The Twenty-First Century Performance Reader

The Twenty-First Century Performance Reader combines extracts from over 70 international practitioners, companies, collectives and makers from the fields of Dance, Theatre, Music, Live and Performance Art, and Activism to form an essential sourcebook for students, researchers and practitioners. This is the follow-on text from The Twentieth-Century Performance Reader, which has been the key introductory text to all kinds of performance for over 20 years since it was first published in 1996. Contributions from new and emerging practitioners are placed alongside those of long-established individual artists and companies, representing the work of this century’s leading practitioners through the voices of over 140 individuals. The contributors in this volume reflect the diverse and eclectic culture of practices that now make up the expanded field of performance, and their stories, reflections and working processes collectively offer a snapshot of contemporary artistic concerns. Many of the pieces have been specially commissioned for this edition and comprise a range of written forms – scholarly, academic, creative, interviews, diary entries, autobiographical, polemical and visual. Ideal for university students and instructors, this volume’s structure and global span invites readers to compare and cross-reference significant approaches outside of the constraints and simplifications of genre, encouraging cross-disciplinary understandings. For those who engage with new, live and innovative approaches to performance and the interplay of radical ideas, The Twenty-First Century Performance Reader is invaluable.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements In Dialogue... Introduction Action Hero WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? GEMMA AND JAMES AND ACTION HERO Mohammad Aghebati INTERVIEW Patricia Ariza INTERVIEW Back to Back Theatre ON MAKING THEATRE Brett Bailey INTERVIEW Dalia Basiouny PERFORMANCE THROUGH THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION: STORIES FROM TAHRIR Jérôme Bel INTERVIEW Blast Theory ULRIKE AND EAMON COMPLIANT: ARTISTS’ STATEMENT Tammy Brennan CONFINED: STAGING/IMAGE MOMENTS Tania Bruguera INTERVIEW Builders Association MARIANNE WEEMS IN CONVERSATION WITH ELEANOR BISHOP Liu Chengrui A SELECTION OF ACTIONS Padmini Chettur SOME THOUGHTS FOR THE FUTURE Constantin Chiriac INTERVIEW David Chisholm THE MEMORY OF REMEMBERING: EXOMOLOGESIS AND EXAGOREUSIS IN THE EXPERIMENT Clod Ensemble CLOD ENSEMBLE: PERFORMING MEDICINE María José Contreras THE BODY OF MEMORY: MARIA JOSE CONTRERAS’ PERFORMANCE PRACTICES IN THE CHILEAN TRANSITION Augusto Corriere A CONJURING ACT IN THE FORM OF AN INTERVIEW Tim Crouch INTERVIEW Dah Theatre SOME THOUGHTS ON THE QUALITY OF ATTENTION Tess de Quincey A FUTURE BODY Derevo ENDLESS DEATH SHOW Dood Paard ABOUT US Every House Has A Door FROM ONE MEANING TO ANOTHER Eleonora Fabião THINGS THAT MUST BE DONE SERIES Oliver Frljić INTERVIEW Gecko AN ORGANIC JOURNEY GETINTHEBACKOFTHEVAN MAKING THINGS WORSE Gibson/Martelli THE FIFTH WALL Gob Squad ON PARTICIPATION Heiner Goebbels AESTHETIC OF ABSENCE: HOW IT ALL BEGAN Chris Goode THE CAT TEST Shirotama Hitsujiya INTERVIEW Hotel Pro Forma PERFORMANCE AS AN INVESTIGATION OF THE WORLD Wendy Houstoun SOME BODY AND NO BODY: THE BODY OF A PERFORMER Imitating The Dog THEATRICALISING CINEMA/SCREENING THEATRE Hiwa K INTERVIEW La Fura dels Baus INTERVIEW Lone Twin INTERVIEW Silvia Mercuriali INTERVIEW Monster Truck BUT THE WHORES ALWAYS LOVED ME Needcompany INTERVIEW New Art Club HOW WE SET OUT TO MAKE A PIECE ABOUT CONTROVERSIAL WORKS OF ART AND ENDED UP GETTING NAKED AND TALKING ABOUT HOW WE FEEL ABOUT OUR BODIES Kira O’Reilly THE ART OF KIRA O’REILLY Oblivia TIME STOPPER Toshiki Okada INTERVIEW Ontroerend Goed PERSONAL TRILOGY: THE SMILE OFF YOUR FACE, INTERNAL & GAME OF YOU Mike Pearson BUBBLING TOM Michael Pinchbeck THIS IS A LOVE LETTER Punchdrunk INTERVIEW Silviu Purcārete WHERE ARE YOUR TRAINING GROUNDS? Quarantine A SHOW OF HANDS Reckless Sleepers "MIDDLES" & "PHYSICS" Ridiculusmus A CHAT ABOUT COMEDY Rimini Protokoll INTERVIEW Farah Saleh INTERVIEW Peter Sellars INTERVIEW Shunt A PERFORMANCE COLLECTIVE Agata Siniarska DO IT TO ME LIKE IN A REAL MOVIE: LECTURE PERFORMANCE Deepan Sivaraman INTERVIEW Sleepwalk Collective LOST IN THE FUNHOUSE, OR ALL YOU NEED TO MAKE A SHOW IS A GIRL AND A MICROPHONE Andy Smith THIS IS IT: NOTES ON A DEMATERIALISED THEATRE Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio THE THEATRE IS NOT OUR HOME: A CONVERSATION ABOUT SPACE, STAGE AND AUDIENCE Junnosuke Tada INTERVIEW Third Angel TESTING THE HYPOTHESIS Ultima Vez INTERVIEW Unlimited AM I DEAD YET? Sankar Venkateswaran THEATRE OF THE MIND Dries Verhoeven INTERVIEW Vincent Dance Theatre THE ART OF NOT LOOKING BACK / MOTHERLAND Aaron Williamson DEMONSTRATING THE WORLD – A PUBLIC INTERVENTION PERFORMANCE Xing Xin INTERVIEW Andriy Zholdak THEORY / LECTURES OF ANDRIY ZHOLDAK Index

About the Author :
Teresa Brayshaw is Principal Lecturer in Performing Arts at Leeds Beckett University and works freelance as a Feldenkrais teacher, theatre practitioner and personal development coach in a range of international contexts. She co-edited the third edition of The Twentieth-Century Performance Reader. Anna Fenemore is Associate Professor in Contemporary Theatre and Performance in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds. She is also Artistic Director of Manchester-based Pigeon Theatre. Noel Witts is Emeritus Professor of Performing Arts at Leeds Beckett University, and a Professorial Fellow at Liverpool Hope University. He is the author of Tadeusz Kantor in the Routledge Performance Practitioners series, and co-editor of all three editions of The Twentieth-Century Performance Reader.