2017 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Digital Documents in 21st Century British Documentary Theatre
| Project/Area Number |
16H05937
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| Research Institution | Konan Women's University |
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Principal Investigator |
エグリントン アンドリュー 甲南女子大学, 文学部, 講師 (30707948)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
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| Keywords | documentary / digital / human bodies / corporeality / documentology / archive / theatre / performance studies |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
-31/8/17: read paper at 15th International European Association of Japanese Studies Conference, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, titled “Mourning in, as and for the Theatre: the Case of Ishinha’s Amahara.” The paper analyzed the link between body, site, performance and mourning in the final work of the Osaka-based theatre company Ishinha. It tied together ideas that I have been exploring through this kakenhi research project on the body as a form of performance documentation.
-22/11/17: contributed to a workshop led by Ishinha theatre company members as part of Osaka University’s “Documentation/Archive” Project, which examines approaches to documenting corporeality in performance through the work of Ishinha.
-01/3/18: published a review in the journal Shakespeare Studies (vol.55, 2017) of “The Winter’s Tale”, directed by Satoshi Miyagi at the Shizuoka Performing Arts Centre.
-28/4/2017; 21/2/2017: published 2 articles in the Japan Times newspaper’s Stage Section on two international theatre projects. Covering these projects enabled me to investigate new trends in the global performing arts world and provided important contextual information for my research project.
-18/6/17; 23/10/17; 30/1/18: published 3 articles in the Japan Times newspaper’s culture section on 3 Japanese theatre artists working in international contexts: New York, Melbourne and Berlin. Each of these interview based articles documents the shifts in performance practice that artists undergo in working outside the conventions of their native land.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
Over the 2017/2018 period, the second year of this research project, I have made progress in two specific areas.
Firstly, I was able to work on two full-length articles due for publication in 2018. Both are based on papers presented at conferences during the first year of this Kakenhi grant. I made use of a research trip to London and Edinburgh in December 2017. I consulted key performance studies archives, including the British Library, the Live Arts Agency and the National Library of Scotland, to help the writing.
Secondly, I was able to expand the scope of my research, moving from the study of digital documents in British theatre, to incorporate international theatre practices. This is the result of attending a wide range of national and international performances in Japan. As a result, I have been able to develop research on the Osaka-based theatre company, Ishinha and the relationship of site-specificity to bodies and documents. I presented part of this research in 2017 at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon. I also contributed to a workshop led by the University of Osaka, on documenting and archiving the physical methodology of Ishinha.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Between April and June 2018, I will finish working on one article and one book chapter for publication that stem from this Kakenhi research project. From July 9 to 13, I will attend the International Federation of Theatre Research conference in Belgrade to present a paper that explores the notion of the body as a document in documentary performances that deal with experience s of migration. Between August and September, I will travel to London to consult archival material at the Victoria and Albert Muse um’s performance research facility, the Live Arts Development Agency library and the British Library, on recent digital documentary performances on the London stage. I will use my research time in these institutions to write the basis of a new article that brings together the main findings of this Kakenhi research on the function of digital documents in contemporary theatre - particularly the UK. In early 2019, I intend to make another study trip to the UK to complete this article. I also intend to use the article as the basis of a pitch to publishers for a book based on this Kakenhi research. Finally, I will also submit a proposal for the 2019 American Society for Theatre Research conference, where I aim to present this research.
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