Text Workshop

This module looks at the relationship between live performance and written text, but also entertains the notion that ‘text’ can be taken to refer to the way the various dimensions of performance space – which may not necessarily be located in a designated theatre – are articulated, whether that be through movement, image, sound, lighting, objects, the body or whatever. Hence, ‘text’ may not incorporate the written or spoken word at all. Through a series of practical workshops and related seminars, live performance and video viewings, and occasional workshops with artists, the module will explore various innovative approaches to the production and use of text in contemporary performance. It locates and examines these different uses of text in relation to recent theories of performance and relevant perspectives in critical theory.
Traditional approaches to theatre invariably see the written text as the primary element in theatrical production, and performance as the means by which this text is realised. Many contemporary theatre practitioners have sought to distance themselves from this approach and have attempted to untie performance from its dependent and illustrative relationship to text. Here, the act of performance itself is seen as an autonomous and vital element in the theatrical experience. Cutting across various contemporary theatrical genres, this course will look at the different strategies that practitioners have taken in response to this move.
This module proceeds under ‘laboratory’ circumstances. Alongside seminars, essay writing and workshops or extended projects run by professional practitioners, students are involved in sustained and intensive practical group work focusing on, and experimenting with, the dynamics of live performance. Practitioners typically studied might include Samuel Beckett, John Cage, Forced Entertainment, Peter Handke, Robert Wilson, Heiner Müller.