Trailers as mediatized performances: Investigating the use of promotional videos among Italian contemporary theatre artists

In the theatre sector, many companies, festivals and theatres have integrated promotional videos into their communication strategies. This recent development is undoubtedly due to the rise of social media and the increasing accessibility of video technologies, but also to the need for theatre companies to publicize their work in a media that combines creative autonomy with economic efficiency. Despite this widespread use, trailers in the performing arts have received little attention in academic literature. This article offers the first, exploratory study on the use of promotional videos in the field of contemporary theatre in Italy and on the connections between the current creation of digital promotional clips and the heritage of the Italian video-theatre. Through in-depth interviews with sixteen of the leading Italian companies, this research aims to bring out the role theatre trailers play for performance artists.

Svět prken, která znamenají svět. O projektu Divadelního oddělení Národního muzea – Dokumentace současných divadelních budov

This paper presents an extensive research project carried out by the Theatre Department at the National Museum. This document, the Catalogue of Contemporary Theatre Buildings, maps out in detail the sites where theatre is performed in the Czech Republic today. It focuses not only on professional venues, but also registers other, often unconventional, places where theatre thrives, such as churches, public spaces, cultural centres, private apartments, gymnasia, cinemas, shopping centres, etc. In the first section, the outline of the project is presented, starting from the initial idea through to the people involved and technical support for its implementation, to a description of how the obtained material was processed into a comprehensive and clear archival collection. In the second part, the study focuses on some valuable findings on contemporary theatre in the Czech Republic, obtained by the author during the cataloguing process. Using photographs, textual materials, video footage and interviews with employees of the documented institutions, the project aims to find answers to general questions of a social nature: How does neatness or untidiness indicate a citizen‘s relationship to the place in which they live? How do people understand the terms ‘community centre’ and ‘public service’?

Blackout: Theatre, Rugby and Samoan Masculine Identities

<p>This thesis examines key ideas concerning masculinity and Samoan identity, focusing on the external and internal pressures placed on Pacific Island athletes in New Zealand and abroad to inform the development of an original script, Blackout. In 2014, as part of an Honours script-writing course, I wrote a first draft for my first full-length play. Inspired by the work of Samoan playwright Oscar Kightley, Blackout is a play that intersects the story of four young Pacific Island boys in their last year of College with the journey of a talented young Pacific Islander in his mid-20s trying to make his way in the Professional Rugby world. This thesis is part of a practice-based research project, comprising a 60% theory-based thesis (25,000 words) and 40% practical component, developing the script through three workshop productions. The two working questions the thesis and production process centre on are, firstly how the experiences of young second generation Samoan males can be explored through a contemporary theatre text, enabling the research to develop the story and characters of the play. The second,how the development of this script can enhance an understanding of what it is to be an emerging playwright, grounding the piece in personal experiences and contributing discoveries for young Pacific Playwrights. The practical elements of the project will be evaluated through the submission of two scripts,the first draft and the final working script, the reflection of this process in the thesis including facets of a workbook and in the presentation of the final performance itself, a copy of which will be made available to all markers. What drives the project is a desire to see how the experiences of young, male, Samoans might be represented theatrically and how this might be an effective way of connecting with community. This process has opened up two further questions, being: What is the role of the writer in the rehearsal room? What are the dramaturgical challenges of developing a script in-progress?</p>

Blackout: Theatre, Rugby and Samoan Masculine Identities

<p>This thesis examines key ideas concerning masculinity and Samoan identity, focusing on the external and internal pressures placed on Pacific Island athletes in New Zealand and abroad to inform the development of an original script, Blackout. In 2014, as part of an Honours script-writing course, I wrote a first draft for my first full-length play. Inspired by the work of Samoan playwright Oscar Kightley, Blackout is a play that intersects the story of four young Pacific Island boys in their last year of College with the journey of a talented young Pacific Islander in his mid-20s trying to make his way in the Professional Rugby world. This thesis is part of a practice-based research project, comprising a 60% theory-based thesis (25,000 words) and 40% practical component, developing the script through three workshop productions. The two working questions the thesis and production process centre on are, firstly how the experiences of young second generation Samoan males can be explored through a contemporary theatre text, enabling the research to develop the story and characters of the play. The second,how the development of this script can enhance an understanding of what it is to be an emerging playwright, grounding the piece in personal experiences and contributing discoveries for young Pacific Playwrights. The practical elements of the project will be evaluated through the submission of two scripts,the first draft and the final working script, the reflection of this process in the thesis including facets of a workbook and in the presentation of the final performance itself, a copy of which will be made available to all markers. What drives the project is a desire to see how the experiences of young, male, Samoans might be represented theatrically and how this might be an effective way of connecting with community. This process has opened up two further questions, being: What is the role of the writer in the rehearsal room? What are the dramaturgical challenges of developing a script in-progress?</p>

Faces of the Captives: Aesthetic Distance and Emotional Absorption in Young Children's Engagement with Theatre

<p>When Captain Hook has the lost boys tied up on his ship he cannot recognise that the sparkle on the ‘faces of the captives’ is the thrill of mimesis. It has been suggested that if young children cannot distinguish between reality and illusion then instead of suspending disbelief in the stage world, they will actually believe and therefore experience a dangerous level of emotional absorption. Using Peter Pan as a frame of reference, this thesis examines responses to three contemporary theatre works, Capital E National Theatre for Children’s Songs of the Sea and Boxes and Scottish company Catherine Wheels’ White to challenge the idea that aesthetic distance provides a necessary protective function. Instead, it will be argued that the imagination, empathy and emotion contagion provide the conditions in which children can capably enter the aesthetic space of fictional worlds on stage.</p>

The Way of Steve Lacy: Finding Individuality through Musical Genealogy

<p>This research project traces Lacy’s life in music, looking at his long period of apprenticeship, the brief but important period in which he focussed exclusively on free improvisation, and the subsequent years spent formulating and creating his own music. It uses both musical analysis of his improvisations and his compositions and commentary on the path he chose, in an attempt to define his place in 20th century music and the legacy he leaves us. The second part of the project involves my own compositions, which investigate areas similar to those which Lacy explored in his lifetime. These include finding a relationship between composition and improvisation in which both methods are given equal value. Their respective qualities, such as the collective interplay found in improvisation or the structure that composition supplies, are being cultivated. The point of these works is not to investigate methods of composition or conduction in which improvisation or semi-improvisation can be integrated. In this music the improvisers have as few limitations as possible, so that they are free to improvise. The works merely look to find a balance where these two methods can co-exist. The pieces are mostly idiomatic although they use genre as a point of departure rather than a fixed entity. They attempt to transcend, or in some cases to subvert, the idiom to which they are referring. They have been written intuitively and developed and refined through live performance. The compositions for the ensemble, The Troubles, were developed over a year of weekly live performances and there was a degree of autonomy and democracy for all the performers. A score in this music is perhaps akin to many of the practices to be found in the creation of contemporary theatre, where a text can be treated, elaborated upon, toyed with, where there are moments where things have been devised by the ensemble, rather than viewed as a sacred object. It is possible to imagine that Lacy too worked in this manner with his regular group. In these pieces I have tried to heed Braque’s lessons, and to avoid mimicry, yet in this work I hope to capture something of the spirit of Steve Lacy.</p>

Faces of the Captives: Aesthetic Distance and Emotional Absorption in Young Children's Engagement with Theatre

<p>When Captain Hook has the lost boys tied up on his ship he cannot recognise that the sparkle on the ‘faces of the captives’ is the thrill of mimesis. It has been suggested that if young children cannot distinguish between reality and illusion then instead of suspending disbelief in the stage world, they will actually believe and therefore experience a dangerous level of emotional absorption. Using Peter Pan as a frame of reference, this thesis examines responses to three contemporary theatre works, Capital E National Theatre for Children’s Songs of the Sea and Boxes and Scottish company Catherine Wheels’ White to challenge the idea that aesthetic distance provides a necessary protective function. Instead, it will be argued that the imagination, empathy and emotion contagion provide the conditions in which children can capably enter the aesthetic space of fictional worlds on stage.</p>

The Way of Steve Lacy: Finding Individuality through Musical Genealogy

<p>This research project traces Lacy’s life in music, looking at his long period of apprenticeship, the brief but important period in which he focussed exclusively on free improvisation, and the subsequent years spent formulating and creating his own music. It uses both musical analysis of his improvisations and his compositions and commentary on the path he chose, in an attempt to define his place in 20th century music and the legacy he leaves us. The second part of the project involves my own compositions, which investigate areas similar to those which Lacy explored in his lifetime. These include finding a relationship between composition and improvisation in which both methods are given equal value. Their respective qualities, such as the collective interplay found in improvisation or the structure that composition supplies, are being cultivated. The point of these works is not to investigate methods of composition or conduction in which improvisation or semi-improvisation can be integrated. In this music the improvisers have as few limitations as possible, so that they are free to improvise. The works merely look to find a balance where these two methods can co-exist. The pieces are mostly idiomatic although they use genre as a point of departure rather than a fixed entity. They attempt to transcend, or in some cases to subvert, the idiom to which they are referring. They have been written intuitively and developed and refined through live performance. The compositions for the ensemble, The Troubles, were developed over a year of weekly live performances and there was a degree of autonomy and democracy for all the performers. A score in this music is perhaps akin to many of the practices to be found in the creation of contemporary theatre, where a text can be treated, elaborated upon, toyed with, where there are moments where things have been devised by the ensemble, rather than viewed as a sacred object. It is possible to imagine that Lacy too worked in this manner with his regular group. In these pieces I have tried to heed Braque’s lessons, and to avoid mimicry, yet in this work I hope to capture something of the spirit of Steve Lacy.</p>

A Shift Towards Digital and Participatory Performance Practice Post-Pandemic

This perspective analyses and reflects upon the experience of conceiving, curating and participating in&nbsp;Bodies:On:Live&nbsp;Magdalena:On:Live,&nbsp;the first online multi-platform Magdalena Festival, bringing together digitally competent artists with creative roots in the immateriality of the internet, in dialogue about current shifts in performance making&nbsp;with performers, writers, and directors declaring their uneasiness towards online adaptations of live work.&nbsp;As part of the global reaction to the standstill brought about by the Covid pandemic,&nbsp;we argue that shifts in practice for women in contemporary theatre associated with the Magdalena network – whether as an attempt for immediate artistic survival or a conscious experimental choice – were not exclusively determined by the available sharing of technical knowledge, or by the need to increase awareness of the digital medium in order to gain&nbsp;experience&nbsp;of&nbsp;different working&nbsp;modalities, but&nbsp;served a participatory and social purpose.&nbsp;These conditions were surfacing due to the digital space manifesting as a specific format of gathering through the Zoom windows and other platforms,&nbsp;which framed the encounters within a democratic performance arena, making the boundaries between participation and spectatorship porous.&nbsp;Therefore,&nbsp;the shift provoked&nbsp;by the festival&nbsp;not only pertains to the aesthetic&nbsp;sphere,&nbsp;but&nbsp;it&nbsp;is dynamically and organically geared towards the recognition of new working contexts arising from the unsettling experience of ‘disembodiment’&nbsp;–&nbsp;as an ontological paradox of the original in-person Magdalena festival -&nbsp;and the embedded argument of the creative use of new technologies for a more sustainable and accessible future of performance making, both live and digital.&nbsp;