Department of Arts and Cultural Management
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Browsing Department of Arts and Cultural Management by Author "McKinnon, James"
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Item Afterwards: a conversation about devising and higher education in a post-pandemic world.(2024) Fitzsimmons Frey, Heather; Hyland, Nicola; McKinnon, JamesOff Book has been a slow-burn collaboration, one which was not only delayed by the disruptions of a global pandemic, but all sorts of other ordinary human ‘dramas’: we have overcome serious illnesses, broken bones, cross-hemisphere migration, new positions, rapid restructures, resignations and budget cuts, the introduction of ‘dual delivery’ and online teaching modes and even the output of a new human. And that's just among the editors! We chose to frame this final epilogue as a series of conversations, as this feels the most appropriate reflection of our editorial process. This is a story of endless email chains, coordination across six time zones to meet via Zoom, and innumerable tangential discussions in the margins of essays. Through this, we have learnt so much about our own devising and teaching practices, but also have been challenged to shift and reshape our own assumptions about what ‘good’ and ‘bad’ devising praxes look like. Although the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the lives of all our contributors, when we invited them to speak to this disruption and its implications, they mostly declined. Does this reflect fatigue or a lack of confidence in the future? Both of those conditions aptly express the feelings of many devisors reflected in this book: the exhaustion of doggedly working towards an uncertain something, of having the materials to create, but with little idea yet of what it will become. Talking more than doing may be the nemesis of any devising experience (although others would argue that ignoring the value of relationships is the worst offense against healthy devising). Still, as we worked to concoct a single book from all our contributors’ voices, our conversations were peppered with thoughts around the nature of devising, autonomy, care, universities and the future of devising.Item Throw away the book: devising and higher education(2024) Fitzsimmons Frey, Heather; Hyland, Nicola; McKinnon, JamesIn the theatre world, ‘off book’ signifies a deadline in the creative process: the date by which performers are to have memorized their lines and will no longer be allowed to carry their play script – the ‘book’ – on stage. As such, Off Book makes a strangely appropriate title for a book about devised performance in higher education. In its usual context, ‘off book’ captures the tension between ephemeral, live performance and durable, authorized literature: in one sense, the book – the written play – is the essential core, the seed that gives the performance life and meaning. Yet the opposite could be equally true: an ‘on book’ performance would not really be a play at all, and an actor reciting lines out of a script in hand is not really acting. A play is only realized in, or through, a performance. We cannot really learn, or play, our part until we can put the book down and enter the stage without it.