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PRE-APPROVED PANEL - The Past, Present, and Future of Performance in Ireland

Read the Call for Papers for this Panel - Deadline 31 January 2004

This panel will examine the role of performance in Irish drama and theatre. Since the 1990s, Irish theatre companies have increasingly taken note of performance styles, especially those involving greater physicality, as seen through companies such as Barabbas, Macnas, and Blue Raincoat, the latter of which held the first Abbey Partnership, a venture between the National Theatre and an up-and-coming theatre company. Not only did the 1990s see an explosion in the number of theatre companies, but many of these companies have been influenced by European schools and methods, such as Ecole Jacques LeCoq and Théâtre du Soleil.

This conversation has begun in books such as Druids, Dudes, and Beauty Queens: The Changing Face of Irish Theatre, edited by Dermot Bolger, and, to a lesser extent, Theatre Stuff: Critical Essays on Contemporary Irish Theatre, edited by Eamonn Jordan. Other books, such as Christopher Morash’s A History of Irish Theatre, 1601-2000, acknowledge the recent inclusion of physicality and different performance styles, but do not discuss it. There has to date not been an in-depth study of the role of performance styles and the ideas behind performance theory on contemporary Irish drama. This conference panel would be an important first step in acknowledging the role of movement in Irish drama and in examining whether this change is a true shift or merely a fad.

New scholarship is needed that looks into the changing winds of Irish theatre and performance. This panel could be a beginning in this project. Ideally, papers on the panel will include a broad spectrum of Irish performance, including not only contemporary Irish drama, but medieval performance styles (which were very physical) and folk drama. The bringing together of different perspectives will help everyone involved in this new area and will be a significant contribution to Irish theatre scholarship. Furthermore, this panel would bring together scholars who are interested in this field, a move that would in itself advance the ideas of scholarship.

• Irish folk performance
• Irish language performances
• The work of specific theatre companies who are including different performance styles in their performances, including but not limited to: Macnas, Barabbas, Blue Raincoat, Corcadorca, Kabosh, The Machine, Gallowglass, Corn Exchange, Corcadorca, Calipo
• Community theatre
• Outdoor theatre and performance
• Collaborative theatre
• The intersection of theatre and dance
• New media in theatre performance
• The blending of video and theatre
• Theatre that moves through space
• Theatre performances and companies who operate without traditional fixed texts

IASIL 2004 is hosted by The National University of Ireland, Galway