The creative arts in general and the theatre in specific represent man's rushing and carving for freedom, goodness and beauty, and the relation between creativity and freedom has always been ...fluctuating following the censorship pressures of all types and shapes the political, religious and social. Since the theatre is the closest and more touching creative art to the problems of the society of numerous types and levels and it was and has always been playing an enlightening role in shedding light on what the societies experiencing with crises and problems in all directions. The theatre, thus, derives the essence of existence from life, through topics concerned with what the human being is. It seeks to be the real witness and partner in getting man rid of problems and everyday worries. This relation may be subject to treatments in many arts, but it manifested itself in the formation of the real image in the theatrical art. Therefore, the two researchers find it necessary to search and reveal the mechanisms of the directive vision and the method of its transformations by some theatre directors, who added creative and aesthetic concepts to their theatrical shows through the concepts of transformations and the directive vision.
This article offers a speculative analysis of emerging modalities and methods of creating within contemporary political performance made by British millennial artists that I argue have arisen in ...response to specific socio-economic, political and philosophical crises affecting us. By locating the term ‘millennial’ as a structure of feeling, as per Raymond Williams, I argue that, despite the inherent hypocrisy of generational research, the impact of these crises upon members of the generation has led particular artists to create empathetic dialogues between audience and performer. This article also argues that the emerging concept of metamodernism, popularised by Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker, is inherent in understanding this reading of the millennial, and descriptive of particular ethical and aesthetic developments within millennial, political theatre. This article argues that these developments are in a direct response to the metamodern shift towards the essence of progress and truth as acts and ideas that also necessitate and propel constant crisis, oscillation and dialogue.
Historically and contemporaneously, the role of audiences in South Korean performing arts has been inherently interactive. The T’alch’um (mask dance) and P’ansori (Korean traditional solo opera) were ...mainly performed in the madang, a marketplace or courtyard; an environment which fostered a more interactive role for the audience who took on a vital role as participants. The madang has a collective nature in that it is a shared place: a “we” occurs among the crowd creating Durkheim’s collective effervescence. In this new millennium, the Korean theatre and performing arts’ audience have re-situated their interactive performance into the public square, replicating the same spirit of critical discourse and civil unrest that is the hallmark of pre-modern performance. This article gives a brief introduction to and overview of the interactive role of traditional theatre audiences since the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897) in the madang and then explores how contemporary South Korean audiences also perform inherited historical audience behaviour. The chapter concludes with an example of public square madang audience community performances: The Plaza Theatre in the Black Tent, in response to the unconstitutional conservative government artist “blacklist” of 2016–17.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the countries of the Middle East have experienced several episodes of revolt and revolution. Art in general has both been affected by and has influenced these ...events. With this in mind, my essay examines the art of puppet theatre as an epic narrative approach in the sense of both epic-political and epic-adventurous. To explore this phenomenon in historical context, I first trace puppetry’s past in the Middle East and then discuss in more detail its important contemporary role. My contention is that the Middle Eastern puppet becomes a narrative schema of the socio-political field, going beyond the limits imposed on the rest of society with skill, like a hero who acts to save his beloved at the end of the story.
Arts can provide an alternative to violence and the opportunity to give a voice to the oppressed. Music, arts and theatre can become acts of defiance, a form of resistance, or a simple bridge of ...reconciliation. Creativity in arts give the community the opportunity to exceed certain boundaries and urges the individuals to see the potential in them and in the whole world. We will analize, therefore, the relations between
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trying to analize contemporary examples of global conflict zones: theatrical protests against war, performances by refugees and the impact of these in education. Using theatre as a form of awareness of human rights, we are not educating only the audience – we also lead to public awareness, empathy and people-to-people relationships. The vision of a theatre that connects thoughts, feelings and actions represents a powerfull symbol of a democratic society. Theatre, as the most public of art forms, embracing the other arts under it’s hat, can become a form of remodeling a society, using our imagination.
The global land grab has played out vividly in Cambodia, giving rise to rural upheaval and new political dynamics. This article explores how the Cambodian government has dealt with the social and ...political consequences of this land grabbing, with the aim of exploring state formation in the context of socio-environmental disruption and dispossession. When a moratorium was declared in 2012, the ruling Cambodian People's Party faced one of its strongest political challenges, fuelled in part by land and resource conflicts. In this article, the focus is on the responses to this challenge, noting the recursive relationship between land administration and state formation. The analysis shows three tactics of land control used by the regime to ensure its survival after the grab: reform, repression and re-territorialisation. These tactics operate in parallel and sometimes contradictory ways, being highly performative in nature. We reveal a regime that uses political theatre to construct legitimacy and authority on the one hand, while deploying coercion and violence on the other. These observations complement typical diagnoses of Cambodia's politics as neo-patrimonial, highlighting the performative and symbolic nature of government actions, particularly in the land sector.
Abstract One can easily argue that since Marx and Engels demise of nineteenth century Utopian socialism, characterizing Utopianism as an “idealism deeply and structurally averse to the Political”, ...utopia has migrated into fiction. With no surprise, Alain Badiou has famously declared the “passion for the real” as the twentieth century’s “major subjective trait”. The (early) twenty first century has also succumbed helplessly to the eruption of the real. But the times we live today seem to be claiming for something else. Over the past two decades utopian thinking seems to have resurfaced. The severity and monumentality of the issues that afflict the world today are inciting a central question for artists: in the face of an imminent catastrophe, what is the use of utopian imagination at the end of times? What is the purpose of artistic endeavours in a finite world. Utopian (or dystopian) fiction and has always dealt with the envisioning of a future anchored in possible or impossible scenarios, helping the world to correct its wrong doings, to improve, to transform, to threat with dreadful outcomes or to denounce present inequalities. However, if we consider that the world needs to start a new narrative, performing arts can help us to expand imagination, freeing political thinking from the constraints of the real world and wide open to “social dreaming”. In this paper, I aim to combine a speculative reflection grounded on utopian studies and in political theatre considering that performing arts are in a particularly good position to intervene in “social imaginary. This frame incites us to rethink the possibilities of political theatre today and its ontology, fighting for the rooting of (artistic) utopia in the imagination of politics, trusting that art and theatre will be able to help us to invent scenarios that today seem impossible or that we have not yet managed to conceive.
Resumo Pode-se facilmente argumentar que desde o desmerecimento do socialismo utópico do século XIX por Marx e Engels, caracterizando o utopismo como um “idealismo profunda e estruturalmente avesso ao político”, a utopia migrou para a ficção. Sem surpresa, Alain Badiou declarou a famosa “paixão pelo real” como o “principal traço subjetivo” do século XX. O (início) do século XXI também sucumbiu impotentemente à erupção do real. Mas os tempos que vivemos hoje parecem exigir outra coisa. Nas últimas duas décadas, o pensamento utópico parece ter ressurgido. A gravidade e a monumentalidade das questões que afligem o mundo hoje suscitam uma questão central para os artistas: face a uma catástrofe iminente, para que serve a imaginação utópica no fim dos tempos? Qual é o propósito dos empreendimentos artísticos em um mundo finito. A ficção utópica (ou distópica) lidou sempre com visões de um futuro ancorado em cenários possíveis ou impossíveis, ajudando o mundo a corrigir os seus erros, a melhorar, a transformar, a ameaçar com resultados terríveis ou a denunciar as desigualdades actuais. No entanto, se considerarmos que o mundo precisa de iniciar uma nova narrativa, as artes performativas podem ajudar-nos a expandir a imaginação, libertando o pensamento político dos constrangimentos do mundo real e abrindo-nos ao “sonho social”. Neste texto, pretendo combinar uma reflexão especulativa baseada em estudos utópicos e no teatro político, considerando que as artes performativas estão numa posição particularmente boa para intervir no “imaginário social”. Este enquadramento incita-nos a repensar as possibilidades do teatro político hoje e a sua ontologia, lutando pelo enraizamento da utopia (artística) no imaginário da política, confiando que a arte e o teatro poderão ajudar-nos a inventar cenários que hoje parecem impossíveis ou que ainda não conseguimos conceber.
This introduction considers the mediums and forms through which royal power was performed in premodern Europe, including civic entertainments, coronations, pageants, progresses, and the explosion of ...print culture that helped disseminate and shape many of these events. Power and performance have always been interlinked, with rulers and the ruled acutely aware of the necessity of ritual and image. This connection could be particularly important at times of crisis or political transition. The introduction makes connections between the articles in this special issue, which offer new perspectives on the participatory and dialogic nature of performing power in premodern Europe.
The « Commune » remains a fruitful source of inspiration for many contemporary shows, less to celebrate history than to transpose the communard utopia into our current events or to glorify this ...popular and poetic impetus. Music and song thus hold a central place there, in order to appeal to the collective memories and to make this communard spirit sensitive. If the works include historical personalities and events, and pay particular tribute to the women’s action, they all develop, according to various scenic forms, a reflection that is both political and aesthetic on the today’s theater and society.
Review of Gwenaël Morin’s Re-Paradise presented at the national dramatic center of Theatre Nanterre-Amandier for the Festival “Mondes Possibles” celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of May 1968.