DTS Seminar Series Semester 1
Semester 1, 2008
- Mondays at 6:00 to 7:30pm
- Room 226, Building 68 (Performing Arts Building)
Clayton Campus, Monash University.
For further information or to offer a paper for future seminars, contact Felix Nobis.
Recordings of some of the presentations in this series are available from the Drama & Theatre Studies Podcast or by clicking the individual links below.
- 17 March
Dr Will Peterson (Head of DTS)
The Bloodless Head of Longinus: Political Interventions and the Decapitation of the Moriones Tradition in Marinduque
This seminar presentation maps out the political interventions and competing social interests that have altered the Moriones Festival on the island of Marinduque in the Philippines over the last forty years. The three-night sinakulo or passion play and attendant events associated with the festival are known largely for the ways in which they utilise local men donning elaborate masks and wearing costumes meant to resemble Roman centurions. This talk will examine the social forces and multiple and competing political and economic interventions that have shaped and significantly modified this multi-faceted event since the 1960s, with particular attention given to the ways in which the local elite through the power of the provincial government under Governor Carmencita Reyes has used this festival to effectively shore up the country’s existing, highly stratified social and economic order.
- 31 March
Amanda Burrell (MA candidate)
Fear in the Academy: an Exploration of Academic Stage Fright
This paper reports on a pilot project exploring the effectiveness of theatre training to reduce stage fright in academics. A self-selected sample of Advertising and Marketing Communication academics were given intensive theatre training by theatre scholar/practitioners. Semi–structured depth interviews which informed the training content, preceded multiple observations. Participants’ lectures were observed (with students present) prior to and after training. Additionally participants were filmed at the start and end of training. One final measure, an electronic survey, was administered six months after training. Participants’ initial felt symptoms matched the description of stage fright from the literature. Final observations showed massive and enduring improvements in entrances, vocal and physical ease and dialogical delivery style. Theatre training can be an effective method to reduce academic stage fright and increase academic confidence and effectiveness in lecture performance.
Ed Creely (Phd candidate)
Time, Entimement, Temporality? Experiences of the Time in Performance
This paper examines critical philosophical, practical and dramatic issues to do with understanding the nature of time for an actor in performance. How is time or temporality linked to experience in performance? How should we understand the abstraction of ‘time’ and the discourses that accompany the use of concepts about time? These, among other questions, are examined in the light of the current debate about the application of time to performance phenomena.
- 14 April
Jeffrey Hood (MA candidate)
Blocks to the Creative Process in Developing Theatre Performance
Felix Nobis (Phd candidate)
Working With Dinosaurs: Narrative Techniques in the Arena Spectacular
This paper examines some unique performance challenges presented to the narrator / presenter of a 21st century arena spectacular. The paper draws on the experience of narrating the premiere production of “Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience” in Australia and the United States. The paper explores the liminal territory between ‘acting’ and ‘storytelling’, as well as the relationship between single performer and mass audience.
- 28 April
Dr Stuart Grant (DTS staff)
Phenomenology and Performance Studies: With Particular Reference to Group Phenomenology
An overview of group phenomenological enquiry and its potential for application in the study of performance. How the method worked in the Audience group project. Reporting from the investigations of the third year comedy class who have turned their unit into an instance of research as pedagogy.
- 12 May
Associate Professor Peter Snow (Head of ECPS)
God to Christian: Playing Yahweh in ‘Ot: Chronicles of the Old Testament’ at Malthouse 07
- 26 May
Adam Powers and Tanya Barnes (MA candidates)
The Journey Towards a Director and Scenographer’s Successful Working Relationship
Dr Maryrose Casey (DTS staff)
Performing Indigenous Sovereignty: Indigenous Australian Theatre Entrepreneurs in the Nineteenth Century