Amanda Bolt PhD Thesis Abstract This thesis has set out to understand what is happening when impro is prac5sed as a performance form and ask whether impro is a subversive performance prac5ce at odds with the dominant order as described by Foucault. The research ques5ons are whether or not performance that is improvised in the moment can be seen as ‘other’ to authored or devised theatre prac5ces in the same way that woman can be seen as ‘other’ to the male norm. This prac5ce-led-research has isolated and analysed themes emerging from the prac5ce of impro using methods of ac5on research and grounded theory applied to data collected from interviews with female impro prac55oners as well as the researcher’s own experiences of prac5sing impro. The resul5ng themes that have been discovered are those of marginality, playfulness and communality. Victor Turner and Mikhail Bakh5n’s no5ons of the liminal, the ludic and communitas have been mapped onto these themes and the phrase ‘liminal ludic communitas’ has been developed to refer to the feelings of well-being that are generated when performers prac5ce impro. The research has discovered that impro, paradoxically, both subverts and asserts the dominant order. The form of impro, whereby performances are co- created playfully in the space and 5me of the present without authorship or artefact, subverts the dominant order of produc5on and consump5on whilst at the same 5me the character iden55es and stories that form the content of the improvisaons tend to assert the dominant order through cliché and stereotype. 1 Amanda Bolt PhD Thesis Contents List of Figures 4 Declaraon and Copyright Statement 5 Acknowledgements 6 1 Introduc5on 7 1.1 Research Statement 7 1.2 The Frame of the Research 10 1.3 Exis5ng Academic Research 12 1.4 Themac Concerns and Their Origins in the Literature 22 1.5 The Structure of the Thesis/Summary 27 2 Developing ‘Liminal Ludic Communitas’ 29 2.1 Introduc5on 29 2.2 Liminal Ludic Communitas 31 2.3 Liminal Ludic Communitas 39 2.4 Liminal Ludic Communitas 47 2.5 Summary 50 3 In Theory; The Par5culari5es of the Female Performer 52 3.1 Introduc5on 52 3.2 The Male Gaze 54 3.3 The Female Body in Performance 58 3.4 Troubling Gender’s Binary Biology 62 3.5 Further Construc5ons of the Female Subject 70 3.6 Historical Origins of the Female Performer 73 3.7 Summary 77 4 Methodology 79 41 Introduc5on 79 4.2 Phenomenology 86 4.3 Ac5on Research and Self Ethnography 86 4.4 Par5cipant Observaon 89 4.5 Narrave Enquiry 91 4.6 Methods, Ethics 95 4.7 Grounded Theory 98 4.8 Summary 100 5 The Players 101 5.1 Introduc5on 101 5.2 The Researcher’s (My) Experience of Impro and Subud 102 5.3 The Interviewees and Their Context 105 5.3.1 The Ins5tute 105 5.3.2 Cariad Lloyd 105 5.3.3 Gemma Whelan 106 5.3.4 Charlode Gins 107 5.3.5 Showstopper! The Improvised Musical 107 5.3.6 Pippa Evans 108 5.3.7 Ruth Bra 109 5.3.8 Lucy Trodd-Senton 110 5.3.9 The Spontaneity Shop 110 5.3.10 Deborah Frances-White 111 5.3.11 Jana Carpenter 112 5.3.12 Philippa Waller 113 2 Amanda Bolt PhD Thesis 5.3.13 Pa S5les 114 5.3.14 The Improvathon 114 5.4 Back to the Origins 117 5.4.1 Commedia dell’Arte 118 5.4.2 The Mask in Commedia 120 5.4.3 Women in Commedia 123 5.4.4 Commedia Revivals – Searching for a New Improvisatory Theatre 124 5.4.5 Improvisaon, Lydia Thompson and the Origins of Burlesque 126 5.4.6 Viola Spolin and the Development of Improv in the United States 127 5.4.7 Keith Johnstone at the Royal Court 129 5.4.8 Keith Johnstone in Canada and Theatresports 132 5.4.9 UK Impro Now – Ken Campbell and the Improvathon 134 5.5 Summary 135 6 Data Analysis Report 137 6.1 Introduc5on 137 6.2 Marginality 137 6.3 Marginality of Women in Impro 145 6.4 Playfulness 150 6.5 Communality 164 6.6 Summary 167 7 Conclusion 169 7.1 Introduc5on 169 7.2 Woman as Other 170 7.3 Impro as ‘Almost Theatre’ 171 7.4 Impro – Subversive or Collusive 171 7.5 Liminal Impro 172 7.6 Ludic Impro 174 7.7 Communal Impro 176 7.8 The Limitaons of the Research 178 7.9 Liminal Ludic Communitas 178 References 180 Appendices 187 Appendix 1 Research Paper 187 Appendix 2 Preliminary Email to Par5cipants and Research Contract 191 Appendix 3 Unstructured Interview Ques5ons 193 Appendix 4 Coded Interview Extract 194 Appendix 5 Memoing Notes 206 Appendix 6 Themes Emerging From Memoing 208 3 Amanda Bolt PhD Thesis List of Figures Figure 1 The Interrelaonship Between the Female Case Studies 101 Figure 2 The Bale Between Carnival and Lent by Pieter Breughal 120 Figure 3 The Bristol Old Vic Paintshop: Venue for the 2010 Improvathon 162 Figure 4 The Kazimier: Playspace of the Liverpool Improvathon 2011 163 4 Amanda Bolt PhD Thesis Declaraon and Copyright Statement No por5on of the work referred to in the Thesis has been submided in support of an applicaon for another degree or qualificaon of this or any other university or other ins5tute of learning. I confirm that this Thesis is en5rely my own work Copyright in text of this Thesis rests with the author. Copies (by any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instruc5ons given by the author. Details may be obtained from the RKE Office. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instruc5ons may not be made without the permission (in wri5ng) of the author. 5 Amanda Bolt PhD Thesis Dedicaon For my three boys; Aaron, Eli and Dahlan. You can do anything you set your mind to if you work hard and stay commided especially during the really hard parts when it feels impossible. Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors; June Boyce-Tillman and Olu Taiwo for their insights, paence and for holding my hand throughout the process. I would also like to thank my parents; Marcus and Rosalyn Bolt for endless babysing and being interested enough to read the whole thing and for believing that I could do it. And thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law, Annabella Ashby, for more babysing and encouragement. Thanks are due too to my father-in- law, David Adamson for doing my taxes – one thing I really cannot do myself! I would like to thank Charlie Broom for tea and PhD sympathy chats and an interview space. I would like to thank all of my interviewees, my teachers of impro and fellow improvisers throughout the years – you are all uderly inspiraonal. Thanks also to Chrissie Ferngrove, the fountain of knowledge for all academic dates and regulaons and a great support. Most of all I would like to thank my darling Lucas and my boys for pung up with me during the highs and lows, ebbs and flows and for suppor5ng, encouraging and loving me – now it is your turn. I love you all so much. 6 Amanda Bolt PhD Thesis Chapter One Introduc5on ‘Power is threatened by what it permits’ (Schostak & Schostak, 2008, 189) 1.1 Research Statement As I set out to embark upon this PhD research my areas of concern were around themes of marginality, women and comedy. As a grounded theory based prac5ce-led-research the prac5ce that has emerged through the process of researching has been that of impro and the Improvathon (an epic, improvised soap opera format that is performed over several days without stopping for more than a short break). I began with an idea of creang my own comedy work as a solo female performer, informed by my background in dance and performance (for a more detailed descrip5on of my experience see Chapter Five – 5.2), however, I soon discovered that I wanted a communal experience in performance prac5ce rather than a solo one. At the same 5me I was searching for a freedom of expression in the moment and this led me to focus the prac5ce-led-research on impro, a prac5ce that I had some limited experience of prior to embarking on the PhD research, but, one that I had dismissed as ‘a bit of fun’ thereby accep5ng the marginal status of the prac5ce. I realised that my assump5on was that impro is too easy, it is too much fun, it does not have to be worked at in the same way as when devising performance. The prac5ce-led-research process led me to look at impro in more depth and with more cri5cality. The ques5ons that began to emerge were; Why is it so much fun to improvise with other people? Why does prac5sing impro make me feel so good and so exhilarated? What am I (are we) achieving when we prac5se this form of performance? Does what I am (we are) achieving have any value in a paradigm of produc5on and consump5on? And why did I ini5ally dismiss this prac5ce in the context of the norms of performance that I had inherited through my experiences to date? My mo5vaons for the project arose through the prac5ce-led-research and led me to move beyond the ini5al ideas around creang my own solo comedy performance and exploring the marginality of women in comedy.