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ABSTRACT
The growing availability of video recordings of theatre performances, a phenomenon that has increased during Covid19 as theatres worldwide share videos online, affects the field of theatre and performance studies. Video recordings of theatre performances are archival documents and mediated ‘performance texts’ that enable new kinds of performance analysis and studying bodily practices. This paper addresses annotative methodologies as part of the research project, ‘The Art of Adaptation: The Theatre of Rina Yerushalmi and the Itim Ensemble.’ The project studies the video archive of the ensemble, which includes recordings of full productions and rehearsal processes. We discuss three kinds of digital comparative annotative methodologies to show how annotation can be used as a research tool for performance analysis: (1) Accumulative annotation: analysis of multi-layered theatrical sequences, revealing theatrical moments in their multiplicity. (2) Annotation of different scenes in a corpus of works: juxtaposing scenes from different productions enables the articulation of repetitive performative patterns, embodied practices, and visual images that construct a theatre language. (3) Annotation of the same scene at different phases: juxtaposing video recordings of the same scene at different moments of its development reveals nuanced sets of information about directorial choices, acting, movement, duration, and more.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 For example, see National Theatre Live (https://www.ntlive.com/); Met Opera on Demand (https://www.metopera.org/season/on-demand/); or the historical project of the Berliner Ensemble BE AT HOME/BE ON DEMAND (https://www.berliner-ensemble.de/be-on-demand). All links accessed January 1, 2021.
2 Research for this article is funded by the Israel Science Foundation, project no. 1181/17, ‘The Art of Adaptation: The Theatre of Rina Yerushalmi and the Itim Ensemble.’ PI: Sharon Aronson-Lehavi.
3 See for example Varney and Fensham (Citation2000). In this article they offer the term ‘videocy’ to discuss the relations between the live performance and its recording for spectators and researchers.
4 Yerushalmi created with the Itim Ensemble fourteen productions, all of them based on classical plays and texts: William Shakespeare – Hamlet, 1989; Romeo and Juliet, 1993; A Midsummer Night's Dream, 2006; Timon of Athens, 2017; Georg Büchner – Woyzeck 91', 1991; The Bible Project – YaYomer. VaYelech [And He Said. And He Walked] 1995; VaYishtachu. VaYerra [And They Bowed; And He Saw/Feared], 1998; Mythos (an adaptation of nine Greek tragedies), 2002; Anton Chekhov – Three Sisters, 2005; Leon Katz (based on An-ski) – The Dybbuk, 2008; Herzl Project (based on Amos Elon, Herzl), 2010; Samuel Beckett – Krapp's Last Tape, 2012; Endgame, 2017; Eugène Ionesco – Exit the King, 2013; Henrik Ibsen – Peer Gynt, 2015. Videos of past productions by Rina Yerushalmi and the Itim Ensemble are publicly accessible on their website at https://itimensemble.com/archived-shows/?lang=en.
5 The analysis of the works in this research project are closely tied to the video documentations of the works, but it should be noted that Sharon Aronson-Lehavi saw all of the works live at least once.
6 Access to video recordings of the productions is courtesy of Rina Yerushlami and the Itim Ensemble. The ensemble’s productions discussed here were filmed and edited by Idan Levy.
7 Altogether the collection contains a roughly estimated 900 h of video. The earliest materials in the video archive are saved on betacam and dvcam cassettes, which over time were converted to CDs. For the ‘Art of Adaptation’ project, we transferred the files from CDs to a hard drive and catalogued them per production and in chronological order. Today, the materials are accessible for browsing, viewing, and research.
8 For a discussion of the relations and variations between a live event and its video documentation, see for example Reason Citation2006; Bey-Cheng Citation2007; Aronson-Lehavi Citation2021.
9 See for example Bardiot Citation2015; Estrada et al. Citation2017; Sikos Citation2017; Alaoui, Carlson, and Thecla Schiphorst Citation2014.
10 See: Rekall, http://www.rekall.fr/; MotionBank, http://motionbank.org/; WeVu, https://wevu.video/.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Sharon Aronson-Lehavi
Sharon Aronson-Lehavi, PhD, is Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts (since 2017), Faculty of the Arts, Tel Aviv University. She is the author of Street Scenes: Late Medieval Acting and Performance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011); Gender and Feminism in the Modern Theatre (Open UP, Hebrew, 2013); Identity and Otherness in Israeli Biblical Theatre (Israel Democracy Institute, Hebrew, 2016); editor of Wanderers and Other Israeli Plays (Seagull Books 2009) and coeditor of Performance Studies in Motion: International Practices and Perspectives in the Twenty-First Century (Bloomsbury 2014). She was a member of the Israel Young Academy of Sciences (2012–2017). Her research focuses on the relations between religion, theatre, and performance in late medieval and modern theatre, feminist theatre, and Israeli theatre; Her research project ‘The Art of Adaptation: The Theatre of Rina Yerushalmi and the Itim Ensemble’ is funded by the Israel Science Foundation, No. 1181/17. [email protected]
Natan Skop
Natan Skop is an MA student at the Department of Theatre Arts, Tel Aviv University, and a research assistant in the ‘Art of Adaptation’ research project. Natan works professionally as a website developer and technical consultant for Israeli arts organizations. He also is theatre practitioner and producer. His research interests include myth and the works of Shakespeare and the intersection of theatre and technology. [email protected]
Yael Via Dorembus
Yael Via Dorembus holds an MA (summa cum laude) in theatre from the Department of Theatre Arts, Tel Aviv University and is a research assistant in the ‘Art of Adaptation’ research project. Yael’s MA thesis is titled ‘The Aesthetics of Mathematics in the Physical Theatre of Complicite.’ She holds a BS in Mathematics from Bar-Ilan University, Israel, and has worked as a software developer. Her research interests focus on science and theatre. [email protected]
