Flare International Festival of New Theatre 2015 + 2017
- Submitting institution
-
Manchester Metropolitan University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 241306
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
-
-
- Location
- Manchester, United Kingdom
- Brief description of type
- Curatorial project
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month
- July
- Year
- 2015
- URL
-
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- Supplementary information
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-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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B - Art & Performance
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This project collated new and formally innovative theatre practice from across Europe and beyond, to challenge and extend prevalent conceptions of theatre performance and experience, re-presenting contemporary theatre as an area of arts practice that is reflexive, radical and fluid. Unlike other acclaimed festivals of new performance (Fierce: Birmingham, Buzzcut: Glasgow, In Between Time: Bristol, Spill: London/Norwich), a substantial number of international innovative performance works were selected and presented that engaged directly with conventions and conceptions of theatre and theatricality, extending established definitions to absorb some of the latest approaches. By collating and locating these practices in relation to each other, a picture of formally innovative new theatre was created, further articulated in festival catalogues and other critical writing. This picture was characterised by extended approaches to structural composition, active spectatorship and art-form crossovers with contemporary visual art and dance, and by the problematizing of theatrical presence and semiosis. This project addressed the key research question: What diverse new conceptions of theatre practice beyond dramatic representation are being proposed by emergent theatre makers in Europe and beyond? To do this an elaborate programme of activity was undertaken, incorporating a world-wide open call, international scouting trips, and contact with theatre festivals, artists, artist networks, producers and academics across Europe. This research informed theatre programming in the UK and beyond, encouraged venues, festivals and audiences to embrace innovative practice, inspired creativity in participants/audiences, supported developing artists to extend their own practice, assisted the international networking of the presenting artists and offered models of practice that could interface with a range of communities and performance contexts. Geo-politically, the project re-asserted the value of cultural internationalism in the 21st century, developing and emboldening a transnational community of new artists, further disseminating innovative conceptions of what live theatre can be and do.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -