Scrapbooks, Snapshots and Memorabilia. Hidden Archives of Performance

Par : Glen Mcgillivray
Formats :
  • Nombre de pages283
  • ISBN978-3-0343-0390-3
  • EAN9783034303903
  • Date de parution01/07/2011
  • ÉditeurPeter Lang

Résumé

Scrapbooks, Snapshots and Memorabilia : Hidden Archives of Performance asks the questions : What constitutes an archive ? What is worthy of being archived ? And who decides ? Performances are ephemeral, so archival questions of selection and appraisal determine which performances will be remembered by history and which will not. The essays in this collection each explore a different facet of the ephemerality of performance, and the traces it leaves behind : from photographic stills of actors or sets ; draft scripts and production notes, theatre programs and reviews ; the language used to evoke the experience of watching a dance ; to the memories contained within a site which has been used for a site-specific performance.
Each of the contributors to Scrapbooks, Snapshots and Memorabilia employs pertinent case studies to reveal performances that are so often ‘hidden' from the authoritative archival view ; for example, those by women, indigenous people, amateurs and working people, and those outside metropolitan centres. In this way, they build a powerful argument for reconsidering – or at the very least, broadening – notions of what the performance archive can be.
Glen McGillivray lectures in Performance Studies at Sydney University and at the University of Western Sydney. He has had extensive experience as a theatre director and dramaturg and is currently working on a major research project that explores networks of collaboration between artists. In addition to this work, he is researching a book that explores the genealogy of the theatrical metaphor.