Hallways. Place and object between body and narrative: scenographic approaches to devising theatre.
This explication seeks to frame a practice-led research project that explores the scenographic elements of place and object as an intermediary device between body and narrative in devising theatre. A focus of this work is scenographics as a mediating moment between traumatised body and painful narrative; using objects and place as a means of safely exploring and un/recovering memory to make theatre. The research also explores wider applications of scenographics in their formative and generative potential in devising theatre. The practical research is underpinned and located in various conceptual frameworks. Place is guided by Rachel Hann's work Beyond Scenography (2019) with a focus on place orientation, as well as terminologies of space and place introduced by Gay McAuley in various texts. Object is primarily considered through assemblage, semiotics and phenomenology with a focus on a disruption of the subject/object hierarchy as a means of facilitating a scenographic mediatory stand-in during the devising process and in the final theatre piece. The final practical output is process-orientated and focuses on devising a piece of theatre, Hallways, with other participants using place and object. This will be achieved through sets of exercises, activities and games developed throughout the research process; these will be expounded on in the paper.
Scenography, scenographics, place, object, body, site, narrative, assemblage, phenomenology, semiotics, devised theatre
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