Process and Performance

As you know if you are familiar with the course descriptors you have to be comfortable and able to locate your work within current thinking about performance and this is the case even if you say you are only interested in performing for children. The extent to which you are explicit about your underlying ideas is up to you and up to your material. In this module you are required to be much more conscious than in the past about your process. To do this the whole group will need to be involved with the process of each puppeteer.

Current thinking about performance relates it to gender, race, ethnicity and sexuality. As women performers, you are inside a theoretical framework that includes feminist, queer and post-colonial performance. Please note that I favour the term "performance" over "theatre" because I think the former embraces a much wider range of presentation. Find out about these terms and see how much they might apply to your work to date.

Useful books: Thanks to Kay for providing some very useful background information again.

Germaine Greer. I am reading The Female Eunuch at the moment- pretty relentless, but excellent at unpacking our presuppositions and attitudes in a readable way. I will review it soon.
other books on Feminism- look on Amazon and there is a really good cheap second hand list.

THIS IS ESSENTIAL:

Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harris 2008 Performance Practice and Process (contemporary women practitioners) by Palgrave-Macmillan New York and Hampshire UK

because it is practical and based on practical workshops with women artists. The account of the workshop with Bobby Baker (my work has been likened to hers) even mentions 'the outside eye'. A VERY USEFUL BOOK. If you don't read anything else PLEASE read this.

Queer theatre has a few titles- on Amazon

There are quite a lot of books which explore critical perspectives of post-colonial theatre- Native American Indians, African, Australian etc

During the module you will be required to:

• Lead a workshop
  
• Publish and comment on the Blog
  
• Make, record and perform a 'gender aware' solo performance.

• Leading a work-shop which tackles any of the above as background for your piece. So for example, IF a puppeteer is making her work influenced by African studies we might be able to explore her interpretation of post-colonial performance and unearth attitudes towards ethnicity, politics, the place of women etc. Please see the Aston-Harris book above for what to include in your workshop.

I will use parts of a piece of my own “Holiday in Babylon” to illustrate those aspects of politics and feminism which inform my work.

I want you to learn about my process by being INSIDE my work to help me to develop some ideas. From this session you will then have a blueprint of sorts to help you plan your workshops.

Your workshop will lead directly into making the mock-up for your piece.
PLEASE COME WITH IDEAS-BUT MOST OF ALL SOMETHING YOU ARE PASSIONATE TO SAY. (see Bobby Baker in Aston Harris)

• Publishing and commenting on the Blog. You will each have a three days a week when you have to publish some ideas about your piece backing up your ideas with literature, quotes from different members of the group, video, photos etc. On the other four days you are required to spend 15 minutes minimum a day commenting on the blogs of your colleagues. We will make a schedule for this.

• The aim of the module is to enable you to produce a “gender aware performance”. I have decided to drop the title 'Magic' and leave you more open, but if it is a help then go ahead use it. You may use any type of puppet from the rod puppet genr eor family. Do some research and feel free to come up with some ideas for any special sessions you think you might need for a specific puppet type eg.table-top, otome etc
  

Please let me have your comments asap because this post will form the Individual Learning Plans.