TaPRA 2026: Scenography

Deadline: Monday 9 March 2026

Scenography as a Process of Re-
In our aim to investigate scenography as a process of re- (re-purposing, re-claiming, re-inventing, re-configuring etc.) we invite contributions that explore scenography as critical practice and process for re-engaging. For example: to what extent might scenography be a re-purposing of dramaturgical means? How might scenography re-configure sensory experience? In what ways can scenographic practices contribute to environmental solutions through re-purposing and re-use?

By privileging ‘scenographic’ (Hann 2019) strategies, performance can destabilise the authority of dominant narratives, enabling alternative modes of storytelling that challenge or disrupt normative frameworks. Within the context of approaching scenography as ‘a way of doing, being and thinking’ (McKinney and Palmer 2017: 16) the aesthetics of scenography are re-framed as the ‘perceptual instability between material and presence, between experience and matter’ (Graham 2020: 23). As a site for critical intervention, scenography allows artists to re-tell or re-imagine sites, social constructs, ecology and community.

Moving beyond ‘ocularcentric paradigms and address[ing] non-visual cultural knowledge and practice’ (Alston and Welton 2017: 489), scenography can offer multisensory, haptic, and embodied approaches to theatre and cultural knowledge and practice. This re-purposing of dramaturgical means invites a re-configuration of traditional narrative structures through scenography-led approaches. Nicholas Till refers to a ‘sceno-sonic turn that responds to, and questions, the flickering to and fro of the real and virtual in an increasingly mediated world’ (in Curtin and Roesner 2015: 111). Materiality, agency, space/place, and sensory design become primary agents of meaning-making rather than merely supporting the theatrical experience.

Making these aspects primary agents and destabilising dominant narratives relates to co-creation processes of ecological design, with re-purposing at its heart where ‘working with what is already available does not need to be seen as a limitation, but rather as a way of accessing vital information for scenographic possibilities’ (Beer, 2021: 120). Re-purposing scenography implies the questions: what purpose did the original serve, and what purpose does it serve now? To what extent does the original purpose still exist and when is re-purposing something warranted?

Within the framework of Scenographies of re- (e.g., re-engaging, re-purposing, re-imagining, re-claiming, re-inventing), we are especially interested in contributions which address:
-Re-purposing and sustainability as scenographic strategies
-Multisensory, haptic and embodied approaches to scenography
-Re-thinking community as scenographic strategy
-Process-led scenographies
-Making, re-making, unmaking scenography
-Decolonising scenography
-Re-purposing of dramaturgical means
-or Scenographies of re- addressing any topic relevant to the ‘current interests’ of the TaPRA scenography working group (please see http://tapra.org/tapra-profiles/scenography/)

Contributions can be in the following formats:
–Performative presentations, material fragments+discussion, and workshop demonstrations (these should fit within 15 minutes and should be agreed with the WG convenors in advance)
–Academic paper presentations (15 minutes)
–Provocation for focused group discussion (7 minutes. Presentation will be followed by a group discussion responding to the themes of the provocation)

Note: Formats are open to discussion with the conveners, so please get in touch if you have an idea for something different.

References:
-Alston, A. and Welton, M. eds., (2017). Theatre in the dark: Shadow, gloom and blackout in contemporary theatre. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
-Beer, T., (2021). Ecoscenography: An Introduction to Ecological Design for Performance. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan
-Curtin, A., & Roesner, D. (2015) Sounding out ‘the scenographic turn’: eight position statements. Theatre & Performance Design, 1(1-2), 107-125
-Graham, K. (2020) Between material and perception: towards an aesthetics of scenography, Theatre and Performance Design, 6 (1-2), 9-25
-Hann, R. (2019). Beyond scenography. Ambigdon, Oxon: Routledge.
-McKinney, J., and S. Palmer, eds. (2017). Scenography Expanded: An Introduction to Contemporary Performance Design. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama.

Please note: only one proposal may be submitted for a TaPRA event. It is not permitted to submit multiple proposals or submit the same proposal to several Calls for Participation. All presenters must be TaPRA members, i.e. registered for the event; this includes presentations given by Skype or other media broadcast even where the presenter may not physically attend the event venue.