{"id":754,"date":"2019-01-21T16:09:45","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T16:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/staging-beckett\/?p=754"},"modified":"2019-01-21T16:12:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T16:12:17","slug":"performance-day-at-the-university-of-readings-beckett-week-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/staging-beckett\/performance-day-at-the-university-of-readings-beckett-week-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Performance Day\u2019 at the University of Reading\u2019s Beckett Week 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chloe Duane on discussing Beckett’s drama at the 2018 conference.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Modernist Archives in Context conference was held on the 22-23 November 2018 as part of Beckett Week at the University of Reading. The two-day conference, supported by the Samuel Beckett Research Centre, focused on Modernist Periodicals (22 November) and Performance (23 November). In this blog, I\u2019m going to focus on some of the enriching performance research that was shared during the second day of the conference.<\/p>\n

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The performance day began by exploring Beckett\u2019s scenography. An enlightening paper from Ros Maprayil (University of Reading) tracked how the unreliable role of objects in Eleutheria <\/em>and Waiting for Godot <\/em>are increasingly de-familiarised. Dr Sophie Jump (UAL and National Theatre) argued that theatre, much like the creative act of making theatre, is unstable and imperfect. Through her research in the Jocelyn Herbert Archive, Jump traced the pitfalls and hidden nature of the collaborative process of theatre making through Albert Wesker\u2019s The Kitchen <\/em>and Beckett\u2019s Happy Days. <\/em>She showed us some of Jocelyn Herbert\u2019s designs for Happy Days\u00a0<\/em>with the unforgettable orange, not blue, sky.<\/p>\n

Chloe Duane (UoR) discussed the ethical nature of Virtual Play<\/em>, a virtual reality rendition of Beckett\u2019s Play<\/em>, which was created by Trinity College Dublin\u2019s V-SENSE in an interdisciplinary research project led by Dr Nicholas Johnson. Calum Weir (University of Glasgow) continued the conversation on Beckett with his paper on Beckett\u2019s television play Ghost Trio. <\/em>Weir\u2019spaper skilfully negotiated the critical frameworks surrounding Beethoven\u2019s Geistertrio<\/em>and Ghost Trio <\/em>to develop an account of the playwright\u2019s wide-ranging formal and expressive scope.<\/p>\n

Interweaving many of the day\u2019s themes, Dr Matthew McFrederick\u2019s (UoR and UAL) workshop \u2018The Billie Whitelaw archive and the Staging Beckett Project\u2019 provided a unique insight into performance research. The workshop kicked off by testing the knowledge of the conference attendees \u2013 that, among others, included Professors Jim Knowlson, John Pilling, and Anna McMullan \u2013 with regards to production personnel. Then, echoing Jump\u2019s paper, McFrederick developed the idea that theatre history, much like history more broadly, is never complete. In fact, archival research shows that production histories often fail to record correctly. McFrederick drew upon his research into Jocelyn Herbert\u2019s set designs and the production history of Beckett\u2019s drama to share practical information on how to conduct research in performance archives and offered some methodologies for doing so. He also provided an extensive list of national and international repositories which was an invaluable source of information for any performance researcher.<\/p>\n

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In addition, the workshop included a unique introduction to The Billie Whitelaw archive as attendees were able to engage with materials relating to Not I <\/em>and Footfalls<\/em>, such as scripts annotated by Whitelaw, correspondence relating to her theatrical work with Beckett, and production programmes, all from the archives at UoR. The workshop prompted discussion centred on the meaning of Whitelaw\u2019s colour coding on her scripts, Beckett\u2019s comments to Whitelaw during rehearsals, and the initial reception of the plays.<\/p>\n

Judy Hegarty-Lovett (UoR), world-renowned director of Gare St Lazare Ireland, concluded the conference by offering fascinating insights into directing Beckett. Gare St Lazare have staged more than 17 Beckett productions. <\/em>In 2018, How It Is (Part I)<\/em>, their adaptation of Beckett\u2019s complex prose piece, premiered at the Everyman Theatre in Cork and was subsequently remounted at the Print Room, London. During the Q&A conversation with Dr Lucy Jeffery (event co-organiser), Hegarty-Lovett spoke about the immense challenges that this adaptation posed as well as her experience of directing the piece. The highly anticipated How It Is (Part II)<\/em>will take place in Cork in September.<\/p>\n

The diversity of research exhibited at the Modernist Archives in Context conference offered a powerful insight into the important and wide-ranging research that is currently being undertaken in the field of theatre studies. It was great to be able to engage with original archival documents from Reading\u2019s Beckett Collection \u2013 a feeling shared by all delegates.<\/p>\n

Chloe Duane
\nDoctoral researcher at the University of Reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chloe Duane on discussing Beckett’s drama at the 2018 conference.\u00a0 The Modernist Archives in Context conference was held on the 22-23 November 2018 as part of Beckett Week at the…Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[76,74,75],"class_list":["post-754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-archives","tag-beckett-collection","tag-gare-st-lazare"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Performance Day\u2019 at the University of Reading\u2019s Beckett Week 2018 - Staging Beckett<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/staging-beckett\/performance-day-at-the-university-of-readings-beckett-week-2018\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Performance Day\u2019 at the University of Reading\u2019s Beckett Week 2018 - 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