Performing pasts for present purposes: reenactment as embodied, performative history

History, Memory, Performance is an interdisciplinary collection of essays exploring performances of the past in a wide range of trans-national and historical contexts. At its core are contributions from theatre scholars and public historians discussing how historical meaning is shaped through performance (Palgrave Macmillan

Nation Branding, Cultural Relations and Cultural Diplomacy at Eurovision: Between Australia and Europe

This chapter explores Australia’s Eurovision history – and its ‘Asiavision’ future – as an articulation of the nation’s complex and ongoing relations with Europe. It considers the ideological dimensions of Eurovision’s own history and the impact this might have on the contest’s future in Asia. While Australia’s participation in Eurovision was tolerated as part of the sixtieth anniversary in 2015, its return performance in 2016 was greeted with some ambiguity, and even outright hostility. The announcement that an Australian broadcasting service (SBS), together with the European Broadcasting Union, would be collaborating on the establishment of a song contest for the Asia-Pacific region brought some commercial sense to the engagement, but also foregrounds a particular conceptualisation of Australia as a bridge between Europe and Asia

The intracultural actor: embracing difference in theatre arts teaching

Embracing difference in theatre arts teaching and training requires pedagogical as well as philosophical adjustments in classrooms and rehearsal rooms. We propose that the unique cultural context of the individual actor is a rich hinterland for discovery and source of power for the student, and outline our intracultural training practice as a starting point for teachers and trainers seeking to engage with cultural and linguistic diversity. The argument of this chapter is divided into three sections. In the first, we consider the insidious impact of "neutrality" (and its synonyms) on actor training. Theatre arts training too often enables the erasure of difference through predicating teaching and learning on an imagined sameness across our student body. We argue that teachers and trainers must instead acknowledge that this sameness is determined by the hegemonic cultural power, and can therefore be wielded as an exclusionary device against students of diverse identities and diasporic heritages. The second section introduces an intracultural training practice: it first summarizes the ideas that have informed the development of our practice, and then sets out its main principles. In the final section of the chapter, we provide some practical suggestions of exercises and activities to begin implementing intracultural practice in class and rehearsal rooms. Across the chapter, our focus is on how our practice can be implemented by others, with specific reference to actor training