Other Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Stemming The Flow: Strategies To Address The Production Arts Skills Shortage Within Australian Theatre And Performance Practice, Tessa Rixon, Anthony Brumpton

Behind the Scenes: Journal of Theatre Production Practice

The lockdown, cancellations, and uncertainties of COVID-19 triggered a large-scale exit of skilled professional technicians, managers, and designers from the Australian arts industry. A significant gap in the national workforce of production artists has since emerged, forcing arts organisations to work with smaller teams and employ younger people with little to no training or knowledge. These pressures are beginning to impact the industry’s ability to meet the post-COVID demand to stage live performances, yet little information has been collected to fully comprehend the issue or to suggest solutions.

Conducted throughout 2023, this research sought to understand the current situation of …

The Lighting Programmer As Creative Collaborator, Kelli Zezulka

Behind the Scenes: Journal of Theatre Production Practice

The lighting programmer as a discrete profession is a relatively recent development in UK theatre production and one whose job description and responsibilities vary widely. Being an excellent programmer is not merely a case of manual dexterity and syntactical knowhow; it encompasses a range of interpersonal skills and empathetic awareness. Using two examples from recent fieldwork, and through an analysis of the language-in-use of lighting programmers, this article positions the theatre lighting programmer as an important member of both the creative and production teams and argues for greater awareness and promotion of their influence on theatre-making.

Mia Park Interview, Justin Fernandez

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Mia Park is a multidisciplinary artist acting, writing, playing music, producing events, teaching yoga, and volunteering in Chicago, IL. She shares her passion for discovery and self-inquiry with hope and optimism. Mia began professionally acting in 1997 hosting the cult favorite cable access dance show Chic-A-Go-Go. Her acting career has brought her on stage, in film, on television and on the radio. Mia currently plays the recurring character Nurse Beth Cole on NBC's Chicago Med. She has advocated for Asian American representation in acting since 2006 when she co-founded A-Squared Theatre and hosted educational theater workshops for the Chicago …

Sustainability In Production: Exploring Eco-Creativity Within The Parameters Of Conventional Theatre, Tanja Beer, Dominique Hes

Behind the Scenes: Journal of Theatre Production Practice

Contemporary ecological concerns bring with them an opportunity for innovation; to

rethink traditional practices and forge new approaches that not only strive for

sustainability, but also push intellectual and creative boundaries. Despite this, current

notions of sustainability are still dominated by suppositions of creative limitations; the

perception that sustainability and theatre do not mix is a common assumption. This

paper explores the possibilities of sustainable production practices within the

parameters of conventional theatre. Using a practice-led research project, Helicopter

(Melbourne Theatre Company, 2012), the investigation examines the designer’s

journey of integrating creative processes with eco-efficiency, aesthetics,

organisational considerations and director’s …

Breaking Curtain, Susan Fenty Studham, Renée Newman, Helen Rusak

Behind the Scenes: Journal of Theatre Production Practice

No abstract provided.

“You Are No Longer Creative When You Give Up”: Technical Theatre’S Creative Sleight Of Hand, Maggi Phillips, Renée Newman

Behind the Scenes: Journal of Theatre Production Practice

The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts at Edith Cowan University

contains vocational education training programmes including technical design

courses with broad reach covering arts administration, stage management, stage

lighting, sound design, set and costume design. In an unsettling problematic,

teachers and students in the broadly themed Production and Design courses often

find themselves isolated from the other creative disciplines or battle with the

perception that their work is in fact not creative but entirely the technical

implementation of ‘someone’s else’s vision’. This approach seems to dismiss the

creative thinking required in the development and orchestration of the design and …

Shopping Their Wardrobe: Changing Costume Practices In Australian Theatre, Madeline Taylor

Behind the Scenes: Journal of Theatre Production Practice

Over the past thirty years the primary method of generating theatrical

costumes in Brisbane has changed significantly. Traditionally costumes were hand

sewn in dedicated workshops from original designs, with a few bought items to

supplement these costume ‘makes’. Now designers and costumers have become

shoppers, styling costumes from new and second-hand retail fashions, or finding

items from existing wardrobe stock.

This research examines why the primary method of costume generation in Brisbane

theatre has changed, and the impact this is having on the costuming industry. The

examination focuses on changes in the Australian labour market and the Australian

fashion industry. …

Stage Managing Bali Agung: The Possibility Of Hybridity In An Intercultural Production, Susan Fenty Studham

Behind the Scenes: Journal of Theatre Production Practice

This paper explores notions of hybridity within an intercultural large-scale

show in Bali, including levels of innovation, synthesized processes, scenery and

safety considerations. As the original stage manager, I will discuss the mounting of

the show from a technical production perspective, giving attention to the use and

management of the stage space and its supporting environments. The focus is on

hybridity in the context of the term ‘syncretic theatre’, which “integrates performance

elements of different cultures into a form that aims to retain the cultural integrity of

the specific materials used while forging new texts and theatre practices” (Lo & …

Sameena Mustafa Interview, Uyanga Chinzorig

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Sameena Mustafa is a stand-up comedian, actor, and writer named in the Chicago Reader’s Best of Chicago 2016 issue. She has been featured in videos by The Onion and performed on world-famous stages like the Laugh Factory and Biograph Theater. A Northwestern University graduate, Sameena is a sought-after speaker and host, praised for founding Simmer Brown, a comedy showcase featured in the Chicago Sun-Times and Redeye Chicago.

Jamil Khoury Interview, Dasha Lubitov

Asian American Art Oral History Project

This interview focusses on Silk Road Rising's video play Not Quite White: Arabs, Slavs, and the Contours of Contested Whiteness.

Bio: Jamil Khoury is the Founding Artistic Director of Silk Road Rising. Promoting playwrights of Silk Road backgrounds (Asian and Middle Eastern) is a passion that dovetails well with his experiences living in the Middle East and his eleven years as a cross-cultural trainer and international relocations consultant. A theatre producer, essayist, playwright, and film maker, Khoury’s work focuses on Middle Eastern themes and questions of Diaspora. He is particularly interested in the intersections of culture, national identity, and citizenship, …

A Method To The Madness: My Quest For A New System Of Acting, Michael Osinski

The Theatre School MFA in Directing Theses

How does one get actors to embrace work and imbue it with the same truth they bring to realistic theatre and how does one prevent them from turning into robots performing meaningless gestures? How does one work in experimental ways while still giving actors something human to hang onto? This thesis will examine a new system of acting to embrace the demands of the work and explore how to articulate and collaborate with actors to create the work.

Play From The Heart: On Crafting A Community Of Empathy In The Theatre, Kevin Kingston

The Theatre School MFA in Directing Theses

The power of story goes beyond mere escapist entertainment. Yes it should entertain, but that is not the ultimate goal. It may even offer a bit of escape, but again this is not the holy grail. When we experience a well-crafted narrative, we are called to cross a threshold. We pass through the door of our own life and enter into the experience of another. This is what we mean when we say we "got lost" in the story. We take on the experience of another as our own. When a group of people experience a narrative they cross this …