Rose Bruford College

The direction light comes from is one of its fundamental properties, alongside brightness and colour. However, the directionality of light on stage – the qualities, effects and affects that arise from its directional property – has received little critical attention. In the UK and the English-speaking world more broadly, the discussion of directional light in professionally focused textbooks is generally based on an historical model from the mid twentieth century, developed by Stanley McCandless. This model prioritises a certain type of visibility of the actor and has little or nothing to say about how directionality can contribute to the expressive content of the performance. In this article, I provide a brief overview of directionality from the time European theatre moved indoors, and a critique of the McCandless ‘method’ and lighting systems that derive from it, which are still influential. I go on to propose a new approach to directionality, rooted in the relational – the relationships among light, audience, performer, character, space, the wider cultural context, and changing theatre-making practices. My approach is a phenomenological one, drawing on the experiences of practising lighting designers, to create an initial essay of how we might reconceptualise directionality and how it can create meaning and feeling on stage.

The pandemic is creating the conditions for a new telos of globalisation to emerge in humanity’s historical consciousness, which is not expressed in ideological terms, but is instead rendered as a fluid reality of corporeality and virtuality structured by the materialism of the Internet. Internet theatre created during the pandemic functions as a metonym for the transformation of the human subject from corporeal flesh to bio-techno hybrids. To Be a Machine (Version 1.0) (Dead Centre 2020 Dead Centre. 2020. To Be a Machine (Version 1.0) [online performance]. Théâtre de Liège, 28 November 2020. [Google Scholar]), End Meeting for All (Forced Entertainment 2020 Forced Entertainment. 2020. End Meeting for All (Free to View) [video]. Available at: https://www.forcedentertainment.com/end-meeting-for-all-free-to-view/ [accessed 14 May 2021]. [Google Scholar]) and Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran (2021) are used as case studies in this article to show how today’s informational environment augments perceptions of the real in performance through the convergence of media formats, including the fleshy human. This analysis is contextualised from the historical perspective of the post-Cold War period when anxieties about cultural homogeneity and assimilation were prominent themes in theatre and performance discourse in the absence of any viable alternative teleology to Western capitalism.

As this is being submitted for the 'Perspectives' section, I believe it doesn't require an abstract, but if that is not the case I am happy to supply one.

Where are we in the story of British democracy? Was the 2016 EU Referendum a rehearsal for a new political system of direct democracy that ultimately benefits the far right? Or will the Internet replace the conventional machinery of government with a radical new form of network power where people discursively experiment with new political realities through aesthetic modes of social relations? This article proffers the term ‘networked participation’ to describe a conceptual model of citizenry centred on structuring meaning through the dialogic exchange of information in aesthetic environments. The political ideals of network politics inform my analysis of the complex web of connections that participants scaffold in the performances Operation Black Antler(Blast Theory and Hydrocracker 2017) and One Day, Maybe (dreamthinkspeak 2017) between identitarian ideology in Britain and competing narratives of democracy’s meaning in South Korea, respectively. This model of audience participation is proffered to develop a theory of social relations produced through a theatrical experience of digital interconnectivity.

Brian Friel acquired the appellation 'Ireland’s Chekhov' or the 'Irish Chekhov' during the 1970s when critics began to comment on similarities in their respective dramaturgies. Here Friel’s 'affinities' with Chekhov are outlined through his several observations on the playwright; a brief examination of three of his own plays with Chekhovian echoes and resonances; the consideration of his 'translations' of major plays described as “after Chekhov”; and an introductory appraisal of an original piece where Friel invents a fictional 'afterlife' meeting for two of Chekhov’s characters from different plays.

Background: BRIGHTLIGHT is a national evaluation of cancer services for young people aged 13-24 years in England. It is a mixed methods study with six interlinked studies aiming to answer the question: do specialist cancer services for teenagers and young adults add value? http://www.brightlightstudy.com/. Young people have been integral to study development and management, working as co-researchers, consultants and collaborators throughout. We aimed to share results in a way that was meaningful to young people, the public, and multidisciplinary professionals. This paper reports the development of 'There is a Light: BRIGHTLIGHT', a theatrical interpretation of study results by young people, and offers insight into the impact on the cast, researchers and audiences. Methods: The BRIGHTLIGHT team collaborated with Contact Young Company, a youth theatre group in Manchester. Twenty members of Contact Young Company and four young people with cancer worked together over an eight-week period during which BRIGHTLIGHT results were shared along with explanations of cancer, healthcare policy and models of care in interactive workshops. Through their interpretation, the cast developed the script for the performance. The impact of the process and performance on the cast was evaluated through video diaries. The research team completed reflective diaries and audiences completed a survey. Results: 'There is a Light' contained five acts and lasted just over an hour. It played 11 performances in six cities in the United Kingdom, to approximately 1377 people. After nine performances, a 30-min talk-back between members of the cast, creative team, an expert healthcare professional, and the audience was conducted, which was attended by at least half the audience. Analysis of cast diaries identified six themes: initial anxieties; personal development; connections; cancer in young people; personal impact; interacting with professionals. The cast developed strong trusting relationships with the team. Professionals stated they felt part of the process rather than sitting on the periphery sharing results. Both professional and lay audiences described the performance as meaningful and understandable. Feedback was particularly positive from those who had experienced cancer themselves. Conclusions: Using theatre to present research enabled BRIGHTLIGHT results to be accessible to a larger, more diverse audience.

Digital visualisation tools – virtual models – are increasingly used as part of the creative and production processes of large-scale theatre and opera. These technologies not only enable the modelling of the performance space with its scenic and lighting scenographies, but also facilitate the modelling of production processes and human relationships. Focusing on lighting at the Royal Opera House, London, I examine how digital visualisation allows designers and production teams to manipulate not only virtual space, but also virtual time. I show how the ‘Virtual Opera House’ allows multiple possible futures to be modelled, reviewed and selected. Further, the limited time available on the opera stage for lighting and technical rehearsals can be supplemented with additional, virtual stage rehearsals inserted between the physical ones: interstitial time. Away from the pressures of stage rehearsals, the lighting designer, lighting programmer and others spend time developing and nurturing the working relationships that are critical to the successful realisation of design intentions. Using primary evidence from practitioners, I demonstrate how the Virtual Opera House is not only a virtual model of the stage and physical production, but is also an environment where processes and relationships can be modelled and remodelled: a hybrid-reality collaborative environment.

This paper is based on a lecture/workshop I gave at the S-Word Symposium, held at the University of Malta in April 2019. The original lecture comprised of a PowerPoint presentation, outlining some of the most common problems faced by my BA Hons Acting and Actor Musician students at Rose Bruford College at the beginning of their second year of training. During this initial block of work in semester one they find themselves grappling with a variety of texts written by those playwrights, grouped together by Martin Esslin in his seminal study of 1961, as the key representatives of what he famously termed The Theatre of The Absurd. ¹ Opening with an introductory summation of my developing practice at RBC, followed by an outline of some of the theory involved – and some contextual framing relating to the philosophical underpinning that runs through Esslin’s interpretation of these plays ² – I worked with a trio of Theatre Studies students from the University of Malta, in an attempt to demonstrate some of the key ideas I have been exploring in practice over the past few years. My premise is that, while an attempt to apply certain foundational aspects of Stanislavski’s “system” to these Absurdist texts is clearly problematic – particularly any attempt to create a psychologically coherent through-line-of-action, rooted in a detailed backstory or character biography – other Stanislavskian concepts, such as the magic if for example, when utilized discretely, can still prove useful. Key terminology is written in italics.

The first part of the article introduces the concept of bio-camera and bio-screen seen as a staged synergy between the performer’s living body and the accessible transmedia object: a smartphone. The point of departure for the investigation of the performative potential of the digital objects comes from Kantor’s conception of the ‘bio-object’ – where performer and object have the same degree of agency and both are treated as dramaturgical material or an artwork. In order to discuss the ontological status of bio-screen and bio-camera the argument investigates the Theatre Cricot2’s bio-object and examines an everyday immanent synergy between a living body and a smartphone. The function of multiple/multidirectional types of immanent synergies are explained and differentiated from the staged synergy that is activated in the context of performance. The second part of this article offers a detailed evaluation of a set of exercises with smartphones that entail the use of the telematic connection. Given that the bio-screen and bio-camera represent a broad range of approaches, this article narrows its focus to a chosen set of exercises presented in the form of a semi-photo essay together with analytical commentary. Therefore, the first and second parts differ in the manner of presentation and articulation.

What is the effect on the theatrical production design process when a design team uses holographic AR visualisations to view the scenery before it has been commissioned to be built? Bringing digital images into the physical world may provide new opportunities to test ideas and create new ones. This question is being tested on a professional production team as they develop the new work; Rejoicing at Her Wondrous Vulva, The Young Lady Applauded Herself at the Ovalhouse Theatre in Oval, London.

A memorial piece for our late colleague Professor Simon Trussler, editorial advisory board member, Emeritus Professor, Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance (UK).