From British Imperialist to Honorary Aussie to International Meeting-Place: How Shakespeare has been spoken and staged in Australia 1910-2003. Aims: To discover how changing ideas of Australia's relationship to Britain and the world relate to performances of Shakespeare for Australian audiences.
Significance: For the last 100 years Shakespeare has been the most performed playwright in Australia, but theatre companies today are more likely to draw on Asian physical theatre than British speech tr ....From British Imperialist to Honorary Aussie to International Meeting-Place: How Shakespeare has been spoken and staged in Australia 1910-2003. Aims: To discover how changing ideas of Australia's relationship to Britain and the world relate to performances of Shakespeare for Australian audiences.
Significance: For the last 100 years Shakespeare has been the most performed playwright in Australia, but theatre companies today are more likely to draw on Asian physical theatre than British speech training. How Shakespeare's plays have been staged and spoken here reflects changing ideas about national character and identity, in terms of independence, sophistication, and sense of cultural geography.
Outcomes: A PhD thesis and a major exhibition catalogue essay by the APAI candidate; research publications by the Chief InvestigatorsRead moreRead less
SPEAKING WOMEN: ACTRESSES' ROLES IN ENGLISH DRAMA, 1737-1800. This project continues the internationally celebrated tradition of Australian scholarship in English Restoration and eighteenth-century drama, a period which is of particular interest because it coincides with the originary moment of our modern nation. As a mode of popular culture, drama offers a rich source of common ideas and attitudes (for example, about gender and class), which the project will explore. Many popular eighteenth-cen ....SPEAKING WOMEN: ACTRESSES' ROLES IN ENGLISH DRAMA, 1737-1800. This project continues the internationally celebrated tradition of Australian scholarship in English Restoration and eighteenth-century drama, a period which is of particular interest because it coincides with the originary moment of our modern nation. As a mode of popular culture, drama offers a rich source of common ideas and attitudes (for example, about gender and class), which the project will explore. Many popular eighteenth-century plays were performed in the early days of white settlement, and this project will, among other more general outcomes, investigate whether these works might be capable of successful and illuminating revival on modern Australian stages. Read moreRead less
SONG LYRICS FOR THE ENGLISH THEATRE 1660-1700: A PERFORMATIVE ANALYSIS. Restoration plays preserve the lyrics of over 1500 songs, ranging from sophisticated pieces set by Purcell to words written to popular ballad tunes. The project will collect the entire corpus of these lyrics and use them as the subject for a performance-oriented analysis, integrating words, music (when it survives) and what can be discovered about stage presentation. Cultural meanings will be established through close contex ....SONG LYRICS FOR THE ENGLISH THEATRE 1660-1700: A PERFORMATIVE ANALYSIS. Restoration plays preserve the lyrics of over 1500 songs, ranging from sophisticated pieces set by Purcell to words written to popular ballad tunes. The project will collect the entire corpus of these lyrics and use them as the subject for a performance-oriented analysis, integrating words, music (when it survives) and what can be discovered about stage presentation. Cultural meanings will be established through close contextualisation. Rhetorical theory and the concept of 'musical wit' will be used to relate verbal meanings to musical procedures and both to theatrical presentations of the body.Read moreRead less
A History of the Theatre in Late Georgian Britain: Spaces, Sociability and Cultural Networks. The Romantic period in Britain was formative in the history of Australia and the reconfiguring of Romantic period culture which this project entails will be of relevance to the understanding of our history. The ideologies and practices of Enlightenment sociability underpinned the early years of the colony, as much as they influenced metropolitan culture. In 2005, when many of the achievements of Enlig ....A History of the Theatre in Late Georgian Britain: Spaces, Sociability and Cultural Networks. The Romantic period in Britain was formative in the history of Australia and the reconfiguring of Romantic period culture which this project entails will be of relevance to the understanding of our history. The ideologies and practices of Enlightenment sociability underpinned the early years of the colony, as much as they influenced metropolitan culture. In 2005, when many of the achievements of Enlightenment modernity have been questioned or are perceived to be under threat, it is also worth re-examining the egalitarianism underlying the ideals if sometimes not the practice of Georgian sociability. This research will also enhance Australia's overseas reputation in the field of eighteenth-century and Romantic studies.Read moreRead less