Sruti Bala

Vectors of participation in contemporary theatre and performance

This article explores the notion of participation in contemporary theatre and performance on two levels, namely how participation is shaped within performance, and how performance participates in the public sphere. Using recent examples from Sudan, Russia and Lebanon/Netherlands, I investigate how the political premises underlying the call for participation are reimagined aesthetically, and, conversely, how artistic strategies of shaping audience participation render visible the failures and possibilities of peoples participation in the public sphere. The connection between these two dimensions of participation is made by engaging the concepts of ‘representation’, ‘collectivity’ and ‘theatricality’, which I call ‘vectors of participation’. I discuss how the artistic representation of an idea is complementary to political representation, how the demand for collective participation in the public sphere transforms into collective creation in the artistic sphere, and how theatricality in spectatorship is linked to the political call to bear witness.

Decolonising Theatre and Performance Studies: Tales from the classroom

What does the demand to ‘decolonise the university’ imply for the discipline of Theatre and Performance Studies? Based on questions and insights derived from the author’s own pedagogical practices and experiences at the University of Amsterdam, the article enquires into the intellectual traditions in the discipline of Theatre Studies that place questions of decolonisation together with a multi-axis, intersectional analysis of race, class, gender, sexuality, and global asymmetries. To what extent is the discipline of Theatre and Performance Studies still imperialist? What are the ways of acknowledging absences and invisibilities? How does embodied knowledge become knowable? The article reflects on how the question of the decolonisation of the university is inseparable from the question of defending the task of the university in social and political struggles, as a sphere of civic engagement. It equally emphasises the significance of theatrical and performative modes of engagement in these struggles. The classroom becomes a crucial site for the exploration of these issues.

The Art of Unsolicited Participation

How do audiences respond to participatory art in unscripted ways? This chapter questions the status of participatory art in the developmental context as forging cohesion amongst participants and focuses on its sometimes conflictual potentials. Reflecting on a case study of the Theatre of the Oppressed in the context of a Congress-party-led initiative for women’s mobilization in India, the essay analyses participation by linking the macro-dimension of development with the micro-dimension of community theatre practice. Of particular interest is how participation occurs by way of a nuanced range of reactions, with functions ranging from the disruptive to the meliorative. The essay calls for methodological attention to ancillary activities that take place at the margins of the theatre event. These seemingly para-theatrical phenomena indicate that community participation often assumes unsolicited forms.

Scattered Speculations on the ‘Internationalization’ of Performance Research

The author looks at what the catchword of ‘internationalization’ does to the practice of performance research, especially in terms of its pedagogical implications. If internationalization is seen as the answer, what is the question? What vision of the university could the discipline of Theatre Studies hope to offer by way of this enticing and ambitious call for internationalization? Beyond the critique of the financialization of higher education that most universities and especially Humanities faculties around the world are facing, the author offers hope generated from the classroom, based on the experiences of the MAIPR programme. The task that internationalization confers upon the discipline of Theatre and Performance Studies is the task of thinking and doing beyond the myopic limitations of the national framework. Two aspects of internationalization are charted here: the use of English as its language, and the translation of the concept of performance as epistemology into pedagogical practice.

International Performance Research Pedagogies: Towards an Unconditional Discipline?

In his lecture entitled ‘The University without Condition’(2002), Jacques Derrida puts forward the claim that the public university, and within it the Humanities, must remain unconditional in their autonomy, free of any national, ideological or economic affiliations, able to profess and set free any thought. Rather than being understood as safeguarding a privilege or entitlement, this unconditionality is formulated as a pledge of responsibility, a status that is affirmed and maintained by a profession of faith. Derrida evokes in this essay three notions that are of central importance to this volume: the critical role of the Humanities in the organization of what he terms mondialisation or worldwide-ization; the performative, embodied nature of knowledge production; and the order of the ‘as if’, the training of the imagination not only to make sense of the present, but also to generate the ferment from

Theatre for Women’s Participation in Sustainable Development

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[Review of: A. Bhalla (2010) Dharamvir Bharati. Andha yug: the age of darkness]

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Andha Yug: The Age of Darkness by Dharamvir Bharati

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Andha Yug: The Age of Darkness by Dharamvir Bharati (review)

Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible.

Workshopping the Revolution? On the Phenomenon of Joker Training in the Theatre of the Oppressed.

The article brings together observations and insights on the emerging phenomenon of training the trainers, also known as joker training in the Theatre of the Oppressed (TO). The concerns raised in this article are twofold: first, how does the modularised, workshop format of joker training affect the core principles of TO? Second, what are the implications of professionalising the work of the joker? These questions relate to the critique of ‘creative industries’ and debates around precarisation that profoundly impact arts and humanities education in contemporary Europe. They also serve as a call to interrogate concepts central to TO, such as participation, empowerment and community, in terms of how these concepts are appropriated and made docile in the increasingly neoliberal environment of European cultural and educational policies. The article proposes that a training in TO must view the dissemination of techniques and methods of joker practice as inseparable from a deep commitment to a ‘conscientised’ understanding of the complex social problems that the theatre seeks to address. The focus on a technical training alone bears the danger of reinforcing Freires ‘banking method’ of pedagogy, which is counterproductive to the political objectives of TO. The article observes that professional jokers work in precarious conditions far removed from the promises of the economic rewards of creative enterprise. The proliferation of project-based freelance work creates a situation where jokers tend to become de-territorialised and alienated from actual problems, thus propagating biographic and short-term approaches to systemic contradictions. The study aims to problematise these issues and contribute to a debate that might lead to politically and professionally viable paths for the future of TO.