Theatre, Performance and Philosophy 2018
Full Name: Fred Dalmasso
Venue and Date: Loughborough University London, 9th June 2018
What were the main points that emerged from your interim event this year?
This year the interim event was focused on the language of ‘outreach’ in academic and artistic institutions. In the day-long workshop, we were particularly keen to explore outreaching as a gesture – an act and effect and we organised the event so as to be able to think together about gesture, site, institutional politics and the labour of reaching. As such participatory workshops were particularly suited to this reflection but also the discussions we had in small groups or altogether throughout the day in and around the actual interim site. For example, sharing an informal lunch at a café nearby was very productive and helped working group members experience a more casual way of exchanging ideas away from the academic decorum often de rigueur at such events. Locating the interim event within the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, an area of urban ‘regeneration’ that has become a cultural hub for major dance companies, start-up cafés and more, helped the working group reimagine and rearticulate the cultural economies and landscape ecologies that inform our intellectual and artistic practices and query how political/policy environments shape the way we think and make our work ‘public’. The varied form of the different contributions allowed every participant to significantly contribute to the day. Since June, the event has led to some participants to now work on new collaborative outreaching projects. These will be discussed at the TaPRA main conference in September as part of a round-table that will enable other WG members to contribute in view of a potential collective publication/exhibition.
Types of contributions (papers, performances, workshops, etc.)
This year, we had a variety of contributions, but there were mainly workshops and all were of a participatory nature in one way or another. Owen G. Parry and Johanna Linsley led “A Performance Hangout” workshop in the morning. After our sitting-together lunch by a choreographic workshop by Sivan Rubinstein which happened outside on the Olympic Park and involved all the interim participants. This was then followed by two provocations/presentations, one by Rita Marcalo/Instant Dissidence about her work with migrants in Calais and her current Last Dance project and one by Sofia Rodrigues Boito, “Community and collaborative theater”. These were followed by a roundtable led by some participants and a collective discussion that ended the day.
Number of Delegates: 15
How many were new to TaPRA? 2
Did you have any non-UK participants? Yes
Any additional points or feedback not covered above?
None currently to note.
Overall budget awarded: £470
Amount spent: £475
Breakdown of costs:
– travel for 4 1 postgraduate and/or unaffiliated/casualised working group members: £80
– honoraria for 3 unaffiliated/casualised working group members: £240
– space hire: offered in kind by Loughborough University London
– tech support: offered in kind by Loughborough University London
– direct costs for workshop/seminar materials: N/A
– refreshments and catering: £155
TOTAL = 475
