Theatre has always been a place to come together and exchange. In these (post)pandemic times of uncertainty, anxiety, climate catastrophes and wars, the idea of physically travelling somewhere to gather and exchange is contested daily.
Rajni Shah (2021) sees performance as creating the possibility for the act of gathering that enables attentive listening. Hans-Thies Lehmann (1999/2006) describes this act through the notion of event/situation and Florian Malzacher (2021) explains it as the art of assembly. When performance and theatre makers and audiences gather in a space, virtual and physical, to rehearse, exchange and perform, it is with an assumption that they have journeyed from near or far.
How is contemporary theatre and performance inspired by imaginary and/or real travel? How can theatrical exchange and collaboration become a transformative force and give agency to both those present and absent from the places of gathering?
We are inviting researchers, artists, academics and students of theatre and performance from Japan and Britain for a three-day exchange that will take place at Lancaster University and Salford University in November 2023.
For this first event in what is envisaged to become a series of exchange events, we are starting at the beginning. One of the leading Japanese theatre scholars, Professor Tadashi Uchino (Gakushuin Women's College, Tokyo) will be introducing recent post-dramatic or ‘other’ theatre practices in Japan. The award-winning Japanese director Yuta Hagiwara, leader of Tokyo-based company Kamome Machine will also be conducting a workshop entitled ‘Democracy as a Verb’. They will be joined by British theatre researchers and practitioners.
This is a pilot project aiming to create a long-term collaborative network between Japanese and British researchers and practitioners.
This project is organised through Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA) Cultures Research Centre. It is jointly organised by Dr Karen Jürs-Munby, Senior Lecturer in Theatre (Lancaster University), Beri Juraic, PhD Candidate in Theatre Studies (Lancaster University) and Dr Richard Talbot, Senior Lecturer in Performance (University of Salford) with the additional support by Meg Ritchie (Postgraduate Researcher in Media and Cultural Studies, Lancaster University).
