PERFORMANCE, ECOLOGY, HERITAGE: A Symposium and Guided Night Walk
Image: Courtesy of Mhairi Law
Date
Thu, 24 May 2018 - 20:00 GMT
Fri, 25 May 2018 - 19:00 GMT
Location
Gilmorehill Halls
9 University Avenue
University of Glasgow
Glasgow
G12 8QQ
United Kingdom
Admission £5 – £10
What are the ecological possibilities and limits of theatre and performance?
by Theatre Studies at the University of Glasgow
Join the the University of Glasgow's Theatre Studies department for the symposium ‘Performance, Ecology, Heritage: Methods, Concepts’, which marks the public launch of the Performance Ecology and Heritage Research Hub by Theatre Studies at the University of Glasgow.
The symposium engages with some of the approaches and ideas in two new publications: Carl Lavery’s edited collection Ecology and Performance ‘What Can Theatre Do? (Routledge 2018), previously published as a special edition of the journal Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism in 2016; and Minty Donald’s THEN/NOW, an edited collection that evokes and reflects on, in text and image, the performances, events and ‘permanent’ artworks of Donald’s public art project in collaboration with Neil McGuire, Nick Millar and the Forth and Clyde Canal (www.then-now.org). Carl Lavery’s edited collection will also be launched at the symposium. Responding to and building on the diversity of approaches and methods in both publications,
Questions the symposium seeks to raise and discuss include:
What sorts of conceptual languages and practices might we create which are sensitive to the specificities of theatre and performance and their engagement with ecological and environmental debates?
How might theatre and performance allow us to bring the social and historical into conversation with the environmental: to generatively bring together ecology and heritage?
What can a research hub focussed on performance, ecology and heritage do, both within and beyond an academic context?
Speakers will include:
Rachel Clive, Minty Donald, Dee Heddon, Sarah Hopfinger and Carl Lavery, with papers exploring canals, forests, water, geology and wildness, and two keynote speakers: Mike Pearson and Carina Fearnley. Mike Pearson’s presentation 'Weathering the storm: ecologies of performance', will reflect on The Storm Cycle, a project with Mike Brookes for the National Theatre of Wales while Carina Fearnley will present 'Walking the Sound: beside the ocean of time’.
FURNITURE
In addition, dancer and choreographer Simon Whitehead will lead a workshop - FURNITURE on the evening of Thursday 24 May.
FURNITURE explores the relational field between bodies and objects through movement and shadows. In this workshop we ask if there can be an ecological practice embedded in existing together and with the objects and life forms around us whilst working in the dark matter beyond twilight.
Simon Whitehead’s workshop, FURNITURE, on 24 May is limited to 25 participants. Participants in FURNITURE must commit to attending the symposium on 25 May, and participating in a reflective lunchtime walk.
Get tickets here.