TY - JOUR

T1 - Text Exposed: Displayed texts as players onstage in contemporary theatre

AU - Juers-Munby, Karen

PY - 2010/1

Y1 - 2010/1

N2 - This article explores dramaturgical functions of visibly displayed text in contemporary postdramatic theatre. By analysing a variety of performance examples – from seminal performances, by the Wooster Group and Forced Entertainment, to very recent performances, by companies like Proto-type Theatre, Apocryphal Theatre and The Strange Names Collective – it identifies functions such as the opening up of gaps between source material and performance/performer and the use of text as a ‘player’ in live improvisation and as an acknowledged prompter for performativity. It proposes that exposed textuality is often used to reflect on the intensely mediatised state of our lives. Furthermore, it revisits an earlier debate about the subversion of presence by exposed writing (with reference to Elinor Fuchs) and proposes that it is more accurate to speak of a mutual infiltration of speech by writing and writing by speech/performance. Finally, it suggests that the openly exhibited tension between text and performer can be mobilized for a political aesthetic, creating spaces to expose culturally dominant ‘scripts’.

AB - This article explores dramaturgical functions of visibly displayed text in contemporary postdramatic theatre. By analysing a variety of performance examples – from seminal performances, by the Wooster Group and Forced Entertainment, to very recent performances, by companies like Proto-type Theatre, Apocryphal Theatre and The Strange Names Collective – it identifies functions such as the opening up of gaps between source material and performance/performer and the use of text as a ‘player’ in live improvisation and as an acknowledged prompter for performativity. It proposes that exposed textuality is often used to reflect on the intensely mediatised state of our lives. Furthermore, it revisits an earlier debate about the subversion of presence by exposed writing (with reference to Elinor Fuchs) and proposes that it is more accurate to speak of a mutual infiltration of speech by writing and writing by speech/performance. Finally, it suggests that the openly exhibited tension between text and performer can be mobilized for a political aesthetic, creating spaces to expose culturally dominant ‘scripts’.

KW - Postdramatic theatre

KW - text and performance

KW - performance writing

KW - reading in performance

KW - presence in performance

M3 - Journal article

VL - 30

SP - 101

EP - 114

JO - Studies in Theatre and Performance

JF - Studies in Theatre and Performance

SN - 1468-2761

IS - 1

ER -