An exploration of intimate performative acts of confession in a secular culture: orality, physicality and site.

在忏悔室，一对一的独奏表演近年来已成为一种可见的表演实践形式，在个人日益商品化的文化中占据了一席之地。在这种情况下，作为从业者，似乎必须了解这种形式的忏悔可以为旁观者带来什么，特别是通过经验和交流的可能性。在三年的时间里，作为AHRC创造性研究员，我进行了一系列理论和文化背景下的实践探索，旨在了解表演中的“忏悔”是什么，可能是什么，它做了什么，可能做了什么。在这个研究项目中，我的重点是世俗的和非世俗的空间对观众和表演者之间亲密交流的影响：这种忏悔交流的性质是什么；身体亲密和亲密的言语启示之间的关系是什么；那么，如何以及能否在重新定义“忏悔”的同时，仍能起到“释放”或“解脱”的作用呢？在六个月的时间里，我将进行一系列(至少六个)独立但相关的应用研究实验。这些将采取在世俗和非世俗空间(包括教堂、已改建为剧院和表演工作室的教堂)进行一对一表演的形式。在每个空间中，将使用不同的表演交换模式和变量，包括身体(例如握手)、口头(口头信息交换)和沉默。这些讲习班表演的目的是确定：肉体和口头联系的程度；空间对交换信息的意愿/愿望/抵抗力的影响以及所交换的信息的类型；以及观众可能进行的忏悔的类型。观众都将是志愿者参与者。在工作坊表演之后，每个人都将被单独采访，并被要求反思他们在不同空间和不同亲密接触模式中的经历。在征得学员同意的情况下，工作坊的每一次表演都将被录像。这一应用研究的结果将被综合在最终的公开表演的设计中，对所有人开放，目的是在表演者和观众之间产生最大程度的真正交流，使观众在作品结束时感到某种程度的解放。这场表演涉及到我在AHRC创造性团契申请中提出的许多问题，尤其是表演是否可能提供一种等同于绝对的世俗等价物。鉴于在英国和美国有证据的独白忏悔实践的程度，以及这种做法发生的背景(大众调解忏悔文化)，本项目的目的是提供对忏悔形式的及时实用讯问，包括对我自己的忏悔实践的讯问。因此，这项研究的一部分涉及对现有工作的调查，以便为我自己的实践创造一个背景。除了通过最后的演出向公众传播这部作品外，我对它的研究和批判性思考也将通过演出后的讨论向不同的支持者提供。该项目的最后两个月致力于制作一份口头报告，反映研究过程和结果(在大学范围内提交，但对公众开放)，并向同行评议的期刊提交一篇批判性反思的文章(例如，戏剧制作研究)。

Confessional, 'one-to-one' solo performance has become a visible form of performance practice in recent years, taking its place in a culture where the personal has become increasingly commodified. In this context, it seems imperative to understand, as practitioners, what this form of confession might enable, particularly by way of experience and the potential for exchange, for the spectator. Over the duration of three years, as an AHRC Creative Fellow, I am conducting a series of theoretically and culturally contextualised practical explorations which aim to understand what 'confession' in performance is and might be, what it does and might do. In particular I am interrogating the terms 'intimacy', 'risk', 'confession' and 'site', and the inter-relations between these in performance practice.For this research project my focus is applied to the impact that secular and non-secular space has on intimate exchange between spectator and performer: what is the nature of that confessional exchange; what is the relationship between physical intimacy and intimate spoken revelations; and, how and whether 'the confession' can be reconceptualised for these times but still perform its function as a 'release' or 'relief'?Over a period of six months I will conduct a series of (at least six) separate but related applied research experiments. These will take the form of one-to-one performances located in both secular and non-secular spaces (including a church, a church that has been converted into a theatre and a performance studio). In each space, different modes and variables of performance exchange will be utilised, including physical (e.g. hand-holding), oral (exchange of verbal information) and silence. The aim of these workshop performances is to determine: the extent to which physicality and orality are related; the impact of space on the willingness/desire/resistance to exchange information and the type of information exchanged; and, the types of confession that may be performed by the spectator. The spectators will all be volunteer participants. Following the workshop performance each will be individually interviewed and asked to reflect on their experiences in the different spaces and different modes of intimate encounter. With the consent of the participant, each workshop performance will be video recorded. The results of this applied research will be synthesised in the devising of a final public performance, open to all, which aims to engender the greatest degree of genuine exchange between performer and spectator in such a way that the spectator feels to some extent liberated by the end of the piece. This performance engages with many questions posed in my AHRC Creative Fellowship application, not least whether performance might potentially provide a secular equivalent to absolution.Given the extent of solo, confessional practice in evidence in the UK and the USA, and the context in which this practice takes place (that of a mass-mediated confessional culture), the purpose of this project is to offer a timely practical interrogation of the confessional form, including the interrogation of my own practice. One part of this research, therefore, involves surveying existing work in order to produce a context for my own practice. In addition to the public dissemination of the work through the final performance, my research and critical reflection on it will also be made available to a variety of constituencies through post-show discussion. The final two months of the project are dedicated to creating an oral presentation reflecting on research process and outcome (to be presented within the University context but open to the public) and the submission of a critically reflective article to a peer-reviewed journal (e.g. Studies in Theatre Production).