Site-specific theatre

Site-specific theatre can refer to any theatrical performance done in non-theatrical location or found space, such as an open field, a hotel courtyard, a converted building, and so on.

Also referred to by related names, e.g. Site-specific performance, Site-responsive performance

The term

Site-specific theatre practitioners have a particular interpretation of the term, seeking to use the properties of the unique site as part of the performance and its meaning. However it is often used in a wider sense as well, simply to refer to all works performed in a non-theatrical venue.

Though the use of the term site-specific is a relatively young development, made popular by a number of 20th century theorist-practitioners, the practice is of course as old as the art of theatre itself. This aspect is well summarised by the following excerpt from the 2018 article Four Principles about Site-Specific Theatre: a Conversation on Architecture, Bodies, and Presence by Bowditch et al[1]

"Site-specific performance is nothing new. In Western theatre the Futurists and Dadaists in the early 1900s to 1920s, the Happenings and Richard Schechner’s environmental theatre of the 1960s and ’70s, and the recent trend in immersive theatre from the 1990s onward have all grappled with activating unusual, nontheatrical spaces for theatrical experimentation. Throughout theatre history and across cultures artists have experimented with nontheatrical spaces, from the commedia dell’arte troupes wandering the markets and towns of Italy, to the epic thirty-day ritual performance of the Ramlila of Ramnagar, to the festive processions of the Tucson All-Souls Day procession. Rather than viewing a space as a place to construct a theatre, site-specific work takes the space for what it is, without major alteration, and reveals it in new ways through performance. The site location, architecture, spatial layout, audience placement, and degree of audience participation all influence the type of experience audiences will receive."

While a form of "found space" performance and site specific events have always been a part of African theatre practice for millenia, and large scale outdoor performances celebratory events and pageants (such as performances taking place in various historical spots in Cape Town during the 1952 Van Riebeeck Festival ) have played an important role in the country, the term surfaced as a particularly prominent feature of the South African theatrical practice in the late 20th century, particularly with works created by theatre practitioners and performance artists, to be performed at the various arts festivals around the country. Among the many practitioners that have done such work over the years have been Brett Bailey, Nicholas Ellenbogen, Mark Fleishman, Nicola Hanekom, Gaerin Hauptfleisch, Ellis Pearson, Samantha Pienaar, Jennie Reznek, Strijdom van der Merwe, Charles Unwin

Sources

Rachel Bowditch, Daniel Bird Tobin, Chelsea Pace, and Marc Devine. 2018. "Four Principles about Site-Specific Theatre: a Conversation on Architecture, Bodies, and Presence". In: Theatre Topics Volume 28 Number 1, March 2018 [2]

Gay McAuley. 2005. "Site-specific Performance: Place, Memory and the Creative Agency of the Spectator" Lecture delivered to the Arts Association on 28 April 2005[3]

Charles Unwin. 2012. Dramatization and Philosophy in Orange Book. Explication of a Site Responsive Performance Work and its Research. An unpublished Masters dissertation, University of Cape Town.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Site-specific_theatre

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2008/feb/06/sitespecifictheatrepleasebe

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