Theatre and Performance Research Association

The aims of this working group

• To provide an ongoing forum via email discussion and access to information and resources via web pages.
• To foster collaborative projects between individual members of the working group: encouraging the formation of a research community. 
• To present at the annual TaPRA conference, using modes suited to the scope of the group. To disseminate these both to the working group and to the conference as a whole.
• To consider useful collaborations and interactions with other TaPRA working groups. 
• To provide an ongoing supportive environment, maintaining an awareness of the particular needs of postgraduate students and those new to the field.
• To seek collaboration with innovative practitioners outside academia. To working alongside interested groups and individuals, and encouraging such practitioners to attend and contribute to the annual conference.

Call for Papers for 2011

Reading Scenography

The study of scenography and performance design has historically focused on the documentation of practice. In recent years, we have witnessed an increased focus on the analysis of scenography and how the composition of objects and bodies denote meaning and create affect. Nevertheless, how these and other research activities are conducted, from a methodological perspective, requires further attention with particular regards to rigour and dissemination practices. Or, how do we approach a scholarly ‘reading’ of scenography?

We want to adopt this as a central question for this year’s working group on research methods in scenography. What perspectives can be applied to the study of scenography? What are the current approaches employed when conducting research on design-based practices? To aid discussion, you may wish to respond to the suggested text listed below:

McKinney, J. and Iball, H. (2011) ‘Researching Scenography’, in Kershaw, B. and Nicholson, H. eds. (2011) Research Methods in Theatre and Performance, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press  

This text has been made available by kind permission of the authors and a draft copy of which is available upon request. To obtain a copy please email Rachel Hann ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

We welcome proposals for performance or practical demonstrations / lectures along with paper presentations and provocations. While not intended as an exhaustive list, the themes set out above might be approached by considering:

♣    Reflections on practice-as-research as a scholarly activity
♣    Processes of scenographic exchange
♣    Approaches to historiography and scenography
♣    Interpretations of scenography
♣    Current and future research methods in scenography
♣    Strategies for documentation
♣    The theorisation of scenography
♣    Curating scenography and performance design

We are also happy to consider proposals on alternative subject matter or projects that examine the nature of scenography and performance design.

Please send 300 word proposals stating the intended format (provocation, paper presentation, performance, etc.) and technical requirements to Rachel Hann ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ), Donatella Barbieri ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and Nick Hunt ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ). The deadline for submissions is 3rd May 2011.

Regards

Donatella Barbieri, Nick Hunt and Rachel Hann

Co-convenors

Donatella Barbieri	Nick Hunt
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it	This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

The scope of this working group:

Taking the scenographic as a particular perspective from which to research theatre and performance, the group:

• Addresses the visual, sonic, and musical, languages of theatre and performance.
• Explores the dynamic relationships between these elements in terms of the sensory experience of audiences.
• Considers ways of scoring, documenting, archiving, and analysing, scenographic practice.

Current interests of the group include:

• Scenography and technology
• The performing object
• The performance of light
• Computer modelling and the scenographic proces
• The aesthetic dimension of contemporary drama
• Languages of discourse for sound in performance
• The limits of representation
• Scenography and spectatorship
• Scenography and identity
• Live art
• Architecture and performance
• Site-specific practice
• Documenting the processes of scenography
• Devising from a scenographic perspective
• Archiving scenography
• Histories of scenography

 

Former co-convenors of this working group are Helen Iball and Joslin McKinney.