Drama and Theatre Studies Seminars 2009

The Ontology of Dramaturgy/Dramaturgy as Ontology

Julian Meyrick

Drawing on the recent work of Alain Badiou in reviving discussions of the subject and of objective truth, this paper makes some remarks about
the ontological parameters of dramaturgy, arguing that while the precise nature of a play text is hard to define, nevertheless dramaturgy is
predicated on the notion that plays do have essential natures. On this ontological supposition resides the sense of a play’s structural
elements, as well as its relationship to the real world ie. its relationship with truth. Dramaturgy is a way of intervening in processes of
representation but it is anchored on issues of being. Questions of style, content, characterization, cultural context (both source and target)
come second to the question of a play’s essential nature – its alethia.

The paper further argues that while dramaturgy is both a function and a method of work it is, at present times, also a metaphor. Dramaturgy
as a ‘truth-procedure’ provides a language – limited, flawed but extant – to speak of the ‘whole’ of the theatre experience rather than a
specialised part of it. As theatre becomes more technological, capitalised and rationalised – its identity as a totality is eclipsed.
‘Theatrical vision’ – whether that of the director’s, the designer’s, or the playwright’s – detaches from philosophical understanding and
becomes the deployment of technique only.

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Doing Phenomenology. Which Phenomenology? The trials and tribulations of phenomenological analysis in performance studies

Ed Creely

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Is Adoptee Art Post-Colonial?

Dominic Holding

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Biofiction: trying to find the Two Frank Thrings

Peter Fitzpatrick

A discussion of the challenges in writing a biography of notorious Australian actor Frank Thring, and dealing with the subjectivity of the
subject matter in a form of writing that is considered historical and objective.

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A Horse Throwing its Rider: Practice-led Research in Performance Studies

Barry Laing

This paper discusses Barry Laing’s PhD, Victoria University 2002. The PhD - an enquiry into subjectivity by means of performance - involved the writing, devising and performing of three solo performance works as well as a 60,000 word written document incorporating 18,000 words of the ‘performance texts’. This presentation engages with the strategies and methodologies employed as well as questions and complexities concerning theory, practice, praxis, method and knowledge as they might figure in postgraduate research by means of performance.

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“Season at Sarsparilla”: The Animated House

Noel Maloney

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A Phenomenology of Ephemeral Places

Dr Stuart Grant

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Poetics and the Narrative: A play reading from “The Boy out of the Country”

Felix Nobis