A History of Collective Creation

by Syssoyeva, Kathryn Mederos; Proudfit, Scott

• ISBN13: 9781137331298
• ISBN10: 1137331291
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-07-25
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Collective creation - the practice of collaboratively devising works of performance - rose to prominence not simply as a performance making method, but as an institutional model with profound social, political, and ethical implications. Tracing a lineage from explorations of collective creation in the work of Meyerhold, Stanislavsky, Copeau, St. Denis, Piscator, Reduta, Grotowski, A History of Collective Creation demonstrates that collective creation played a pivotal role in the evolution of the modern theatre. Examining collective and devised theatre practices in Europe and North America, the contributors explore collective creation's roots in the theatrical experiments of the early twentieth century, emerging just after the rise of the modern director.

Author Biography

Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva is Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Theatre at Florida State University, USA. She is the co-editor of Collective Creation in Contemporary Performance (with Scott Proudfit, 2013). A specialist in devising, physical theatre and Meyerhold's biomechanics, Syssoyeva has taught performance and scenic movement at Yale School of Drama, Stanford University, Colby College (where she was Irving D. Suss Guest Artist in 2008), and Florida State University.
 
Scott Proudfit is Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre at Elon University, USA. He is the co-editor of Collective Creation in Contemporary Performance (with Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva, 2013). Before receiving his PhD at Northwestern University, he worked with the Actors' Gang and the Factory Theater in Los Angeles and with Irondale Ensemble Project in New York, often on devised plays.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Toward a New History of Collective Creation; Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva
PART I: THE FIRST WAVE
1. From Monastic Cell to Communist Cell: Groups, Communes, and Collectives, 1900-1945; Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva
2. Revolution in the Theatre I: Meyerhold, Stanislavsky, and Collective Creation - Russia, 1905; Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva
3. Reduta's Reorigination of Theatre: Radical Collectivity in Poland's Interwar Theatre Laboratory; Kris Salata
4. The Accidental Rebirth of Collective Creation: Jacques Copeau, Michel Saint-Denis, Léon Chancerel, and Improvised Theatre; Jane Baldwin
5. Collective Creation in Documentary Theatre; Attilio Favorini
PART II: THE SECOND WAVE
6. Crossroads and Confluence: Collective Creation, 1945-1985; Scott Proudfit and Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva
7. Collective Creation as a Theatre of Immanence: Deleuze and The Living Theatre; Laura Cull
8. Something Queer at the Heart of It: Collaboration Between John Cage and Merce Cunningham; Michael Hunter
9. Shared Space and Shared Pages: Collective Creation for Edward Albee and the Playwrights of the Open Theater; Scott Proudfit
10. Against Efficiency: The Théâtre du Soleil's Experimental Relations of Production; David Calder
11. From Mao to the Feeling Circle: The Limits and Endurance of Collective Creation; Victoria Lewis
12. Who's in Charge?: The Collective Nature of Early Chicano Theatre; Jorge A. Huerta
13. Collective Creation in Quebec: Function and Impact; Jean-Marc Larrue