Towards an ‘ever more wordly sensitive interface’: the affective turn and site-based and participatory performance training – a practice-led perspective

Abstract

This article discusses the use of affect theory in thinking through non-verbal and non-human participation within site-based directing performances and reflects on the possibilities offered by the affective turn in performer training for these forms. It describes three ‘affective dramaturgies’ developed in the author’s practice-based PhD research, linking them to their theoretical underpinning, and proposing ways that each approach is of value in continuing training for site-based performance and other forms, from immersive to intimate theatres and beyond. It discusses affect theory drawn from Spinoza’s radical notion of bodies, Nigel Thrift’s perspective from cultural geography in which the combined spatial and biological emphasis of affective thinking are foregrounded, and anthropologist Kathleen Stewart’s writings on ‘affective attunements’. The use of affect theory to develop conscious recognition of porousness between one another and things offers students of performance what Gregg and Seigworth term: ‘a pedagogic nudge aimed toward a body's becoming an ever more worldly sensitive interface, towards a style of being present to the struggles of our time’ (p12). The article makes reference to two site-based processes within the author’s PhD, discussing moments from rehearsal and from performance of She Wrote Massacre When She Meant Revolution (2014), and A Testimony and a Silence (2014).

Keywords:

• participation
• performance
• site-based
• theatre
• affect

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge the support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council.