Acts, Actors and Audience

Tutor(s): Prof. Joe Kelleher
Assessment: revealed written exam (2 hours) [50%], coursework portfolio [50%]

The module enhances the programme’s concern with performance histories and practices by focusing specifically on encounters between actors and audiences in the theatre, and relating these to situations of action and encounter in the wider world. The scope of the module is historiographical (negotiating different forms of performance documentation), theoretical (conceptualising the key terms act, actor and audience) and practical-critical (responding to theatre and museum visits).
Topics to be addressed on the module include:
• How does what actors do in the theatre (pretending, doing, performing) relate to ‘acts’ and ‘actions’ that are performed in the world?
• What does it mean to ‘act’ before the eyes of other people, in theatre or in life – to be exposed, to be recognised, to be seen and interpreted, to be applauded, to be ignored?
• What might we understand by phrases such as ‘act of violence’, ‘act of faith’, ‘act of kindness’? What does it take to imitate such acts in the theatre, or in other art forms? And how have audiences made sense of such imitations, both in the present and in the past?