This group embraces work in many stage and screen-based media and is concerned with exploring the influence of mechanical/ digital media on drama and theatre and vice versa. Contemporary television drama, for example, is frequently, and perhaps too loosely, described as "cinematic", and the comparison indicates a need for exploration of what is involved in the relations between media. Similarly Auslander's assertion that all contemporary performance is mediatised raises further questions about conventions and cultural perceptions, such as the interchange between documentary formats on stage and screen. Adaptation has always been important to both stage and screen, particularly in the post-1945 context, and many of the debates that are emerging across cultural forms are to be found in a particularly sharp form in these media. The development of new media, supported by the pluralism and eclecticism of contemporary cultural theory, has ensured that ‘adaptation’ remains a dominant and hybrid practice. Looking further back, patterns of evolution (the reliance of an emerging medium on the conventions of other media, and its gradual emancipation) might also be a feature in the group’s work.

Possible areas for collaborative research include:
Writing, dramaturgy, compositional principles, acting styles, visual presentation, spectator dispositions, trends in adaptation.

Working methods
The group constituted itself at the 2007 TaPRA conference, and will meet at its annual conferences and at other events (e.g. conferences, symposia, research seminars) as appropriate. If members agree, the possibility of a mail grouping will be explored. The convenors are open to a number of formats: joint presentations, workshops, demonstrations, screenings, discussion papers (the latter might be circulated before a meeting). Given the focus of media exchanges, interactive formats of delivery are likely to be favoured over ‘closed’ presentations.

Likely membership
This working group is intended for practitioner-researchers who work across and between the media of stage and screen and share an interest in questions of evolution, representation and adaptation.

Co-conveners

Call for papers 2010 will appear here shortly