Postdramatic theatre

Introduction This essay collection situates the histories and contemporary practice of devised performance in the Irish theatre by bringing together a range of perspectives from both academics and practitioners. It responds to a decisive shift in the landscape of Irish theatre, following the increasing recognition afforded by several emerging companies including ANU Productions, Brokentalkers, THEATREclub, THISISPOPBABY and The Company. This contemporary surge of work has influenced not only the evolving needs of Irish theatre and performance criticism but the very pedagogy of theatre training in Ireland with institutions including Trinity College, Dublin, National University of Ireland, Galway, the Gaiety School of Acting and others now offering practical courses that incorporate devised performance techniques at BA and MA levels. The current wave of devised performance builds on a physical and dance theatre movement in Irish theatre that began to coalesce in the 1990s through the work of companies like Barabbas, Macnas, Blue Raincoat, Corn Exchange, Pan Pan, and Corcadorca which was influenced by earlier genealogies of Irish, European and international arts practice. That body of practice in turn built on what Sandy Fitzgerald has interpreted as a cross-border Irish community arts movement, emerging throughout the island of Ireland from the 1970s, characterized by broadly leftist politics and often enmeshed with the interrelated community development sector ('Beginnings' 70). We have told the history of devised performance in Irish theatre backwards in our opening paragraph because this is often how we have encountered it as scholars, critics, audience members, and educators (who are also practitioners) working at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Devised Performance in Irish Theatre: Histories and Contemporary Practice aims to challenge this perception that devised performance techniques are primarily contemporary performance practice in the field of Irish theatre by placing these practices in longer historical genealogies. Our working definition of devised performance for the purpose of this task encompasses material that is collectively created by individuals working together in ways that resist (but do not necessarily reject altogether) the hierarchical organizational structures usually associated with institutional theatre. Devising is an umbrella term that describes a range of collaborative methodologies of creation that are characterized by collective dramaturgical input into the generation of a new 'work,' whether original text, work of dance theatre or even adaptation of a known work. Devised performance methodologies can therefore lead to the creation of work in multiple theatrical genres, including but not limited to physical, immersive, site-specific, improvised, collaborative, community, documentary and verbatim theatre as well as adaptations or the premiere of a new 'play' in the case of companies who bring writers into their devising processes. We highlight the fact that Irish (and other) practitioners employing practices of devised performance also regularly draw on diverse artistic disciplines including but not limited to theatre, dance, visual arts, music and multimedia in order to create original material. We also reject here the notion that devised performance methodologies have an 'implied binary position to text-based theatre' (Radosavlejevic 62), arguing instead that devising can be employed to transform an already existing text (such as in the case of adaptation) or aid in the creation of a new play. This 'implied binary' betrays the reality of what Patrick Lonergan discerns in his popular blog as

The Time We Share is a book that has been structured like a play, outlining the themes that have featured in the Kunstenfestivaldesarts over the past two decades. It attempts to provide a lasting record of its ephemeral artistic practices, as well as open up the past to the future. Like a reference work, it invites readers to think about how the performing arts reflect and shape a society. Through a number of different viewpoints, The Time We Share includes projects that have left their mark on the first nineteen editions of the festival. It consists of a large number of new contributions by creators and theorists who think about the world from a performing arts perspective. Some of the themes tackled in this publication are also being explored during three study days: periods of reflection comprising talks, workshops, projections and encounters – on the living memory of the performing arts, on the time we share inside and outside theatre.

Introducción del libro Biodrama | Proyecto Archivos. Seis documentales escénicos de Vivi Tellas, coordinado y compilado por Pamela Brownell y Paola Hernández, colección Papeles Teatrales, Editorial de la Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, 2017.

"Si les “grandes pièces” – En attendant Godot, Oh les beaux jours et Fin de partie – font désormais partie du répertoire des metteurs en scène, le dernier théâtre de Beckett demeure méconnu des non spécialistes. Ainsi, ce troisième volume de notre Série cherche à mettre en évidence l’extrême richesse poétique de ces œuvres de la maturité, et que nous désignons – à la suite de l’auteur – par le nom de “dramaticules”. Après une réflexion sur la spécificité de ce corpus et des questions de genre qu’il soulève, ce volume examine la problématique présence / absence, avant d’étudier la place primordiale que ces pièces accordent à la voix. Deux textes hors thème traitent, respectivement, la présence de Dante, et la traduction des pièces en hébreu.

ENGLISH
If the “great plays” are a regular part of the theatrical repertoire, Beckett’s late plays remain little known by non specialists. Thus, this third volume of our Series seeks to highlight the extreme poetic richness of these mature works, and that we can call – following their author – “dramaticules”. After a reflection on the specificity of this corpus and the questions of genre it raises, this volume examines the problematics of presence / absence, before studying the central place of the voice. Two further texts deal respectively with the presence of Dante in Beckett’s work, and the translation of his plays into Hebrew.

Llewellyn BROWN (dir.) : Samuel Beckett 3 : "les ‘dramaticules’", Lettres modernes Minard, collection « La Revue des Lettres modernes », Série Samuel Beckett, 2013. 335 pages. EAN13 : 9782256911736."

Alicante Journal of English Studies / Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses (RAEI) is published biannually by the University of Alicante’s Department of English Studies. Since its creation in 1988, its aim has been to provide a forum for debate and an outlet for research involving all aspects of English studies, particularly in those areas of knowledge encompassing linguistic, literary and cultural studies of the English-speaking world. The journal, available online and in paper, is open to original and unpublished articles and book reviews, which can be submitted all year long and must be drafted in English.

This is a Special Issue on Theatre and Performance Studies in English.