Nomadic Theatre: Mobilizing Theory and Practice on the European Stage (Thinking through Theatre)

Fluid stages, morphing theatre spaces, ambulant spectators, and occasionally disappearing performers: these are some of the key ingredients of Nomadic Theatre. They are also theatre’s response to life in the 21st century, which is increasingly marked by the mobility of people, information, technologies and services. While examining how contemporary theatre exposes and queries this ‘mobile turn’ in society, Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink introduces the concept of ‘nomadic theatre’ as a vital tool for analyzing the manifold ways in which movement and mobility effect and implicate the theatre, how physical movements in the theatre are stepping stones for theorizing mobility at large, and how contemporary performance uses movement and mobility to make way for local operations and lived spaces. This book examines how ambulatory performances and performative installations stage movement and in turn mobilize the stage. Through a detailed analysis of contemporary performance practices by leading European artists such as Rimini Protokoll, Dries Verhoeven, Ontroerend Goed, and Signa, Nomadic Theatre demonstrates how mobile performances radically rethink the conditions of the stage and alter our understanding of spectatorship. Nomadic Theatre takes an integrated approach to theory and practice, instigates connections across disciplinary fields, and feeds dramaturgical analysis with insights derived from media theory, urban philosophy, cartography, architecture, and game studies. It demonstrates how concepts assist in the performance of analysis and how contemporary theatre, as a material form of thought, creatively and critically engages with mobile existence both on the stage and in society. Cover Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments 1 Introduction: Deterritorializing the Stage Primary Coordinates On the Move Theatre, Technology, Mobility A Note on Participation Theatre, Performance, Movement Deterritorialization Pause Deleuze’s Nomads Nomadic Theatre: A Concept, a Toolbox Theory as Tool: How to Do Things with Deleuze? Spatial Dramaturgy Points Are Relays on a Trajectory: Chapter Overview Playgrounding 2 Encounter: Meeting Multiplicity in Dries Verhoeven’s No Man’s Land Of Horses and Wasps The Rhythms of a Smooth Stage Mind the Gap Performance Installations Staging the Spectator Walking with Abderraghman Triads and Constellations A Problem of Referentiality This Is Not My Voice: A Problem of Referentiality, Part 2 Fractured Reciprocity Building Performance Expanding Spectatorship 3 Displacement: The Situated Pathways of Rimini Protokoll Urban Moves The City as Stage Theatre Goes Global The Production of Space Performing Locality Navigating Representation Outsourced Performance Parallax 4 Cartographies: Trail Tracking and Map-Making as Staging Strategy You Are Here Cartography: Fifth Principle of the Rhizome The Theatre of Cartography Performing Cartography Charting the Virtual Navigational Spaces Personal Velocity Material Maps Thinking Subjectivity Through Space: Politics of Location Witnessed Presence The Cartography of Theatre 5 Diagrams: Staging Proximity in Ontroerend Goed’s The Smile Off Your Face A Nomad Does Not Necessarily Move A Wheelchair’s Thresholds Pleats of Proximity Event/Situation Into the Laboratory Thinking Through the Diagram The Grid of Capital Distributions of the Sensible A Spectator in the Dark The Dramaturgy of Proximity A Theatre of Folds 6 Architextures: The Rhizomatic Gameboards of Signa’s The Ruby Town Oracle Drifting/Dwelling Borderzones Narrative Architecture and Environmental Storytelling Architectural Performances Evocative Spaces Procedural Passageways Playing at the Limits The Entirety of the Map Tissue, Traces, Tracks 7 Distributed Performance: Epilogue Pop-up Stores Trajectories of the Stage Folds of Spectating Lived Space and Diffractive Reading Staging Connections Procedural Dramaturgy/When Attitude Becomes Form Thinking Through Practice Thresholds of the Imagination Notes Bibliography Index "Fluid stages, morphing theatre spaces, ambulant spectators, and occasionally disappearing performers: these are some of the key ingredients of nomadic theatre. They are also theatre's response to life in the 21st century, which is increasingly marked by the mobility of people, information, technologies and services. While examining how contemporary theatre exposes and queries this mobile turn in society, Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink introduces the concept of nomadic theatre as a vital tool for analyzing how movement and mobility affect and implicate the theatre, how this makes way for local operations and lived spaces, and how physical movements are stepping stones for theorizing mobility at large. This book focuses on ambulatory performances and performative installations, asking how they stage movement and in turn mobilize the stage. By analyzing the work of leading European artists such as Rimini Protokoll, Dries Verhoeven, Ontroerend Goed, and Signa, Nomadic Theatre demonstrates that mobile performances radically rethink the conditions of the stage and alter our understanding of spectatorship. Nomadic Theatre instigates connections across disciplinary fields and feeds dramaturgical analysis with insights derived from media theory, urban philosophy, cartography, architecture, and game studies. It illustrates how theatre, as a material form of thought, creatively and critically engages with mobile existence both on the stage and in society."--Bloomsbury Publishing Fluid stages, morphing theater spaces, ambulant spectators, and occasionally disappearing performers: these are some of the key ingredients of nomadic theater. They are also theater's response to life in the 21st century, which is increasingly marked by the mobility of people, information, technologies, and services. While examining how contemporary theater exposes and queries this mobile turn in society, the author introduces the concepts of nomadic theater as a vital tool for analyzing how movement and mobility affect and implicate the theater, how this makes way for local operations and lived spaces, and how physical movements are stepping stones for theorizing mobility at large. This book focuses on ambulatory performances and performative installations, asking how they stage movement and in turn mobilize the stage. By analyzing the work of leading European artists including Rimini Protokoll, Dries Verhoeven, Ontroerend Goed, and Signa, this book demonstrates that mobile performances radically rethink the conditions of the stage and alter our understanding of spectatorship. This book instigates connections across disciplinary fields and feeds dramaturgical analysis with insights derived from media theory, urban philosophy, cartography, architecture, and game studies. It illustrates how theater, as a material form of thought, creatively and critically engages with mobile existence both on the stage and in society