Theatre and Performance Research Association

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 2008

There are 3 possible areas for presentation and discussion, based on the inaugural meeting in Birmingham, Sept 07, which have the potential to inter-connect. Our group is particularly interested in cross- and inter-disciplinary contributions. We are asking for 250 word (max) proposals with brief biography and resource needs by 5th May 2008 to the co-convenors.

1) Representing the 'real'

Representations of the 'real' of social reality on stage and on the small screen has been a recurrent concern of play/programme makers, critics and audiences. Although the same words are often used - documentary, documentary-drama (dramadoc) - there are also differences (the present currency of 'verbatim theatre', for example) which suggest that different practices may be in play. Also, competing conceptions of realism remain important to both media. Additionally, the original debates around documentary-drama (in British television), documentary theatre and realism were formed in a period of political certainties, often informed by a Marxist cultural model (if not an explicit Marxist politics), and in these postmodern (if not post-postmodern) times it is appropriate to review these debates and how they have played out subsequently across both media.

Areas of interest for papers and provocations might engage with, but need not be limited to, the following:

* Conventions of documentary formats for stage and screen; similarities, differences, influences.
* Notions of the 'real', 'fact' and 'truth' within documentary formats
* Ethics/ responsibilities
* Recognising context - models of engagement with history and with specific groups.
* Questions of performance and practice (e.g. actor training for documentary formats).



2) Issues in Adaptation

Questions around adaptation - definitions, boundaries, whether it constitutes a distinct field of study, whatever media are involved, for example - have risen up the critical agenda in recent years (see the recent launch of the new Intellect Journal, Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance and the associated conference in June 08 at the University of Glamorgan). Adaptation has always been important to both theatre and television, 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.

With this in mind, papers and provocations are invited that might engage with, but should not be limited to, the following:

* Conventions and practices: negotiating different representational traditions and genres (eg costume-drama, the literary adaptation, the biographical drama, a Brechtian dialogue with history).
* Narrative forms: the re-working of source narratives in a new context; the challenge to the linear narrative; varieties of montage.

* Adaptation in, or from, applied/ community contexts: adapting a draft script to the demands of the context, the stakeholders and the performers during production period.
* Circulating stories: tracing texts across media, especially in relation to the way that audience knowledge is addressed (eg negotiating the 'faithfulness' debate).
* Questions of performance: adapting to industry demands.
* Media literacy, its meaning and its uses for theatre and performance.
* The impact of new media on television and theatre in relation to adaptations (eg the emphasis on 'cross-platform content' rather than 'programmes' in current TV-talk).

3) Acting on stage and screen

Whilst a strong critical interest in questions of acting (and performance generally) has characterised the study of theatre, acting on television has received much less attention. This is being remedied (see the AHRC project in actor-training for documentary theatre and television at the University of Reading), but there is considerable scope to do more. This may be partly a matter of adapting critical models from the theatre to the study of television, but it should not be simply a one-way traffic. Given that many young actors now find their first employment on television, and that most work across both media as a matter of course, what, for example, are the differences between acting for the screen and stage?

Papers and provocations might wish to engage with, but should not be limited to, the following:

* Exploring rehearsal and production processes in theatre and television
* Questions of scale and intimacy in acting for both media
* Playing 'real people'; responsibilities and protocols.
* Models of analysis - how do we talk about acting?