RSS 1.0Performing Arts
The department is housed in the Kingsway Buildings a few minutes away from the main Chester site. We have four large multi-purpose performance spaces, music rehearsal rooms, computer suites and seminar/lecture facilities. Performing Arts has a team of committed staff - teachers who believe in creating the best possible atmosphere of support and encouragement for all their students. In the last Research Assessment Exercise, this department was declared to be of international standing, so you belong to a department where cutting edge scholarship in the disciplines will inform all your learning.
This collection is licenced under a Creative Commons licence. The collection may be reproduced for non-commerical use and without modification, providing that copyright is acknowledged.
Recent Submissions
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Drama as a transformational capability of sustainability scienceEducation for sustainable development (ESD) is a foundational aspect of the transformatory capability of sustainability science at the individual and group levels. Despite international frameworks to promote and monitor the development of sustainability competences, evidence of the efficacy of ESD remains limited and even challenging. This article proposes drama-based educational approaches, as part of an increasing body of arts-based methods used in sustainability science, which materially impact a wide range of sustainability competences. Drama is a practice-based approach that intentionally uses carefully designed educational activities involving body, story, interaction, and collaboration to generate sustainability awareness, knowledge, mindsets, and action taking for individuals and groups within higher education. Examples of applied drama practices can include various forms of role play, forum play (playing out roles and pausing/fast-forwarding/reversing to explore possible solutions), and legislative theatre (where participants collaborate with lawmakers to address local issues). This article draws on an international project applying drama methods across disciplinary areas, and outlines how drama methods may contribute to sustainability competences applied in practice. As a result of this, we propose further research to inform future high-impact practices of applied drama for the field of ESD.
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Beyond text: Learning through arts-based researchThis original new book represents a variety of art forms across different professional contexts. Its focus is on the ways that educational practitioners and leaders from a range of cultures, disciplines, professions and organizations practice arts-based research, and it explores how these can enable innovative means of learning and enhance professional and organizational development. This vibrant project allowed for long term systematic conversations between a large and unusually diverse group of twenty-nine people from eight organisations in six countries. It was unusually diverse in many senses: for some the word 'data' meant little, for others it was central to their daily work; for some artistic practice was core, while for others the arts were a means to an end; while some were social entrepreneurs running their own companies others were researching in universities and a number were doing both; some were working within the STEM disciplines of business, management, engineering, science, technology, sustainability and the built environment, others were in the social sciences of social and health care, education and youth work while others were engaged in rapid or long term social and cultural action as a means of resisting state violence and military occupation; some worked in one of the safest countries on the planet, others in one of the most tear-gassed refugee camps in the world. Within these professional groups there were also ranges of experience, for example senior researchers, early career researchers, PhD students, seasoned professional artists and newcomers to arts forms. Whilst the main communication of this group was English, six other major languages were spoken, Estonian, Finish, Catalan, Spanish, Arabic and key stakeholders bought Swedish and Japanese into the space. This meant that while the conversations in and about arts-based practice were transnational, interdisciplinary and systematic, they had all the messy, troubled-ness that the intercultural on all of the above levels brings with it. This unique and exciting collection discusses how creative arts practices can have a significant impact on research across a range of international contexts, drawing on their own field of research and educational experience. For instance, drama, music, dance and visual arts can be used to understand how learners internalise concepts, reflect on how decisions are made in the midst of action in leadership education, or investigate the use of the intuitive alongside the rational and analytical in their educational experience. Non-textual arts-based forms of research can also provide modes of investigation into pedagogical and professional practices when applied to fields that normally lie outside of the arts. Its greatest strengths are its focus on arts-based research as a way of learning in a variety of contexts, and often in collaboration. Its consistent theoretical, artistic and professional engagements make it a very readable and engaging read. The representation of a variety of art forms across different professional contexts means that this book will have appeal to several readerships in higher education, including the following groups. Academics and practitioners using arts-based methods in organisation and business settings. Researchers in the arts and researchers generically in the social sciences, humanities and arts. University students of the arts, education and professional studies, especially those interested in the wider international and intercultural diversity of research methodologies. Those working in international research teams using any form of qualitative research will also find this collection very interesting. It also has potential interest for groups outside higher education with an interest in arts-based research - for example community groups looking to explore collaborative projects.
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Roberto Gerhard, Symphony No 5 reconstructed by Darren SprostonThis is a reconstruction of Roberto Gerhard's Fifth Symphony which was left incomplete and unpublished on his death. Archival material from the University of Cambridge has been used to recreate the work
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If X then Y, Z, ?: Using Twinery.org to teach interactive narrative developmentA discussion of digital pedagogy in the classroom, reflecting on the use of twinery.org as a tool in a class on interactive narrative.
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Drama workshop: PapperssnöThis book is for higher and further education tutors who wish to build on their experience, and deliver exciting and accessible classroom techniques and practices that are highly interactive, creative, and engaging to help further the teaching of sustainability.
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Drama icebreaker: Improvisation for beginnersThis book is for higher and further education tutors who wish to build on their experience, and deliver exciting and accessible classroom techniques and practices that are highly interactive, creative, and engaging to help further the teaching of sustainability.
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Before you start with drama and performanceThis book is for higher and further education tutors who wish to build on their experience, and deliver exciting and accessible classroom techniques and practices that are highly interactive, creative, and engaging to help further the teaching of sustainability.
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Fathers on Film: Paternity and Masculinity in 1990s HollywoodInterpreting such films through the lens of feminist and queer theory, along with masculinity studies and psychoanalysis, Katie Barnett offers an insightful and interdisciplinary discussion of cinematic fathers.
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Lost, Found, Reimagined - Roberto Gerhard’s Viola/Cello Sonata(s)The Viola Sonata (1948) sits at a pivotal time in Gerhard’s output. Through the 1940s he had composed his Symphony: Homenaje a Pedrell (1940-41), Don Quixote (1940), Alegrías Suite (1942), Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1942-43), Pandora Suite (1944-45) culminating in the tour de force which is The Duenna (1945-47). The Sonata marks the point at which Gerhard starts to seriously style his method of adopting serial technique leading to the exploration of its use beyond mere pitch manipulation. The Viola Sonata had been lost for a number of years until deposited at the Cambridge University Library as part of the Roberto Gerhard archive in 2016. There are two manuscripts, the full score and the solo viola part. It consists of 33 pages on 12 stave landscape manuscript paper. The dedication is to the viola player Anatole Mines (1915-1993) who performed the premiere of the work in 1950 accompanied by Gerhard. Until 2016, the only available legacy of this work was its revision in the form of the Cello Sonata (1956). This paper investigates the differences between the Viola and the Cello Sonata to discover the extent to which the later work arranges or reimagines the former.
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In touch and between: a tactile toolkit for creative practitioners to navigate touch within their creative practiceTouch in performance and movement practice is not a new concept, although it tends to inhabit movement therapy, partnering techniques, alignment studies, and ethics. However, this article addresses the importance of touch in creative practice with reference to holistic embodied movement, sense of self, one’s agency and situatedness. Employing a somatic methodology and phenomenological lens, this article presents tactile practice as research carried out from 2019 to 2022 with master’s students and professionals delivered in the space and online as a lecture-workshop at People Dancing UK’s Perspectives on Practice. This overarching framework highlights methods of touch prior to the pandemic demonstrating how one perceives and responds to contact from another body whilst retaining authenticity; shifts in tactile engagement during the pandemic and how it aids solo practice; and opens up conversations on reintroducing touch post pandemic with possible cross-disciplinary practice. The research investigates/investigated tactile stimulations within passive, active and intra-active touch as a listening tool in the solo body and between bodies. Through various case studies, these are examined in relation to creative inquiry and artistic identity. The article aims to challenge power relations and conventional connotations around touch and practice as well as offer new tactile engagements within solo creative practice. It also proposes touch as a collaborative mesh for cohesion and keep us in touch through a practical tactile toolkit. This will resonate with somatic movement practitioners in particular, however its inclusive nature means specific approaches may resonate with practitioners in other creative disciplines.
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Gary Owen’s Iphigenia in Splott: The Anthropocene as TragedyThe fate of the tragic Greek figure Iphigenia is intrinsically connected to her environment in classical canonical source texts. Her death, depicted in Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis, is the result of human failings, and yet the natural world and the climate play an integral part. In 2015, Gary Owen transposed the narrative of this classical heroine to Cardiff, Wales, to consider the ruins of contemporary Britain in an increasingly hostile environment of austerity. Owen’s play is a scathing indictment of the overpopulated and under-resourced urban environment, but it is ultimately a catastrophic climate event that leads to the tragedy within this adaptation. Classical tragedy is a predominantly anthropocentric dramatic form. However, with reference to Owen’s Iphigenia in Splott and utilising emerging ecocriticism and discourse, I argue that there is potential for an ecologically sensitive, revisionist perspective in contemporary adaptations of classical tragedy. Building upon Carl Lavery’s and Clare Finburgh’s provocation that, “the Anthropocene is a term that invariably attests to humanity’s inability to impact upon and intervene in natural processes [and] it simultaneously highlights humanity’s failure to harness or control such interventions” (34), I consider what the real tragedy is within Owen’s play. Is the tragedy of his Iphigenia a tragedy of humanity’s failure to cohabit with the natural environment without causing harm or, perhaps more broadly, a tragedy that reflects the failure of a historic and dogmatic anthropocentric view in theatre and beyond?
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The collaborative programme leader: Embedding meaningful collaboration into a programme cultureThe section serves to highlight the importance of collaboration and move the PL role away from one of the potential overwhelm and isolation to one of connection and meaningful interdependence.
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The StudioThis chapter is part of an interdisciplinary volume, drawing from sociology, geography, ethnomusicology, media, cultural, and communication studies, which covers a wide-range of topics germane to the production and consumption of place in popular music. This chapter focuses on the recording studio, primarily within a popular music context, in the following areas: as a physical place where its function relies on social interactions to encourage creativity; as a place where virtual auditory spaces are created; and as a place where music practice can ultimately ascribe unique identities.
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Conflicting professional identities for artists in transprofessional contextsThis chapter investigates how the artists navigate multiple and at times conflicting identities within the challenges of working in unfamiliar transprofessional contexts. It also investigates the expanding professionalism of artists in the transprofessional realm of artistic interventions in organisations. Ariane Berthoin Antal argues that artists’ professional identities and also responsibilities are geared towards some fundamental values in the arts, and that it is vital for artists to maintain such values as they collaborate with other professions. To exemplify expanded work in transprofessional contexts, our attention now turns to the experiences of four artists—a theatre director, a performance artist, a dancer, and a dramaturg—who took part in the pilot programme at Uniarts. It is imperative in higher arts education to discuss critically the relationship between professionalism in more traditional artistic practice and the expanding professionalism of hybrid artists in new transprofessional domains.
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From Rugby League to Marriage IntrigueThis paper traces the creative evolution of Roberto Gerhard's Epithalamion from its genesis as a film score in 1962 through to its final version, c. 1968 which makes it one of the last orchestral compositions on which Gerhard would have worked. It sits alongside two works left incomplete in 1968 Metamorphoses (the reworking of the Second Symphony) and the Fifth Symphony. It explores its origins through the film score of This Sporting Life and how this music is incorporated into the concert work and investigates the revisions made by Gerhard and end with exploring the final published version of the work.
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Adaptations: Moby Dick Performance Research ProjectAdaptations: Moby Dick is a performance research project, consisting of a script, stage production, and site-sensitive performance. The adaptation was commissioned for the International Cornerstone Arts Festival (2017). In-kind funding was provided by the Tall Ship Zebu for a site- sensitive performance for the River Festival, Liverpool (2019). There were two interconnected stages to the project, underpinned by three research questions: 1. How do we re-imagine character within ensemble-led practice? 2. How does dramatic time differ from narrative time? 3. What is the relationship between the source text and adapted iterations? The first stage of the project led to a fully realised stage production, shown in Liverpool and Chester (2017). A further iteration of the adaptation was performed on the Tall Ship Zebu, Liverpool (2019). Following this performance, the project considered the impact of site as cultural memory, disseminated through conference papers.
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Postcolonial pictures examining the Penguin edition book covers of Paul Theroux's travel writing through a visual social semiotic lensTravel literature, Paul Theroux writes, “moves from journalism to fiction, arriving […] at autobiography” (2008: 332). Perhaps because of this hybridity, travel writing is an enduring genre, and its texts are subject to fertile academic interpretation and re-interpretation. However, less attention has been given to the paratextual elements of the travel book. Book covers play a key role in establishing the nature and context of a written work. They operate as visual social semiotic forms, comprising textual and visual signifiers that stand “for an object or concept” (Moriarty, 2011: 228). The argument here is the resulting signs may encode meanings beyond the commercial purpose of the book cover. Semiotic analysis is therefore applied to the covers of Paul Theroux’s novel-length travel books. It is argued the Penguin book covers that feature on editions released over the last 40 years frequently include covert signifiers of unequal power relationships between western travellers and the peoples and cultures they encounter.
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Concentrated Noir: Reinforcing and transgressing genre boundaries in EchoNordic Noir has emerged as an increasingly codified set of aesthetic, political and philosophical televisual elements. Echo compresses these elements, subjecting them to the crucible of short film. This article investigates the dramatic potential of stripping back cross-genre tropes to reveal the defining characteristics of a newly emergent format.
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Meaningful play: applying game and play design practices to promote agency in participatory performanceAs interactive and immersive forms of performance have proliferated, performance scholars have devoted increasing attention to gaming practices in order to describe the types of agency that these forms offer to their participants. This article seeks to problematise links that have been drawn between interactive performance and games, however, arguing that discussions of gaming in relation to performance are often limited to a textual paradigm which conceives game play as the exploratory uncovering of performance texts rather than the generative creation of emergent play narratives. This argument will be advanced by making three propositions: firstly, that performance practitioners and scholars who wish to draw upon games in their work should move beyond a textual paradigm to develop an understanding of how games can be understood as systems. Secondly, the article will propose that if the enhancement of participatory agency is desired, participatory performance designs might usefully respond to the cultural particularity of those involved. Thirdly, the article will argue that although system-based design can imply connotations of top down control, participatory performance design can be reconceived as a ‘curatorial’ practice that creates contexts for play that is co-created by participants, affirming their agency in shaping the emergent content of the work.
