What is the future of theatre and performance research?

In a year in which we have had to cancel our annual conference due to a global pandemic, with researchers facing increasing uncertainty, precarity and hardship, and UK theatre and performance organisations and institutions under threat, the TaPRA Executive Committee would like us to take a deep collective breath and get back to basics.

What is theatre and performance research capable of doing in the world? What is it for? What are our ambitions for future generations? How should we model our relationships with artists, venues and ‘the industry’? How might we effectively engage on both local and global levels? How do we centre those who have been harmed and engender a research environment where everyone is valued, respected and compensated?

We want to think carefully about how we speak back to political rhetoric that denigrates the value of research in our disciplines; about our relationships with the educational systems prior to university/HE level, and how these might be nourished by and align more closely with our research; about innovative modes of sharing, visibility and publication; about how we might better articulate the intersections of research and performance making; about what and how we are able to contribute to environmental and social justice; about how we are able to collectively dismantle systemic racism in theatre and performance research cultures.

This free online event will be facilitated by Improbable, employing Open Space Technology (OST). OST is a non-hierarchical way for groups to think, talk and plan together. Participants self-organise to create their own agenda on the day, enabling a dynamic and immediate response to the issues that are raised, and free-flowing conversations about what really matters to the people in the room. A report will subsequently be produced. You can read more about OST here.

It will be a relaxed environment, so you’ll be free to log off, turn off your video or mute yourself whenever you want. The event will include a scheduled one hour lunch break. We’ll also be offering an optional orientation session on Tuesday 25 August at 11 am, to explain the technology and the processes we’ll be using.

If you have any access needs, please email exec@tapra.org as soon as possible so we are able to organise this.

This is an event for TaPRA members only. You are a member of TaPRA if you registered for the 2019 annual conference at Exeter, or have joined online since then, or are a life member. If you are not currently a member, you can join here. Membership costs £18 (£10 for postgraduate or unwaged colleagues). All memberships are valid until the day before the TaPRA annual conference in September 2021.