Posts in ‘ Performing Arts ’

Performance Notes: PLAY/WAR

  Performance Notes PLAY/WAR by Urban Research Theater As performed at Where Eagles Dare Theater, March 12 & 13, 2010     In the beginning, darkness. The creaking of a door as it opens…to admit two performers.   A low vocal tone resonates in the small room… First one, then a series of these tones gradually coalesce into a fragment of vocal melody…A proto-song emerges.  ... [ READ MORE ]

misunderstanding misinformation and rationalization in creative practice – a question of perception

“The Moreno story seems to depict the fault line between the privacy of practice and the public domain of art. Do others also read it this way? In a class on political theatre, I found myself defending Moreno’s attempt against the idea that only qualified professional therapists should ever attempt to work with people’s real ... [ READ MORE ]

Bibhaban’s Journey

The obvious questions that come to our mind in this context are like this: What is the journey? Where is the journey headed? Whose journey is it? Why is it a journey? We all are very conditioned and comfortable with getting answers – but not questions. Questions unsettle us, make us uncomfortable, and sometimes force us to rethink and question ... [ READ MORE ]

PRACTICE and PLAY in the context of SPACE

When we pursuit work in the studio and call it Practice, we almost never achieve Play. When we pursuit Play in the studio we rarely achieve anything practical. Play occurs most spontaneously outside of the structure of “knowing” and the pursuit of “Technique.” And yet, it is through Play that we explore, discover and perhaps even develop practical ... [ READ MORE ]

some thoughts on practice as research

Hi, I’m new to this forum and quite interested in what’s being discussed.  I just completed what in the UK is referred to as a ‘practice as research’ PhD, meaning that a percentage of the PhD is judged based on practical work, which is in some way integrated with the thinking/writing in the written thesis. ... [ READ MORE ]

Notes from the yard… (Part 1)

(translated with assistance from Francesca Netto and Ben Spatz) NOTES FROM THE YARD OF NON-THEATER (Part 1) “In the beginning was the word.” So begins the Book, and with the Book begins the era of writing. For long centuries, the Book has been the Truth. Today the word – the books – are mainly lies, ways of ... [ READ MORE ]

What is technique?

This week I will participate in the “Performance as Research” working group at the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) conference in Puerto Rico. The paper I have been developing for this working group turns on the notion of TECHNIQUE, which I now realize is probably going to be central to my dissertation as well. ... [ READ MORE ]

Aerial Festival in Baltimore this weekend!

This wonderful festival is already underway, but it’s exactly the kind of thing that readers of this forum should find interesting… UP IN THE AIR, THE BALTIMORE AERIAL FESTIVAL, OCT 9-11 IN THE ALLEYWAY OF LOAD OF FUN The most daring, magical, and poetic family festival to fly through Baltimore Featuring Baltimore’s best aerialists in a variety of out ... [ READ MORE ]

Collective Arts Think Tank

I have sometimes been heard to complain that the artistic production culture in New York City is excessively product-oriented, to the extreme detriment of the quality of this work. I now realize that an element of this issue, which I’ve never consciously thought of before, has been the lack of a strong, principled stand on ... [ READ MORE ]

The Cut and the Flow

Two rhythms. The first is unbroken, like a river. I know this as the rhythm of musicality – of song. The river of song. It is not less precise, but its precision is less conscious. “I” do not control it. “I” surrender to it. Let it guide me. I do not know what will happen in the next moment. It takes me and pulls me ... [ READ MORE ]