Richmond, H. E. (2016) Relationships between power and agency: the role of the ‘theatre designer’ in performance-making processes. Paper presented to: 32nd European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium: Organizing in the Shadow of Power, Naples, 07-09 July 2016.
Presented version (1MB) |
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Abstract: | In 2013, the Contemporary Theatre Review dedicated an issue to ‘Alphabet: A Lexicon of Theatre and Performance’. The entry for ‘M’, ‘Mise en Scene’, reflects on the invisible creativity of the ‘unseen work that led to the production’s first night’ (Singleton, 2013, p.47). This paper aims to address an absence of theorising about the ways that professional identities and creative practices of theatre designers are shaped by performance-making practices. Theatre design pedagogy has been selected as the site of investigation because it provides a means by which normative beliefs and practices about ‘being’ a designer and ‘doing’ design, might be evaluated. I consider how designers’ ‘agency’ is expressed and/or implied in contemporary theatre design pedagogies, and the relationship of this to how power is manifested in ‘structures’ (Giddens, 1984) of performance making. I conclude that differences between dramatic or ‘texted’ performance (Schechner, 1968) and devised, site-specific or ‘post-dramatic’ performance (Lehmann, 2006), frame conceptions and enactment of designer agency in different ways. In particular, I focus on three notions of agency; ‘authorial agency’ (Isackes, 2012), ‘professional agency’ (Eteläpelto et al, 2013) and ‘identity agency’ (Hitlin and Elder, 2007). |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Performance design, theatre design, agency, structure, power |
| Subjects: |
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology > HM786 Organizational sociology. Organization theory P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater > PN2085 The stage and accessories |
| Creators: | Richmond, Harriet E |
| Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: | University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Faculty of Business & Law |
| Date: | 7 July 2016 |
| Date Type: | Publication |
| Event Title: | 32nd European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium: Organizing in the Shadow of Power |
| Event Dates: | 07-09 July 2016 |
| Event Location: | Naples |
| Event Type: | Conference |
| Language: | English |
| Status: | Published / Disseminated |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Related URLs: | |
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| URI: | http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/8421 |
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