Theatre and Performance Studies News
Who You Think We Are
JC Niala, Yvette Hutchison and Tim White, who connected through the African Women Playwrights Network, had their proposal for the performance Who you think we are accepted by the Tate Exchange to perform on 14 March in the festival Who Are We? This festival has been designed as a week of engagement, dialogue, debate and lively disruption, asking what it means to belong- across and within borders - in March 2017.
Dr. Susan Haedicke collaborates with Baz Kershaw and Earthrise Repair Shop to construct two large-scale Prairie Meanders in Iowa.
Dr. Susan Haedicke collaborated with Baz Kershaw and Earthrise Repair Shop to conceive and construct Prairie Meanders at the Conrad Environmental Research Area on the prairie in Grinnell, Iowa, in September 2016. This project was a large-scale version of earlier ‘meadow meanders’ created by Kershaw that explore human ‘econnectivity’ to the earth through performance ecologies, conservation and regeneration. Prairie Meanders constructed two meanders, one a quarter of a mile long; the other over two-thirds of a mile. These maze-like pathways mimic major ecological processes of Earth. Once the pattern is established, a walker meanders along the path and viscerally experiences a global ecology on a local, human-sized scale. Combining land art, nature trail, gallery display and immersive performance, the meanders produced dynamic experiences of 'glocal' ecosystem processes as they created environmental puzzles exploring the ecologies of interacting climates, landscapes and species.
Dr. Susan Haedicke publishes an article on Friches Théâtre Urbain’s applied theatre project in the banlieues north of Paris that works with rival gangs in Research in Drama Education
Dr. Susan Haedicke published ‘Breaking a Legacy of Hatred: Friches Théâtre Urbain’s Lieu Commun’ in Research in Drama Education 21.2 (2016): 161-75. The article examines the innovative applied theatre project that resulted from a violent clash between rival gangs from Asnières and Gennevilliers in the banlieue north of Paris when a fifteen-year old boy was killed at the metro station Les Courtilles, the last stop on Line 13. Realizing the need for radically different approaches to halt an escalation of violence, city officials, asked Sarah Harper, Artistic Director of Friches Théâtre Urbain, a street theatre company in Paris, to develop a community-based art-making project that would augment attempts by the youth workers and others to defuse the volatile situation.
Theatre and Performance Studies students participate in the creative dramaturgical adaptation of The Winter’s Tale for a street performance and travel to Poznan, Poland to see the show and present at an international academic conference.
Four Theatre and Performance Studies students, Alice Brazil-Burns, Emma Jelly, Sophia Pardon and Sophie Upcraft, collaborated with Dr Susan Haedicke on the creation of a Dramaturgy Packet for a professional performance of The Winter’s Tale by Teatr Biuro Podróży, one of the most important and innovative European street theatre companies. As a result of this work, and thanks to a Warwick Public Engagement Fund grant, three of the students (Alice, Sophia, and Emma) travelled to Poznan, Poland in October 2016 to see the initial adaptation of the play on the streets of the old city around the Cathedral. The students created a programme (translated into Polish) for this early version of the adaptation. In addition, they were invited to present on the creative dramaturgical process at an international academic conference, hosted by Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan.
Students present