An exploration of the potentialities for the creation of a mise en scene and dramaturgy of confession in a traditional and public theatre space.

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。特别是在表演实践中，我对“亲密”、“风险”、“忏悔”和“场地”这四个术语，以及它们之间的相互关系进行了探讨。对于这个，我的最后一个研究项目，我的重点是收集我之前的实践探索中的研究成果，以发现如何可能综合我的研究的四个关键术语来创造一个统一的表演语境，并探索创造一个米色场景和忏悔的戏剧性的可能性。这项研究将由一位研究带头的艺术家明蒂·唐纳德(巧合的是，他也是前创意研究员)进行，他也将担任首席顾问。通过合作，我们将研究如何在一个大型的、传统的和公共的剧院空间中创造一个亲密的、一对一的忏悔交流和互动的“旅程”。在六个月的时间里，我们将研究神圣和世俗的地点(例如，一个宗教花园和一个雕塑公园)，作为创造一个米色场景和忏悔戏剧的背景框架。在此期间，我们还将参与其他一些艺术家的作品，例如，探索声音和光对体验的、互动的忏悔之旅的影响。将有一段指定的时间招募受邀参与者在重新创造的空间进行一系列实验表演，并将使用不同的表演交流模式和变量，包括身体交流(例如握手)、口头交流(口头信息交流)和沉默。这些实验表演的目的是确定：在一个大的、传统的剧院空间中，亲密的、忏悔的互动可以达到什么程度；这些是否有可能被体验为‘交换’和礼物；以及这是否可能被体验为一种世俗的等同于绝对的体验。实验表演的参与者将接受非正式的采访，并在设计最终的公开表演时综合他们的反馈，旨在以这样一种方式在表演者和观众之间产生最大程度的交流，使观众在作品结束时感受到某种程度的解放。这场表演也将被拍摄下来，并提供给更多的观众。此外，一个研讨会将邀请一群从业者介绍他们自己以实践为指导的对类似问题的研究得出的正在进行的工作，以及一些学者被邀请发表与忏悔和忏悔表演有关的论文。我还将提交一篇论文，这将是对该项目结果的批判性反思。这篇论文将作为一篇论文提交给同行评议期刊(表演研究)。考虑到英国和美国的个人忏悔实践在证据中的程度，以及这种做法发生的背景(大众调解的忏悔文化)，本项目的目的是提供对忏悔形式和我自己的实践的及时的实践审问。

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, my final research project, my focus is on drawing together the research findings from my previous practical explorations to discover how it might be possible to synthesise the four key terms of my research to create a unified performance context and to explore the potential for creating a mise en scene and dramaturgy of confession. This research will be undertaken with a research-led artist, Minty Donald ( and, coincidentally a former Creative Fellow), who will also function as a principal consultant. Collaboratively, we will investigate how the creation of an intimate, one-to-one confessional 'journey' of exchange and interaction might be realised in a large, conventional and public theatre space.Over a period of six months we will research both the sacred and the secular site ( for example, a religious garden and a sculpture park) as a contextual framing for the creation of a mise en scene and dramaturgy of confession. This period will also see us engaging with the work of a number of other artists, for example, exploring the impact of sound and light on an experiential, interactive confessional journey. There will be a designated period of enlisting invited participants for a run of experimental performances in the recreated space, and different modes and variables of performance exchange will be utilised, including physical (e.g. holding), oral (exchange of verbal information)and silence. The aim of these experimental performances is to determine: the extent to which an intimate, confessional interaction is achievable in a large, conventional theatre space; whether it is possible for these to be experienced as 'exchange' and gift; and whether this might potentially be experienced as a secular equivalent to absolution.The participants for the experimental performances will be informally interviewed and their feedback synthesised in the devising of a final public performance, which aims to engender the greatest degree of 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 will also be filmed and made available to a much wider audience.In addition, a symposium will see a group of practitioners invited to present work-in-progress that has emerged out of their own practice-led research into similar issues, alongside a number of academics invited to give papers relating to confession and confessional performance. I will also present a paper which will be a critical reflection on the findings of this project. This paper will then be submitted as an article to a peer-reviewed journal (Performance Research).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 and of my own practice.