Theatre and Performance Research Association

Although the “body” has been key to critical discourses since the 1980s, the impact of such discourses on understandings of the performing body has been limited. While “the performative” has become a key metaphor for examinations of bodies in the social domain, the specificity of performance and its frames, the ways these impact on the actions of and reactions to the soma, have received far less critical attention. This working group therefore recognises that there is still substantial research to be undertaken, especially in relation to interrogating cultural form(s). Areas for consideration include: historically based readings of the body (including the gendered, racial, sexualised and politically radical body); group or ensemble collections of the body in performance; the individual body as testament; the virtual body; and, the disciplined (rehearsed) body.

Conference 2008: Call for Papers

For TaPRA 2008, the working group invites papers exploring the following two themes. In both cases, proposals for performative papers are welcome but must be achievable with limited resources.

Please send a brief (250 word) proposal, a short biographical statement, and an outline of technical requirements by Monday, 5 May to:

Colin Counsell	Roberta Mock
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1) The Sited Body

- the body as site of performance
- the impact of performance space and environment on the body
- regionality and locality and the body
- the role of the body in site-specific and site-generic performance
- performance, embodiment and “non-place”
- the body’s negotiation of public and private spheres in performance
- the body as palimpsest
- landscape, topography, mapping and embodiment
- the performing body in institutional spaces
- embodying historical and cultural contexts as sites of performance
- the body beyond site: absent, projected, disembodied, mediatized, erased.

2) Scenography, Performance and the Body

In addition, we intend to run a shared session with the Scenography working group to foster exchange and dialogue. Accordingly, proposals are invited for papers which address intersections between scenography and the performing body.


Our working group also warmly welcomes participants who do not wish to present a paper this year.