Institutional Diversity: Representing Disability in the Contemporary Shakespeare Industry

我的项目旨在询问残疾角色、演员和观众在当代莎士比亚戏剧行业中的地位。最近，英国戏剧行业因缺乏多样性而受到批评：在舞台上，在创意和行政领域。为了响应#MeToo、#GiveArtistsAChance和#TheatresPullUpOrShutUp等运动，各机构努力增加舞台内外因种族、性别、性取向和残疾而被边缘化的社区的代表性。然而，莎士比亚表演奖学金引发了人们对莎士比亚行业提高多样性的策略的担忧。Julian和Solga(2021)和Williams(2019)指出了‘表演性’多样性可能对相关社区造成的伤害。威廉姆斯的“不完全戏剧”模型提供了一些工具，可以用来探究被誉为“进步”的作品如何往往未能预见到其选择的影响，从而强化有害的观点。最近关于机构多样性和当代莎士比亚表演的工作(例如，Jarrett-Macauley 2017，Power 2016，Rogers 2013，Thompson 2011)侧重于种族、性别和性。到目前为止，还没有关于当代莎士比亚戏剧行业中残疾的持续研究，认为它在表演的各个方面都有地位。这篇论文将通过以下问题来填补这一空白：-正在采取什么措施来在舞台上代表莎士比亚的残疾角色，由谁扮演他们，以及后果是什么？-正在采取什么策略将残疾演员纳入莎士比亚的表演中？这意味着什么？-用什么策略将莎士比亚呈现给残疾观众？它们的目的是什么？它们的影响是什么？-莎士比亚行业内实施了哪些战略，以将残疾人纳入其机构多样性？其后果是什么？我们需要对主流莎士比亚表演中表演多元化的趋势进行学术上的质疑。如果生产停留在代表权的“第一个障碍”(Williams，2019年)，而不是整合进一步的制度变革，它们可能会对被边缘化的群体造成伤害。通过深入分析将残疾人演员和观众纳入这场运动的战略，以提高他们在行业中的代表性，我希望引起对他们成功和不足之处的批判性关注，并继续推动体制改革。暂定时间表：第一年：对文献进行调查，确定从21世纪开始进行分析的作品。使用面对面的分析、档案视频和评论，研究莎士比亚舞台上残疾人身体的符号学--包括人物(如理查德三世、奥赛罗)和残疾演员--以及针对残疾观众的作品(如长笛剧院)。第二年：继续建立分析和评论工作数据库，借鉴吉尔·布拉德伯里在《莎士比亚表演中的耳聋》(2022)中概述的方法。找出并采访业内从业者，了解他们在创作作品以及台上和台下陈述方面的经验。第三年：撰写我的论文，将我的原始发现与对残疾代表和更广泛的文化中机构多样性的严谨研究相结合，开发框架来评估与莎士比亚戏剧表演和残疾有关的“多元化工作”的效果。

My project seeks to interrogate the place of disabled characters, actors and audiences within the contemporary Shakespeare theatre industry.Recently, the UK theatre industry has been criticised for its lack of diversity: onstage and within creative and administrative spheres. Responding to movements like #MeToo, #GiveArtistsAChance and #TheatresPullUpOrShutUp, institutions have worked to increase representation of communities marginalized by race, gender, sexuality, and disability, on and off-stage.However, Shakespeare performance scholarship has raised concerns about the strategies of the Shakespeare industry to improve diversity. Julian and Solga (2021) and Williams (2019) point to the harm that 'performative' diversity can cause to implicated communities. Williams's model of 'incomplete dramaturgy' offers tools for exploring how productions hailed as 'progressive' often fail to anticipate the implications of their choices, resulting in reinforcing harmful views. Most recent work on institutional diversity and contemporary Shakespeare performance (e.g. Jarrett-Macauley 2017, Power 2016, Rogers 2013, Thompson 2011) focuses on race, gender and sexuality. To date, there is no sustained study on disability in the contemporary Shakespeare industry that considers its place in all facets of performance. This thesis will fill this gap by interrogating the place of disability in a climate concerned with institutional diversity (as defined by Sara Ahmed) by asking:- What is being done to represent Shakespeare's disabled characters onstage, who is playing them, and what are the ramifications?- What strategies are being deployed to integrate disabled actors into Shakespearean performance? What are the implications?- What strategies are used to present Shakespeare to disabled audiences? What is their purpose, and what are their implications?- What strategies are implemented within the Shakespeare industry to include disabled people within its institutional diversity? What are the ramifications?Scholarly interrogation of the trend of performative diversity in mainstream Shakespeare performance is needed. If productions stop at the 'first hurdle' (Williams, 2019) of representation rather than integrating further institutional change, they can cause harm to marginalised groups. By contributing an in-depth analysis of the strategies used to include disabled actors and audiences within this movement towardsbetter representation within the industry, I hope to bring critical attention to where they succeed and fall short and continue pushing for institutional change. Provisional timeline:First year: Survey literature and identify productions for analysis from the twenty-first century. Using in person analysis, archival videos and reviews, examine the semiotics of disabled bodies on the Shakespearean stage - both characters (eg Richard III, Othello) and disabled actors- and productions targeted at disabled audiences (eg Flute Theatre).Second year: Continue building a database of analysis and critical work, drawing on methods such as those outlined in Jill Bradbury's 'Deafness in Shakespeare Performance' (2022). Identify and interview practitioners within the industry about their experience of producing work and of both on- and off-stage representation.Third year: Write my thesis, integrating my original findings with rigorous research on the representation of disability and of institutional diversity in culture more generally, developing frameworks for evaluating the efficacy of 'diversity work' in relation to Shakespearean performance and disability.