The Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA) Postgraduate Committee is happy to announce the programme for its annual symposium. This year’s event ‘Spaces For / Places In’ will take place at the University of Leeds on Friday, 3 February 2017.

This year’s symposium seeks to investigate the inclusions/exclusions of spaces made and places imagined and negotiated in theatre and performance practice and research.

‘The process of reclaiming space for art must begin with the sea that is within the artist and the art lover’ (Sasitharan 1996: 55). Speaking at the 1995 Substation Conference themed ‘Space, Spaces and Spacing’, established theatre practitioner T. Sasitharan cautioned against ways of thinking about the arts that are constrained by rhetoric that gives priority to economic considerations.

As artists, theatre practitioners and theatre/performance researchers cope with post-Brexit uncertainties, how might these anxieties also limit that imagination of what is possible? Is there space for failure in research? Will spaces for experimentation diminish and what role might we play in defending, reclaiming and creating new or alternative spaces? How might virtual spaces (for documentation, simulation and communication) shape future places of theatre and performance practice and research? What is the place of practice in institutions and what role do we play in its dialogue with impact?

Jen Harvie’s Fair Play (2013) notes that the increase of pop-up theatre and art projects in ‘semi-derelict buildings…risks fetishizing the apparently authentic, creating a sense of neo-bohemian’ (Harvie 2013: 126). What spaces have we created, in physical, social and virtual terms? How does theatre architecture (pop-up or otherwise) limit/expand production possibilities and who might it include or exclude? Is there space for diversity? What is the nature of interactions between architecture, theatre/production design and the atmosphere of places designed for performance? What are the places that have inspired our practice and research and what is it that makes these places significant? Are these places claimed or allocated? Improvised or built for purpose?

Building on themes and conversations that emerged from the TaPRA Conference in Bristol in September 2016, we ask: what
is our place in time? What are the spaces we have created for our research? As postgraduate and early career researchers – how do we make our practice and research matter?

Programme

10.00 – 10.30
Registration

10.30 – 10.45
Welcome

10.45 – 12.00
Parallel Panels

Panel 1:
Places Imagined / Renegotiated Spaces

Welcome in Utopia: Representation and Welcome
Samuel McKay, University of Leeds

Beyond the Antitheatre Prejudice: Politicians’ Performances and Political Space
Julia Peetz, University of Surrey

Silent Spaces
Linda Marshall Griffiths, York St John University

Panel 2:
Representative Spaces
/ Documented Places

Performance Documentation in the Space of the Contemporary Art Museum
Acatia Finbow, University of Exeter

Study for Two Spaces: Legal Delegation and Performance Documentation
Byrony White, King’s College London

Performance Art and Archive Set Aflame: Drawing Jan Fabre’s Landscape of Consilience between Performance and Archive
Sylvia Solakidi, University of Surrey

12.00 – 12.20
Coffee Break

12.20 – 14.00
Parallel Panels

Panel 3:
Contested Spaces / Utopian Places

I Want to Take You to a Gay Bar: LGBTQ+ Spaces, Drag and the Performance of Queerness
Joe Parslow, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

A Space of Freedom? Performing Community Under the Touristic Gaze
Hector Dyer, University of Bristol

Contesting Space, Connecting with Place: Waterford Arts-for-All and Red Kettle Theatre Company
Elizabeth Howard, Waterford Institute of Technology

Young People as Electors? A Legislative Theatre Project in Collaboration with UK Youth Parliament
Matthew Elliott, University of Leeds

Panel 4:
Monumental Spaces / Invocatory Places

Re-ghosting the “Haunted” Stage: The Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus Since 2007
Ariadni Lignou-Tsamantani, Freie Universität Berlin

‘Together We are Mighty’: Spaces of Professional-amateur Collaboration at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2016
Corinne Furness, University of Birmingham

Survival Methods in a Post Truth World
Rachel Clive, University of Glasgow

14.00 – 15.30
Lunch

15.30 – 16.45
Parallel Sessions

Panel 5:
Temporary Places / Liminal Spaces

Where The Stage and the City Meet: Belgrade Theatre’s Design of its Public Spaces
Adam Bee, University of Warwick

“Meanwhile use”: Pop-ups, Temporary Spaces and the Politics of Scarcity in ‘Do-It- Yourself’ Theatre-making
Linford Butler, University of Lincoln

Creating a scenography of intimacy: Fix & Foxy’s A Doll’s House and the process of phenomenological design.
Hannah Rowlands, University of Kent

Panel 6:
Virtual Spaces / Ludic Places

“Beyond a Theatre: Screened Theatre as Convergent Transmedia in Digital Space
Benjamin Monk, University of Kent

Responsive Design: Playing with Possibility Through Critical Reflection in Co-authored Interfaces of Applied Theatre and Game Design
Francine Dulong, Blooming Ludus

In Playspace: The Dissolution of the Role-Player through Methexis
Will Osmond, University of Surrey

16.45 – 17.00
Coffee Break

17.00 – 18.00

WORKSHOP:
Managing minefields: ECR Employability, Interdisciplinarity and Impact

18.00
Close

Spaces are very limited. If you are interested in attending the event, please email postgraduate@tapra.org to book a space.

We are looking forward to seeing you in Leeds,

Adelina Ong and Yaron Shyldkrot
TaPRA Postgraduate Representatives