Plethora and Bare Sufficiency:a new practice for a tragic theatre

在过去的三十年左右的时间里，我一直在为现场表演编写、导演和设计戏剧。在这段时间里，我发展了一种悲剧形式，我把它描述为灾难性的，以区别于某些古典形式。在这样做的过程中，我发明并改进了对我来说独特的演讲形式，这个过程还在继续。我相信文本是所有戏剧性体验的第一要素。我也认为传统的现实主义戏剧是一种疲惫的形式，但摆脱这种困境的方法不是抛弃文本，而是寻找新的方法。首先，我想知道演讲--我认为这是一种几乎是塑料的、雕塑般的东西--是否需要传达意义，或者它是否可能被用来制造紧张和狂喜，而不带有具体的信息或内容。严格地说，表演者可以什么都不说就说出来吗？然而，这种听觉体验还能在观众中产生情感吗？其次，与此相反的是，一个或两个短语是否可以像一段音乐那样被单独使用来产生情感或复杂性？我称之为第一个版本，它是由许多声音说出的压倒性词汇，几乎是人类声音的管弦乐队。第二种我称之为“纯粹的充分性”，整个场景都挂在一个简短的概念、形象，甚至是一些陈词滥调上。支持和反对这个短语，表演者的行为可能会揭示出意想不到的意义。通过向多(过度)和少两个方向扩展我的实践，我希望展示戏剧文本获得新生命的可能性。为了探索这些方向，我将撰写和上演两部戏剧作品，一部基于过剩，另一部基于仅有的充足。《过多》的制作本质上是语言过剩，既涉及人声--包括个人声音和合唱--也涉及声音(尽管不是传统的音乐形式)。“仅有的充分性”的核心将是语言上的稀疏：这将是一首最注重动作和手势的作品；不会发生即兴创作，纪律将对结果至关重要。这两部戏剧都将由埃克塞特部门的专业演员和研究生演员组成，最终都将为公众观众制作一部完整的作品。然后，这两部作品将成为为期一天的公开研讨会的主题，导致出版物在奖学金的最后阶段我将重新编写剧本以供出版，并撰写一篇批判性和理论性的介绍，阐明作品的理论基础，考虑新的悲剧可能性，并描述文本和作品的创作过程。在埃克塞特大学戏剧系的背景下工作，将使我能够以一种在专业戏剧环境下不可能的方式与团体合作(在时间尺度、团体规模等方面)。。在整个过程中，我将与新闻部的同事和研究人员合作，他们将以各种方式为实际项目的发展以及围绕和支持这些项目的批判性和理论论述做出贡献。

For the last thirty or so years I have written, directed and designed plays for live performance. In this time I have developed a form of tragedy I have described as Catastrophic, to distinguish it from certain classical forms. In doing so I have invented and refined speech forms which are distinctive to me, and this process continues. I believe the text to be the first element of all dramatic experience. I also believe the traditional realistic play to be an exhausted form, but that the way to escape this dilemma is not to abandon text but to find new ways with it. In the first place, I wish to know whether speech - which I believe to be an almost plastic, sculptural thing needs to convey meaning, or whether it might be employed to create tensions and ecstasies without bearing specific messages or content. Could a performer utter without - strictly speaking - saying anything? Yet could this audial experience still generate emotion in an audience? Secondly, the converse of this, could a single phrase, or pair of phrases, operate alone to generate emotion - or complexity - by being used rather as a bar of music is?I call the first version 'Plethora', an overwhelming with words spoken by many voices, almost an orchestra of human sounds. And the second I call 'Bare Sufficiency', where the entire scene to be played hangs from a brief concept, or image, or even something banal. With and against this single phrase, the actions of the performers might serve to reveal unexpected meanings. By extending my practice in both directions - towards more (excessively) and towards less, I would hope to demonstrate the possibility of a new life for text in theatre. In order to explore these directions I will write and stage two theatrical productions, one based on Plethora, one on Bare Sufficiency. The production of 'Plethora' will have at its heart linguistic excess, involving both the human voice -- both individual voices and chorus -- and sound (though not in conventional music-form). At the heart of 'Bare Sufficiency' will be linguistic spareness: this will be a piece in which the most strenuous attention is paid to movement and gesture; no improvisation will take place, and discipline will be critical to the outcome. Both plays will involve a combination of professional actors and postgraduate student actors from the Exeter Department and both will culminate in a full production for a public audience. Both productions will then become the subject of a one-day public symposium, resulting in publications In the final phase of the fellowship I will re-work the playscripts for publication and write a critical and theoretical introduction articulating the theoretical basis of the work, considering the new tragic possibilities, and describing the creative process by which the texts and productions were achieved. Working in the context of the Exeter University Drama Department will enable me to work with groups in a way impossible in the circumstances of professional theatre (in terms of time-scale, group size etc). . Throughout this process I will be working in collaboration with colleagues and researchers from Department, who will contribute in a variety of ways to the development of the practical projects, and to the critical and theoretical discourse which surrounds and supports them.