Gender consciousness through applied theatre

This paper describes an experience of the use of applied theatre for the promotion of gender equality. The fact that women continue to face multiple forms of discrimination as human beings, citizens and professionals justified the search of alternative training models. The Empowerment Labs focused on the amplification of power, freedom and action of two groups of women: university students and unemployed women. The core of the approach followed was guided by a fundamental question: ‘can theatre raise consciousness and empowerment in the context of gender equality?’ The results obtained through different internal assessment tools provide evidence of change in what feminist awareness and personal empowerment are concerned. We present and discuss the process and results of this experience including the advantages and limitations of applied theatre in certain types of outcomes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Gender dynamics in Polish drama after 2000

When discussing Polish theatre scene, critics and scholars often lament the decline of ‘high art’ and the disappearance of ambitious Romantic repertoire from Polish theatres after 1989. Yet, strangely enough none of these ongoing debates identifies such problems as lack of gender equality; devastating effects of anti-abortion law; insufficient network of support for victimised and unemployed women; exceptionally high tolerance for sexist, homophobic and misogynist attitudes in both public and private spheres of activities; as well as the general dominant patriarchal structure of power. This is even more surprising when one reads plays written by female and male writers published (and/or performed) after 2000 as their dramatic worlds address many feminist and gender-related concerns. This study (focusing on gender dynamics) reveals that the gap between the voice of critical and scholarly inquiry and the ‘voice’ of the plays themselves has been widening rather than narrowing. The article addresses this concern with reference to selected plays by Krystyna Kofta, Monika Powalisz, Magdalena Fertacz, Dana Łukasińska as well as Marek Pruchniewski, Krzysztof Bizio, Przemysław Wojcieszek and Robert Bolesto

Performance anxiety in actors: symptoms, explanations and an Indian approach to treatment

There are numerous examples of renowned performers across the arts (actors and musicians) and in sports, which become news items in the media due to their performance anxiety (also called stage fright in English, or Lampenfieber in German). Given the number of celebrity actors suffering from stage fright, the number of those actors who do not make the news headlines in relation to their stage fright but nevertheless suffer from it must be even higher. In t his essay we provide an up to date account of the symptoms of stage fright, possible explanations for it and a range of known approaches to treatment. This is followed by an original approach to treating stage fright, based on Indian performance techniques, using details of a study undertaken in 2005.This multi-author journal article provides an in-depth analysis into the nature and treatment available for performance anxiety. The article offers examples of numerous artists and singers, including Sir Laurence Olivier, who had experienced stage fright for the duration of his performances of the title role in Ibsen’s The Master Builder (1965). The article run a clear analysis of the symptoms of stage fright and explain the nature of this psychophysical anxiety using clinical evidences and therapeutic methods. The key focus of the article is to compare and contrast two therapeutic methods for deducing stage anxiety: NLP, a well-established method, and SIT, which is an emerging method developed by Sreenath Nair using South Indian Bodily traditions. The article is based on a project carried out by Emerita Elizabeth Valentine and Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe in 2005, funded by the British Academy and the University of Wales Aberystwyth. The project compared two distinct methods of reducing stage fright in stage actors (Valentine et.al. 2006), one of them based on Indian approaches (South Indian Techniques, SIT) and the other Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). The SIT approach makes use of a range of psychophysical approaches deriving from the martial and performance traditions of Kerala. The study concludes that although many of the results were not statistically significant, ten of the eleven main effects were in the predicted direction, i.e. a greater effect for SIT than NLP. This multi-author journal article provides an in-depth analysis into the nature and treatment available for performance anxiety. The article offers examples of numerous artists and singers, including Sir Laurence Olivier, who had experienced stage fright for the duration of his performances of the title role in Ibsen’s The Master Builder (1965). The article run a clear analysis of the symptoms of stage fright and explain the nature of this psychophysical anxiety using clinical evidences and therapeutic methods. The key focus of the article is to compare and contrast two therapeutic methods for deducing stage anxiety: NLP, a well-established method, and SIT, which is an emerging method developed by Sreenath Nair using South Indian Bodily traditions. The article is based on a project carried out by Emerita Elizabeth Valentine and Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe in 2005, funded by the British Academy and the University of Wales Aberystwyth. The project compared two distinct methods of reducing stage fright in stage actors (Valentine et.al. 2006), one of them based on Indian approaches (South Indian Techniques, SIT) and the other Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). The SIT approach makes use of a range of psychophysical approaches deriving from the martial and performance traditions of Kerala. The study concludes that although many of the results were not statistically significant, ten of the eleven main effects were in the predicted direction, i.e. a greater effect for SIT than NLP. The study is a practice-based research demonstrating a highly relevant contribution to a therapeutic practice reducing stage fright. The research combines science and humanities indicating direct and wider impact

In Dahomey in England: A (negative) transatlantic performance heritage

The first all-black American musical comedy on Broadway, In Dahomey (1902-1905), has made a name for itself in America’s theatre annals and in the history of black American performance. Although critics have written about the relevance of the show in America, investigations into this turn-of-the-century performance in its wider transatlantic context have lagged behind. This article examines the reception of In Dahomey in England through specifically British interpretations of race, This article examines the reception of In Dahomey in England through specifically British interpretations of race as a negotiation of blackness, across a spectrum of racialization encoded by the pervasively prevalent minstrel/song and dance show from America and, also, the impact of African colonisation. Thus I will situate the reception of In Dahomey in London as informed by multivalent sets of racial discourses incorporating the heritage of minstrelized stagings of race and the British colonial political and cultural machinery engaged in the production and negotiation of a set of racialized imaginaries for and of Africa and the African. British audiences did not see race in the same way as American audiences but, I argue, they were as driven by racializing strategies. The transatlantic racial narrative in England produced a series of discordant images across a matrix of blackness, negotiating slippage between black American and African. But, ultimately, as Gilroy argues, the “dislocating dazzle of whiteness,” effectively sought to affirm race (white/non-white) as the ultimate marker of difference, dislodging other forms of cultural plurality in establishing an apparently unassailable racial narrative. Thus, race, as racial difference, was the primary, almost exclusive, subject of scrutiny in the press reviews of In Dahomey. Despite claims made in the press of a brotherhood between black performers and white audiences in England, In Dahomey was categorized by reviewers as a form of minstrelized song and dance show entangled in a racialized hierarchy. This article argues that though In Dahomey was formulated with an uplift agenda, to challenge, subtly, racial prejudice, the show’s potential resistance to racialized stereotyping was, ultimately, eroded in England’s auditoria

Determinants of impact : towards a better understanding of encounters with the arts

The article argues that current methods for assessing the impact of the arts are largely based on a fragmented and incomplete understanding of the cognitive, psychological and socio-cultural dynamics that govern the aesthetic experience. It postulates that a better grasp of the interaction between the individual and the work of art is the necessary foundation for a genuine understanding of how the arts can affect people. Through a critique of philosophical and empirical attempts to capture the main features of the aesthetic encounter, the article draws attention to the gaps in our current understanding of the responses to art. It proposes a classification and exploration of the factors—social, cultural and psychological—that contribute to shaping the aesthetic experience, thus determining the possibility of impact. The ‘determinants of impact’ identified are distinguished into three groups: those that are inherent to the individual who interacts with the artwork; those that are inherent to the artwork; and ‘environmental factors’, which are extrinsic to both the individual and the artwork. The article concludes that any meaningful attempt to assess the impact of the arts would need to take these ‘determinants of impact’ into account, in order to capture the multidimensional and subjective nature of the aesthetic experience

Six Keynote Papers on Consciousness with some Comments on their Social Implications: TSC Conference, Hong Kong, 10-14 June 2009

Six keynote papers presented at TSC 2009 — by Susan Greenfield, Wolf Singer, Stuart Hameroff, Jonathan Schooler, Hakwan Lau, and David Chalmers—are reviewed below in order to investigate to what extent social analysis can be usefully applied in different areas of consciousness studies. The six papers did not ostensibly address social aspects of consciousness; nevertheless I hope to show that it is often beneficial to consider the possible social implications in any consciousness- related work

H. T. Tsiang: A Critical Overview of His Work in Literary and Social Context

A Chinese exile in the United States, H. T. Tsiang (1899-1971) wrote several books in English that represent pioneer works in the canon of Asian American literature. Although few know his work today, Tsiang is one of the earliest and most prolific innovators of Asian American literature, anticipating some of the appropriative methods, formal techniques, and critical strategies that have come to characterize the tradition

Andrzej Wajda’s Hamlet (IV) - a Metatheatrical Reading of Hamlet

Zadanie pt. „Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki” nr 885/P-DUN/2014 dofinansowane zostało ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej nauk

The performance of pain: the consequences for the performing body and its portrayal of mental health

In 2001 the performance artist Kira O’Reilly wrote an article for A-N magazine1 that reflected on the institutional anxieties provoked by ‘Wet Cup’ a performance that includes the cutting and suctioning of her flesh through ‘cupping’ to draw blood. The art institution, despite inviting O’Reilly to perform the work, demonstrated their fears at showing ‘risky’ work through a process which aimed to sanction the ‘health’ of the artwork and subsequently its reflections on the artist herself. They asked O’Reilly to respond to various health and safety demands to account for her mental state and bodily health to prove that she was ‘safe’ to perform2. In asking her to conform to their demands they were making both internal and public assurances that the work was art and not the product of catharsis or breakdown. The institutional unease that O’Reilly could be acting out a psychiatric or psychological disorder through ‘Wet Cup’ demonstrated the sense of mistrust the performing body can instill. Kira O’Reilly’s experience follows a tradition within performance art that inflicts physical pain or suffering. In situating the physical or psychological transgressive within easy and ‘live’ grasp this type of practice presents the performing body as a confrontation to be negotiated. Indeed, when an artist chooses to cut or open their body or remove it from social interaction, their motives are scrutinized for deviance, distress and sanity. Are they mad, eccentric or just responding to questions that ask what it is to be observed and physical creative objects? This paper will analyse the consequences of making performance from physical acts of pain and how this can be understood as sane regarding institutional and public risk. It will reflect on the trauma, stigma and perceptive danger involved with making performance work that includes cutting, or isolating the body from more regular, everyday activity. The paper will reflect on the consequences for the artist, and perceptions of their health both in, and beyond the gallery. The year long works by Tehching Hsieh and the exploration of physical and mental limits through performance by Marina Abramović with be examined along with O’Reilly