Improvisation as a Pedagogy of Organicity in a Work of Textbook Value by Victor Mihăilescu

The work Improvisation, the Pedagogy of Organicity is a major, original contribution to the research specific to the field of theatre and performing arts in general, and the art of acting in particular, and the reader interested in the latest editorial entries, ideas, methodologies, especially if he is a specialist, will literally go through it while taking notes. The reviewed work, following a doctoral dissertation awarded Summa cum Laude, is based on a thorough documentation, the research sources, professionally cited in the paper, cover the essential bibliography and the latest works in the field of Theatre Theory and Aesthetics, Actor’s Art and Theatrical Improvisation and the vast fields from which the actor’s art constantly borrows support and analysis tools – Psychology, Pedagogy, Neurosciences. The material is structured in three main parts, the twinning of which results in the author’s original thesis – a compendium of ideas on improvisation and specific methodologies that becomes, through the exceptional quality of documentation and the original contribution of the author’s own research, a landmark for actors and theatre pedagogues, theorists and practitioners in the field.

Lola Arias’ Campo minado/ Minefield (2016): Exploring Dramatherapy in Documentary Theatre

Campo minado/ Minefield (2016) by Lola Arias brings to the stage three British and three Argentine veterans from the Malvinas/ Falklands War (1982), performing as themselves. Their re-enactments of the war and their lives thereafter trigger questions about the affective experience of their bodies on stage. While documentary theatre theory foregrounds a material understanding of the performing body - a mediating technology for documentary authenticity - this article explores how dramatherapy theory might provide additional vocabulary to conceptualize the emotional dimension of the veterans’ performance. In doing so, this analysis puts forward an understanding of authenticity as dependent on affective transformations rather than material evidence.

Back to the future: On continuities and discontinuities in the history of Maska

The last century saw quite a few cases of establishing, cancelling and relaunching of theatre journalism in Slovenia – Maska also being part of this “vicious circle”, which often began “from the beginning”. On the other hand, it seems that Maska is the one that has managed to surpass this history of constant beginnings as it has now been in regular circulation for almost 30 years, ever since it reclaimed its original name in 1991. The journal could not escape temporary crises, yet Maska has so far always been able to gather enough strength to throw away these shackles and survive. The author presents and analyses the history of Maska from its foundation to the present day, draws attention to certain key milestones, and in particular highlights the magazine’s productive connections between theatre theory and practice.

Horeogrāfa stratēģijas mūsdienu teātrī: Agates Bankavas piemērs

During the last two decades, contemporary dance choreographers of Latvia have been more and more intensely involved in staging dramatic theatre performances. This observation has served as a basis for my research question: if and how the stage movement paradigm has changed in the dramatic theatre due to the input of professional contemporary dance choreographers. The increase of the choreographer’s competency and responsibility is related to the paradigmatic change in the theatre in general. Hans-Thies Lehmann, the distinguished German theatre theorist, has developed his post-dramatic theatre theory (Lehmann 2006) that promotes focusing on a live and direct relationship between theatrical performances and their audience. As a result, despite that the director still takes on the main responsibility for the staging, the input of other members of the creative team often equates with the director’s share of creative work. The text of the play in contemporary theatre is often regarded as one of the elements creating the stage work alongside the scenography, music, light design, video projection, etc. In this interdisciplinary kind of art, the choreographer plays an equal role by developing both individual performers and the whole ensemble, thus striving for the most matching and expressive psycho-physical stage presence of the performers. In my contribution, I have focused on Agate Bankava (b. 1991) as one of the most productive new generation contemporary dance choreographers. She regularly works both at theatrical and contemporary dance projects as well as for different interdisciplinary contemporary art performances. To characterize her work, I have described the strategies she uses following the principles Agate Bankava has stated as the basis for her work: high professional standards combined with a wise and intelligent thought pattern, consequently leading towards a comprehensive and sophisticated artwork that simultaneously preserves a link to reality.

Pressurizing the Politics of The Crucible: a Brechtian Production of Arthur Miller’s Modern Classic

In this article David Barnett documents a practice-as-research project that employed Brechtian approaches to stage dramatic material. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a realist text in which the protagonist, John Proctor, redeems himself for the sin of adultery by taking a heroic stand against the Salem witch-hunts. Existing scholarship has revealed a series of gendered biases in the form and content of the play, yet these findings have never been systematically realized in performance. While appearing to defend democratic values, the play’s dramaturgical strategies coerce agreement, and this represents a fundamental contradiction. Brecht offers a method that preserves the written dialogue, but interprets it critically onstage, deploying a range of devices derived from a materialist and dialectical interpretation. The aim of the production was to re-present a play with a familiar production history and problematize the political bases on which it conventionally rested. The article discusses the rationale for the theory and practice of contemporary Brechtian theatre and offers the production as a model for future critical realizations of other realist plays. David Barnett is Professor of Theatre at the University of York. His publications include A History of the Berliner Ensemble (CUP, 2015), Brecht in Practice: Theatre, Theory and Performance (Bloomsbury, 2014), amd Rainer Werner Fassbinder and the German Theatre (CUP, 2005).

Analysis of the Concept and the Drama Psychology of Immersive Theatre

Immersive theatre means put audience into the space where the story take place. Actors and actresses perform in the authentic environment and audience also in this environment, watching the peoceeding of the story closely. With the success of Sleep No More, more and more people pay attention to immersive theatre. Some Chinese theatre directors also launch out into doing similar things. It is no doubt that immersive theatre is popular now at home and abroad. However, as a new form of theatre, immersive theatre theoretical study is really inadequate. This text aims explain the connotation and concepts of immersive theatre or what is immersive theatre, the feature of immersive theatre in addition to its present situation in China, though Sleep No More, one of the most famous immersive theatres. I hope to offer reference for Chinese theatre people, make contributions for their study and creations, then again filling in gaps in immersive theatre theory. Only in this way, can immersive theatre develop healthily and can its ecology be constructed well.P.C. 210046