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

近年来，忏悔式的“一对一”独奏表演已经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。在这种背景下，作为实践者，理解这种形式的忏悔可能会给观众带来什么，尤其是通过经验和潜在的交流。在三年的时间里，作为一名AHRC创意研究员，我正在进行一系列理论和文化背景的实践探索，旨在理解表演中的“忏悔”是什么和可能是什么，它做了什么和可能做什么。我特别关注“亲密”、“风险”、“忏悔”和“现场”这些术语，以及它们在表演实践中的相互关系。在这个研究项目中，我的重点是世俗和非世俗空间对观众和表演者之间亲密交流的影响：这种忏悔交流的本质是什么；身体上的亲密和亲密的口头启示之间的关系是什么？而且，“忏悔”如何以及是否可以在这些时候重新概念化，但仍然发挥其“释放”或“解脱”的功能？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。这些活动将以一对一的形式在世俗和非世俗空间（包括教堂，教堂被改造成剧院和表演工作室）进行。在每个空间中，将使用不同的表演交换模式和变量，包括物理（例如牵手），口头（口头信息交换）和沉默。这些工作坊表演的目的是确定：身体和口头的联系程度；空间对信息交换意愿/欲望/抗拒的影响及交换的信息类型；还有，可能由观众表演的忏悔类型。观众都是志愿者。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。在参与者同意的情况下，每次工作坊的表演将被录像。这项应用研究的结果将在最终的公共表演的设计中得到综合，向所有人开放，其目的是在表演者和观众之间产生最大程度的真实交流，使观众在作品结束时感到某种程度上的解放。这个表演与我在AHRC创意奖学金申请中提出的许多问题有关，尤其是表演是否可能潜在地提供与赦免等同的世俗行为。考虑到英国和美国的个人忏悔实践的程度，以及这种实践发生的背景（大众媒介的忏悔文化），这个项目的目的是提供对忏悔形式的及时实用的讯问，包括对我自己的实践的讯问。因此，这项研究的一部分涉及到调查现有的工作，以便为我自己的实践提供一个背景。除了通过最后的演出向公众传播作品外，我对作品的研究和批判性反思也将通过演出后的讨论提供给各种群体。项目的最后两个月致力于创建反映研究过程和结果的口头报告（在大学范围内呈现，但向公众开放），并向同行评审期刊提交一篇批判性反思文章（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).