Where is real?
As part of an opening exercise in a recent dramatic theory class, my students were asked to respond with coloured Sharpies to a variety of prompts scattered on chart paper […]
Tag Archives: theatre
The Uncanny and the Real
In her book Culture and the Real, Catherine Belsey suggests that the source of uncanny unease in horror films is the incursion of patently non-real/supernatural objects into the real world. […]
What we already knew about the invisible gorilla
From the inception of this project about Theatre of the Real, it has been clear to me that audience perception/experience is central to this phenomenon. Of course, the perception by […]
6 Questions to ask a piece of “real” theatre
… (seems unfair to call it a “play”…) 1. How do I (as an audience member) understand the real elements as real? What scenographic cues am I given to counteract […]
Documentary theatre then and now
It would be impossible to discuss reality-based theatre in Canada (what I am starting to call “documentary theatre”) without acknowledging the scholarship of Alan Filewod. His 1987 book Collective Encounters: […]
McDonald’s Canadian Olympic Ad
OK. I wasn’t planning on posting a blog today but… I am working on a summary of this research project for the SSHRC Insight Grant. (The Notice of Intent is […]
Applying Cognitive Science to Performance part 3
Some cognitive image schemas originate in sensory experience in the world. An example of a sensorimotor inflected schema is simple verticality. As humans, we are creatures with a definite up […]
Is theatre real?
I finally got my hands on a copy of Authenticity: Brands, Fakes, Spin and the Lust for Real Life by David Boyle from Robarts Library through interlibrary loan. (Thank you […]
The Polonius Test
To evaluate the authenticity of your business offering, James Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine, authors of Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want (mentioned in the previous post), suggest taking the Polonius […]
What Wittgenstein’s Duck/Rabbit has to do with theatrical duality
On the recommendation of my colleague Grahame Renyk, I finally got around to reading “Infiction and Outfiction: The Role of Fiction in Theatrical Performance” by David Z. Saltz. (Full citation […]
Upsurges of the Real: a performance research blog 