ILLUSTRATOR, COLLABORATOR, AUTEUR: THE EXPRESSION AND ENACTMENT OF AGENCY IN DESIGN/SCENOGRAPHY EDUCATION by HARRIET EMMA RICHMOND A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY. Department of Drama and Theatre Arts School of English, Drama and American & Canadian Studies College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham DECEMBER 2018 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis argues that there has been an authorial turn in the occupational identities of theatre designer/scenographers, illustrated through the title of this thesis, ‘Illustrator, Collaborator, Auteur’. The authorial turn has been caused by the scenographic turn that may be described as a turn away from design/scenography for performance towards design/scenography as performance and this has led to a shift in the positionality of designer/scenographers in performance making. Design/scenography education is chosen as the context for the study as it is both an under-theorised area of scholarly enquiry and represents a site of social practices with the potential to provide insights into the changing occupational role of the designer/scenographer. The dual disciplinary context of the study, namely drama and education, necessitates engagement with theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches from both disciplines. These are applied in two case studies of design/scenography education. The first examines the emergence of design/scenography education in the UK in the period between the wars at the London Theatre Studio, and the subsequently constituted Motley Theatre Design Course. The second presents analysis of interviews with current course leaders of design courses. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special thanks and gratitude go to the supervisor of this thesis, Dr. Caroline Radcliffe, for her generosity, expertise, constructive feedback and encouragement. I would also like to thank Professor Russell Jackson who co-supervised the early stages of this doctorate. Thanks to Professor Susan Doherty and Linda Coles, who provided time and support to complete this doctorate. Special thanks also go to my parents, Robin and Christine Richmond, and to my husband, Iain Jones, for his support, encouragement and love. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 13 1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 14 2. Research Questions .................................................................................... 16 3. The Scenographic Turn .............................................................................. 17 3.1 Conflation of Terms and the Tactic of the Discursive Field .............. 21 4. Interdisciplinarity and the Education Context ........................................... 25 4.1 Scholarly Inquiry and Design/Scenography Education ..................... 26 4.2 Professionalisation and Education ..................................................... 26 4.3 Education as a Site of Social Practices .............................................. 27 4.4 Positionality ....................................................................................... 30 5. Methodology .............................................................................................. 31 6. Contributions to Knowledge ...................................................................... 33 7. Limitations ................................................................................................. 34 8. Further Lines of Inquiry ............................................................................. 35 9. Chapter Summary ...................................................................................... 35 10. Chapter One Conclusion ........................................................................ 38 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................ 40 1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 41 2. Concepts of Design/Scenography Education ............................................. 41 2.1 Scenography: Etymology ................................................................... 42 2.2 The Field of Design/Scenography ..................................................... 46 2.3 Contributors to the Design/Scenography Literature .......................... 49 2.4 Contributors to the Design/Scenography Education Literature ......... 52 2.5 Design/Scenography Education Literature ........................................ 53 2.6 The Emergence of Design/Scenography Education .......................... 54 2.7 Five Discursive Frames of Design/Scenography ............................... 63 3. Models of Learning and Signature Pedagogy ............................................ 84 3.1 Constructivist and Technicist Theories of Learning .......................... 84 3.2 Signature Pedagogy ........................................................................... 88 4. Definitions of Agency, Structure and Power ............................................. 97 4.1 Authorial, Professional and Identity Agency ................................... 102 5. Chapter Two Conclusion ......................................................................... 103 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY ............................................................ 106 1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 107 2. Methodology and ‘Epistemological Reflection’ ...................................... 107 2.1 How Reality Can Be Known ........................................................... 107 2.2 The Relationship Between the Knower and What Is Known .......... 108 2.3 The Characteristics and Methods That Guide the Achievement of Findings ....................................................................................................... 110 3. Research Design: Motley Theatre Design Course Case Study ................ 114 3.1 The Entry to the Study: Newspaper Archives ................................. 114 3.2 The Case Study Method ................................................................... 115 3.3 The Absence of the Archive ............................................................ 118 3.4 The Oral History Method and the ‘Composed Account’ ................. 120 3.5 The Focus Group Method and Object Elicitation ............................ 123 3.6 Objects, Memory and Punctum ....................................................... 124 3.7 Motley Focus Group Ethics and Recruitment .................................. 129 3.8 Three Stages of Object Elicitation ................................................... 129 3.9 Methodological Contribution to Knowledge ................................... 130 3.10 Summary .......................................................................................... 131 4. Research Design: Study of Current Design/Scenography Education ...... 131 4.1 Photo-Interviewing .......................................................................... 133 4.2 The Interviewer/Interviewee Relationship ....................................... 134 4.3 The Polysemic Image ....................................................................... 136 4.4 The Interview Schedule ................................................................... 136 4.5 Photographs and Preparations for the Interviews ............................ 137 5. Chapter Three Conclusion ....................................................................... 139 CHAPTER FOUR: PROFESSIONALISING THE DESIGNER ........................ 142 1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 143 2. The Motley Theatre Design Course: Emergence and Influences ............ 144 3. When Motley Met Gielgud ...................................................................... 149 4. Noah and The London Theatre Studio ..................................................... 153 5. Providence Hall, Islington: The London Theatre Studio ......................... 159 6. The Manifesto of the London Theatre Studio .......................................... 166 6.2 ‘A Permanent Company’ ................................................................. 185 6.3 ‘Specialists from Every Branch of the Theatre’ .............................. 191 6.4 ‘A Practical Effort by a Man of the Working Theatre’ .................... 197 7. Chapter Four Conclusion ......................................................................... 236 CHAPTER FIVE: RECONSTRUCTING THE MOTLEY COURSE ................ 239 1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 240 2. Objects and Punctum ............................................................................... 241 2.1 Stephen’s Object: An End of Year Motley Exhibition Flier ..........