Encountering Ensemble (Performance Books) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1472538870 ISBN 13: 9781472538871

Publisher: Methuen Drama, 2013

Synopsis

Encountering Ensemble, is a text for students, teachers, researchers and practitioners who wish to develop a deeper understanding of the history, conceptual foundations and practicalities of the world of ensemble theatre. It is the first book to draw together definitions and practitioner examples, making it a cutting edge work on the subject. Encountering Ensemble combines historical and contemporary case studies with a wide range of approaches and perspectives. It is written collaboratively with practitioners and members from the academic community and is divided into three sections: 1. Introduction and an approach to training ensembles 2. Practitioner case studies and analysis of specific practical approaches to training ensembles (or individuals in an ensemble context) 3. Succinct perspectives from practitioners reflecting on a range of questions including: What is an ensemble?; the place of ensemble in the contemporary theatre landscape; and training issues.

About this title

About the Authors

John Britton is Artistic Director of DUENDE, an international performance group dedicated to ensemble-based, interdisciplinary new work. Between 2004 and 2011 he was Senior Lecturer at the University of Huddersfield, where for a number of years he ran an innovative practice-based MA in Ensemble Physical Theatre. He still retains a research affiliation to the University of Huddersfield and is one of the only academic-pracitioners in the UK with a specific research focus and practice in the training and directing of ensemble theatre. Britton has a continuing international practice as a trainer and director of ensembles. Recent workshops have taken place in Mexico, Slovenia, France, Germany, Greece, Sweden, China, Portugal, Australia as well as the UK. Britton has extensive experience as a director, performer and writer of physical, interdisciplinary and text-based work. In 2013 he will teach, perform and direct in India for two months , as well as continuing to run DUENDE's programme of workshops and intensive, rural, residential training events.

David Barnett is Professor of Theatre at the University of York, UK. He has published monographs on Heiner Müller (1998) and Rainer Werner Fassbinder (2005, paperback 2009), and co-edited a volume and edited a special issue of Contemporary Theatre Review on contemporary German theatre. His history of the Berliner Ensemble was published in 2015, and he edited the anthology of Bertolt Brecht's Berliner Ensemble Adaptations (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2014).

Michael Boyd (1955-2023) was a British theatre director. He trained at the Malaya Bronnaya Theatre in Moscow and worked at a number of significant theatres in the United Kingdom, including The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, The Sheffield Crucible and The Tron (Glasgow) before becoming Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2003 – a position he held until 2012.

Bryan Brown is a theatre artist with ARTEL as well as a producer and pedagogue with Art Via Corpora Performance Research and Development House, both based in Hollywood, California. His research centers on psychophysical training, ensemble creation and the theatre laboratory.

Frank Camilleri is Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Malta and Artistic Director of Icarus Performance Project (www.icarusproject.info). His publications on performer training, theatre as a laboratory, and practice as research reflect the theatre work he has been developing since 1989. He is also a long-distance runner.

Edition details

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1472538870
• ISBN 13: 9781472538871
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 472
• Editor: Britton John