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Using information gathered in 156 interviews with artistic directors, the author concludes that the role and function of Boards of Directors in the performing arts differ from those in business organizations, and describes those functions in depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article evaluates key London productions of Restoration drama over the last 50 years and addresses how directors envisage the future of Behn’s plays on the twenty-first-century stage. Discussion includes past revivals of plays marketed as Restoration entertainment, the connection between modern productions of Behn and today’s theatrical landscape, and the potential opened up by unconventional performance spaces. The analysis seeks to determine whether the creative environment and audiences’ awareness of Restoration drama are ripe for carefully considered revivals of Behn’s plays. To date, has her work been performed with enough impact to garner the widespread attention of modern London audiences? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An essay is presented on the intercultural performance, aesthetics, and dramaturgy of the theatrical production "Told by the Wind," by the Llanarth Group in Wales. Topics discussed include the Japanese theatre, the pre-performative training for theatrical performance, and the rehearsals for "Told by the Wind" and its development and production management.

Copyright of Signa is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Signa is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The postdramatic theatre is explored as an alternative ethics of re-presentation in 2401 Objects by Analogue in relation to its stance on medicine and the neurosciences and to theatrical representation. The dual characters Henry Molaison/Patient HM are deconstructed as objects and the presentation of memory is deconstructed as an embodied but intangible artifact of performance. How Analogue 'frame' HM's doctors and their own performance through the metaphor of the cryomicrotome and the Project HM of the Brain Observatory as a performance in its own right is examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, voice practitioners have been working on freeing the voice and connecting voice to body. It is a voice in ‘crisis’, both literally and figuratively. This article discusses the application of existing Oriental and Occidental methods to discover an alternative to the multifaceted area of the voice in performance pertaining to the notion of ‘crisis’. In this context, however, the inspiration stemmed from Butoh dance, particularly looking at the practice and philosophies of Tatsumi Hijikata. The non-conventional physical and vocal training practices of the Voice Theatre Lab, a practice-led research performance group from Tasmania, Australia, incorporates Butoh practice in training and performance in order to express the voice in ‘crisis’. Although this explanation of ‘crisis’ is not directly linked to Hijikata's cultural notion of ‘crisis’, its roots lie in the artistic expression of change within society and culture. The result was a series of structured training sessions and performances. Elements such as imagery and the expression of the unconscious helps in abandoning literal realities which result in the expression of a ‘freer’ voice. As a result, the Voice Theatre Lab developed a series of training and performance aesthetics that went beyond the quotidian forms of physical and vocal expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the synthesis of acting methodologies in intercultural acting has been discussed at length, little discussion has focussed on the potential of diverse actor training styles to affect performance making and audience reception. This article explores a project where the abstract elements of the British and American cultures were translated in rehearsal and in production through the purposeful juxtaposition of two differing actor training styles: the British ‘traditional’ approach and the American Method. William Nicholson'sShadowlandswas produced by Crossbow Productions at the Brisbane Powerhouse in 2010. Nicholson's play contains a discourse on the cultural cringe of British–American relations. As a research project, the production aimed to extend and augment audience experience of the socio-cultural tensions inherent in the play by juxtaposing two seemingly culturally inscribed approaches to acting. Actors were chosen who had been trained under a traditional conservatoire approach and the American Method. A brief overview of these acting approaches is followed by a discussion centred on the project. This article analyses how from the casting room to the rehearsal room to themise en sceneand into the audience discussions, cultural issues were articulated, translated and debated through the language of acting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay attempts to explore a subtle distancing between the dramatic text and its young audiences. Based on a series of group interviews conducted with theatregoing and former theatregoing members of the digital generation, I try to offer three possible readings of their seemingly detached and uninvolved mode of spectating. Without striving to be extremely comprehensive or generally representative, these readings aim to draw attention to some as yet unexplored troubles Romanian mainstream theatre is facing in relation with the ever-changing wave of virtual worlds, fictions and technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article compares two productions of John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi" to elucidate the point at which the play's oppositional "Jacobean" identity first became functional. According to the article, by comparison, the 2011 production resites the "Jacobean" within the kind of authentic "purist" Shakespearian staging though not threatening to derail the narrative of the 1892 version. Very appropriately, the 2011 production took audience to the nostalgic darkness of 17th century playhouse.

The voice technique of Nadine George is the core practice of the Centre for Voice in Performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and has been used in the training of performers and within professional theatre productions in Scotland for over 20 years. This article documents the first stage of a long-term practice-led investigation into the application of the vocal technique to directors and the direction process. It charts the growth and development of an embodied understanding of the technique for directors as creative artists before going on to explain how that understanding has led to new investigations within current professional theatre practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores acting processes in Max Stafford-Clark's production of Robin Soans' verbatim play Talking to Terrorists (2005). With reference to new interview material with cast, writer and director, I interrogate the particular demands of playing a real person in a production in which the cast were involved in the play's research. In two research periods and in rehearsals, many of the actors interviewed the individual they played, and these meetings provided material for the script. Following the cast's focus, this article investigates preparatory and rehearsal processes. Using Jean Benedetti's re-translation of Stanislavski's work ( An Actor's Work (2008) and An Actor's Work on a Role (2010)), I put the actor's Stanislavski-inspired vocabulary under the microscope to establish whether his work provides an appropriate terminology to illuminate these processes. This article highlights some of the challenges of portraying a real person and also identifies the negotiations and tensions between the actors' preparation and the director's own working methods. My analysis of the actors' testimony also suggests why acting processes have been overlooked despite the surge of research into verbatim theatre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the adult companies moved to performing indoors in London, as they did progressively after 1609, following the King's Men's acquisition of the Blackfriars playhouse, an important structural and performative change occurred. The need to trim candles, used to help illuminate the indoor stage, meant the introduction of pauses between the acts. Surprisingly little research has been conducted in this area. This article considers several textual examples which script and record business between the acts, and explores in detail a remarkable instance of the use of the interval in Middleton and Rowley's The Changeling (1622). De Flores's skulduggery while the candles are being attended to is examined in terms of its theatre logic and the practicalities of its staging. It is proposed that this fascinating moment is best understood in the context of contemporary political concerns, specifically the unpopularity of King James's foreign policy towards Spain. As is well known, Middleton's plays are conspicuous for their allusions to both court scandal and Anglo-Spanish relations. The article concludes that De Flores's 'trespassing' onto the stage while play is apparently suspended may be read as being suggestive of a deep-seated Protestant anxiety about Spain and fear of the threat it posed to England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the theatrical production "The Tempest," directed by Janice Honeyman and performed by the Royal Shakespeare Co. and the Baxter Theatre Centre is presented. It outlines the theatrical concept on greed, exploitation, and power struggles for British colonialism in North America. It mentions the use of a fluent translation strategy in Honeyman's production such as a song in African language. It also explores Honeyman's effort to reconcile colonialism with African traditions.

Performing Research: Tensions, Triumphs and Trade-offs of Ethnodrama, co-edited by Judith Ackroyd and John O'Toole, is a substantive contribution to the ethnodramatic literature. Section A of Performing Research includes Ackroyd & O'Toole's reflections on selected issues surrounding ethnodrama, including such matters as terminology, ethics, representation, and aesthetics. In Section B, the developers of six different ethnodramatic productions offer their backstage and offstage accounts as case studies in playwriting, production development, and performance. This behind-the-scenes documentation provides those interested in the genre some wise and pragmatic advice before tackling their own arts-based research projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an analysis on the art of listening involving the performing arts-related training program named Excitations in Great Britain. It examines the important role of listening, also known as hearing with a purpose, as a training approach for performance practices. It explores the training program Excitations and describes how it is done. It also mentions the benefits of Excitations.

When mid-western US university theatre departments consist predominately of white, middle class faculty and students, producing minority-based plays, even when character-specific actors are available and willing, challenges the white majority to accept non-participatory roles. Over the last 23 years of directing plays at a mid-western theatre department only ten percent have been minority based. This lack of acceptance of minority-based productions has kept both interested and talented minority students from declaring theatre as a major . Thus, the abundance of benefits from embracing diversity in theatrical productions is affected with deleterious consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Howard Barker's play "The Bite of the Night" has rarely been performed and is not often studied, but its technique offers a valuable model whereby to analyse his subsequent work. Scenes of violence starkly enacted become focal points for an action that at all other times seems to spin out of control. Through this bizarre method, the play demonstrates the value of an artwork that resembles Helen of Troy—beautiful, desirable, and productive of violence. Through Savage's interaction with Helen, Barker speculates that the purely aesthetic and therefore inviolable core of her person provides the foundation for ethical interaction with a society that threatens to segment humanity through its institutions and desires. Helen exposes Savage's need for what Jacques Lacan terms "l'objet petit a," and through her beauty, teaches him to fulfil and thus destroy all of his yearnings, exposing what he lacks in order to discover who he is. The play itself serves a similar purpose for its audience, revealing the "miracle" that "happen[s] when desire's dead" ("Bite of the Night "78). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the theatrical production "The Starlight Express," authored by Algernon Blackwood and music by Edward Elgar, which was documented on a book. It mentions that the production team approached Elgar seven weeks before the scheduled date and on that day he became very much involved especially in the rehearsal. It says that the music of Elgar was complimented while the play received sharp criticism.

The article focuses on the impact of the marriage of María Magdalena de Austria to Cosimo II de Medici, grand-duke of Tuscany, and the reign of Leonor Pimentel in Spain on the selection of Lope de Vega's work "El vellocino de oro." It is noted that the staging of the play at the fiesta de Aranjuez was influenced by their marriage. It emphasizes that Pimentel was involved and responsible of the choice and production of the play.

The article discusses the author's view regarding the historical, aesthetic and political position of theatrical aesthetics in Great Britain. It notes that work simultaneity, paradoxes and contradictions, and participant's question affect theater. Moreover, it cites that theatrical appearance is a judicial notion which provides art performances.

The article offers information on the development of the Hunter Hills Theatre in Tennessee. The authors state that the theatre is built in 1955 for Chucky Jack, an outdoor drama about the first governor of Tennessee. The theatre has been built to keep tourists on the west side of the Smokies. The University of Tennessee has staged 32 productions during the 12 years of operating Hunter Hills Theatre.

Theater production is a collaborative creative activity. Social creativity recognizes the relationships between creative groups and the contexts in which creativity emerges. It also suggests that the interactive processes between the collaborators and their work form a center, which in turn becomes a kind of creative entity itself. An evolving systems case study of production practices at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival illuminates this process and illustrates the differences between seeing an aggregate creative activity and the more holistic view, in which the artwork functions like another person, a creature in dialogue with the personality of the creative system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an analysis of the literary piece "The Flying Dutchman," by Richard Wagner and directed by Calixto Bieito. It is implied that the director's biography might have an effect to the composition and production of the piece. It has been noted that Bieito is a successful opera director and crtically acclaimed for his often violent and confrontational portrayals. He has worked on many stages in which his audiences were stunned by explicit imagery and radical performances. In line with this, the article offers a critique of the piece for Stuttgart State Opera, applying mainly semiotics to interpret the production.

The article focuses on the psychophysical dynamics of direction in the intracultural context. It is stated that the act of direction becomes possible only through the inventionist presence and bilingualism of the translator. Inevitably, circuitous acts of direction through translation can be painfully slow, if not tortuous, yet these acts can be enormously beneficial in opening the theatrical process to multiple and unprecedented trajectories of meaning. It is further noted that multiple struggles not only did the performance come alive but incandescent, self-realization enabled to understand that the act of translation in theater can never afford the lesson learned from everyday life.

The Sanskrit theatre tradition of India has often been regarded as avoiding, even prohibiting, depiction of death on the stage. This article argues that death was both threatened and enacted on the stage, and has always been integral to the Sanskrit theatre tradition, as seen to the present day in Kerala's Kūṭiyāṭṭam tradition. The apparent conflict between "rules" from the Nāṭyaśāstra, the normative text for theatre, and actual dramas is examined, and the surprisingly large number of references in the Nāṭyaśāstra to dramatic uses of death are discussed. For the audience member, seeing depictions of or threats of deaths on the stage can be a significant component of the Indic theatrical experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a reflection on the adaptation of the spectator to the latest tendencies in plastic art and image in general. This reflection leads up to consider the need for helping the audience to become critical spectators. This proposal is based on the development of activities, some of which have already been put in to practice, which are aimed at the audience with the goal of producing an active learning process. Apart from the participants' personal involvement, motivation should be the focus of the activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the outcome of qualitative research undertaken around a community theatre production presented at the Hamilton Fuel Festival 2006. Swamp Treasures was an attempt to articulate in a theatre aesthetic the plight of the wetland regions in the Waikato province. There were 80 participants, a choir, an orchestra, an elaborate set, lighting design and over 30 specifically made theatre masks. I invited a group of eight teenagers to watch the performance and they were then interviewed, answering specific questions. The data were then considered using Kant's theories of beauty, aesthetics and communication as a reference point for the production's development, delivery and effectiveness. As Swamp Treasures was designed as a montage of impressions and points of view, the research has been able to evaluate the artistic efficacy of the differing styles and the aptitude of these techniques to transfer information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses the discourse surrounding celebrity portraits of Lois Weber and her husband and collaborator, Phillips Smalley, arguing that metaphors of marital harmony that sought to explain the couple's creative partnership ultimately could not contain the challenges their working relationship presented to dominant models of gender relations. Significant though Weber's films were, the director's elevated reputation had as much to do with the kinds of pictures she made, as it did with the type of woman she presented herself to be — married, matronly, and decidedly middle-class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many dance composition courses, creative production is the objective; movement invention and novelty are praised. Yet often this valuing of creativity is not reflected in the course design. Historically, the basic methodology for dance composition is a show-and-tell model: present the movement study, then critique it. If creativity is truly paramount to the development of artistry and choreographic skill, that pedagogical value should be reflected in the unifying structure of the course—the way time is used, assignments given, in teaching behaviors, and modes of assessment. Using the acronym C.R.E.A.T.E. to identify six pedagogical targets, Davenport proposes an approach for designing a composition course. The pedagogical principles—Critical reflection, Reason for dance making, Exploration and experimentation, Aesthetic agenda, Thematic integrity, and Expression and experience—are proposed as guides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relationship between theoretical and emotional production in "The English Patient," by Michael Ondaatje and "Chatterton," by Peter Ackroyd. The author states that the work of Ackroyd seems to accept and use the assumption that postmodernism is not open to emotion while the work of Ondaatje refigures the emotional in refiguring identity, memory and time.

In Tokyo in 1909, Osanai Kaoru staged Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman, thereby launching the Japanese modern theatre, shingeki, New Theatre. But many of Kaoru's actors were kabuki - the "old theatre." The implications of a new, art theatre performed by traditional actors until now has not been thoroughly analyzed. What were Osanai's "contradictory" ideas about "professional amateurism"? How did modernity cause epistemological tensions in modern Japanese theatre? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Braunschweig is one of the young European directors developing innovative scenographic techniques that interrogate the relationship between space, body, and text. Braunschweig's uses three-dimensional theatre-machines to explore ambiguities and contradictions, even as he confronts spectators with the materiality of the stage and the performative body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meditating on Odin Teatret's longevity, Barba writes what he calls "a fairy tale" about two brothers - Error and Disorder - who travel the world shadowing each other. Disorder is the irruption of an energy that confronts us with the unknown. And Error is a liberating challenge to orthodox art. For Barba, the creative interaction of Error and Disorder is the energy source driving true Odin on its amazing 40-year-odyssey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sketches the geographical background of the Franklin Furnace. The article also discusses the cultural district, the Tribeca neighborhood of downtown Manhattan in New York City, which was the context for the protean and bumptious venue. This article is distantly informed by Pierre Bourdieu's conception of fields of production. It is influenced too by the resurgent discourse in the work of artists and geographers around conceptions of psychogeography derived from the Situationists. This is some sort of philosophically inclined guided tour of the Tribeca art world of the 1970s and 1980s, a beginning to a proper account of this vanished art world. To elucidate the complex aspects and overlaying scenes this narrative tour stutters somewhat in regard to time and place is discussed. The main artistic developments in Tribeca during the 1970s lay in the growth of demi-institutions: nonprofit places for art exhibition called alternative spaces. These proliferated below Canal Street, while the Soho district north of that street mainly saw a growth of commercial art galleries and shops. Franklin Furnace was founded in 1976 nearly 10 years before the makeover of Teddy's.

Explores the history of the theatrical productions of Eugene O'Neill in the Czech Republic. Success of the theatrical production "Marco Millions"; Importance of theater to Czech life; Views of critics on the play.

The article profiles film director Ingmar Bergman. When Bergman started his career at the age of twenty in 1938 as the director of an amateur company, William Henry Shakespeare seems to have been very much on his mind. In spite of his early interest it was to take a long time before he returned to Shakespeare. Bergman's respect for the tradition of Shakespeare production in Sweden and his awe of Shakespeare's greatness has been amply reflected in his works.

This article reflects upon the objectives and process of a theatrical exploration of J.G. Ballard's 1973 novel, Crash. It identifies and considers initial impulses, rehearsal strategies and problems, the use of sound effects, the assembly of a physical choreography and the importance of the linguistic dimension of the production. This leads into a reading of the contrasting choices and problems of David Cronenberg's film version of the novel, with reference to Iain Sinclair's BFI monograph on this work. The article then emphasizes the important value of Kristin Linklater's vocal teachings on Shakespeare as a way into approaching expressionistic and poetic theatre texts such as that generated by the dramatist-director of this project. Finally, it reviews the project's shortcomings and terms of success, and its reverberations for what might be attempted in student drama and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]