Politics of Process in Contemporary Performance Making
A Practice-Philosophical View
Published on 28. May 2026
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-1-350-29523-0 (ISBN)
Description
This book offers an an innovative re-examination of the notion of 'process' in contemporary performance-making, drawing on insights from the related fields of philosophy, practice theory and the social sciences.
Through a lens of activism, it explores the socio-political potential of performance-process as a means to create vital new social agendas informed by resistance, resilience, transformative change and prefigurative practices, and including issues such as body politics, wellbeing, justice and the environment. En route, it engages with socio-political issues currently identified as needing transformative change, including those initiated by the Black Lives Matter movement and the environmental crisis, and addresses how further social change might be initiated at the processual level. The book integrates the voices of various performance practitioners by including materials gathered through recorded conversations, carefully balancing diverse perspectives. These practitioners include Australia-based dance company Marrugeku; Brazil-based GRUPO CENA 11; Embros Theatre and Green Park café in Greece; choreographer Dana Yahalomi based in Israel; Yup'ik womxn and choreographer, Alaska-born and NYC-based Emily Johnson; Berlin-based Rimini Protokoll Through this and the author's own perspectives on how performance practice relates to social and political issues, it facilitates a new conversation around the processual as political.More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-29523-0 (9781350295230)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Stefanie Sachsenmaier is Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader of the BA in Theatre Performance at Middlesex University, UK, as well as Senior HEA Fellow. Her research centres on the processual in creative practice, with a particular interest in the ways that performance practices extend into the socio-political context. She co-edited Collaboration in Performance Practice: Premises, Workings and Failures (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and published a series of writings related to her long-term research with British choreographer Rosemary Butcher, as well as on questions concerning cross-cultural collaborations. She recently co-facilitated a conversation series entitled 'Performing Solidarity' and co-runs the Politicised Artistic Practices Research Initiative at the Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries at Middlesex University. She is an editorial team member of Contemporary Theatre Review 'Interventions' and sits on the editorial board of the Choreographic Practices Journal.