everyday life. In 2012 I received an Art Start grant from the Australia Council of the Arts to visit Odin Teatret, an historic theatre laboratory on the Western Jutland of Denmark. I mentioned this topic, 'luck' to Eugenio Barba, director of Odin Teatret, who is famed for his knowledge of theatre's unknown energies. Barba suggested, “luck is finding what you're not looking for”. His comment suggests luck is the relationship between knowledge and its other. Written between 2012 and 2019 this thesis documents six of the subsequent series of visits I made to Odin Teatret, reflecting on what I found that I had not been looking for. As Pidd says of the 3 Dhalang who conducts ritual Wayang Kulit performances of the Ramayana in Indonesia, the process of producing luck is a dangerous relationship with powerful, ambivalent forces that affect a transformation. Their malignancy is mitigated through the Dhalang 's technical knowhow.