Abstract The management of the coronavirus crisis of 2020 required immediate and top-down decisions, which contradicts the bottom-up philosophy of the non-curated Festival OFF d’Avignon. As a consequence, the loose organizational structure risked breaking apart and every theatre director acted autonomously by either cancelling the scheduled programme, creating online alternatives, or organising independent

Published in Contemporary Theatre Review (Vol. 32, No. 3-4, 2022)

Abstract Julia Varley is a long-term artist from the Odin Teatret in Denmark as well as being one of the key actress/directors and founder members of the Magdalena Project. Julia curates numerous international festivals and workshops including Transit (in Denmark) and the International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA). She is also a founding member of the Barba Varley Foundation, in support of

Abstract From the point of view of the author Hilkka-Liisa Iivanainen, the co-artistic director of Finland’s Tampere Theatre Festival, the purpose of a performing arts festival is fundamentally challenged by the unforeseen and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In Tampere, the festival’s core mission of coming together to celebrate theatre as an art form has almost become secondary to the constantly changing

Abstract John McGrath is Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Manchester International Festival (MIF) and The Factory, Manchester, UK. The festival is biennial and commissions new work by artists from all over the globe, presenting the work over an 18 day period in July. Here, John talks in an interview with Maggie B. Gale about the impact of the pandemic on the planning season for the festival

Abstract In this critical reflection, festival director Shimrit Ron discusses the origins of Isra-Drama, the impact of COVID on the showcase, and the new artistic initiatives that responded to the conditions of performance online for an international audience.

Abstract In December 2021, Danielle Lynch interviewed interim director of St. Patrick’s Festival, Anna McGowan about the experiences and challenges faced by the festival in planning Ireland’s largest arts festival during a global pandemic. The discussion details immediate actions taken by festival organisers in the aftermath of the March 2020 cancellation. The interview also provides an insight into

Abstract In her interview with Karen Fricker and Melissa Poll, the artistic director of Tkaronto/Toronto’s SummerWorks Festival, Laura Nanni, discusses how the festival responded to COVID-19 and calls for racial justice in 2020 and beyond.

Abstract In 2021, the International Festival of Street Theatre in Aurillac, France, was cancelled for the second consecutive summer. Amidst the ensuing furore, street theatre artists and their advocates risked conflating public health measures with the oppressive policies of the security state. This essay critically examines the underlying assumptions at work in these arguments and insists on the importance

Abstract Roman Dolzhanskiy speaks to James Rowson about the challenges of organising international theatre festivals in Russia during the COVID-19 pandemic and discusses how the New European Theatre (NET) Festival and Territory Festival have navigated the complex and frequently changing public safety restrictions in Russia.

Abstract In this interview with Bryce Lease, Jay Pather discusses the multiple festivals he curates in South Africa, the Netherlands, and France. These include Infecting the City Public Art Festival, the ICA Live Art Festival, Afrovibes, and Season Africa 2020. Focusing on African contexts for performance and congregation, Pather discusses the challenges and opportunities for collaboration and audience

Abstract On 16 March 2020, then Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte imposed the Enhanced Community Quarantine putting the main island of Luzon – where Manila, the National Capital Region, is located – on a total lockdown to protect the spread of COVID-19. The lockdown restricted mobility, social gatherings were prohibited, and everyone was mandated to stay inside their homes. Moreover, there was a

Abstract Five programme advisors from the British Film Institute (BFI) London Film Festival offer reflections on film programming during and post COVID. In addition to a discussion on hybrid festivals, the programme advisors also comment on audiences, Q&As, the engagement with filmmakers, and what it means to programme for both virtual and live festival formats.

Abstract The London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT) is a biennial festival of theatre, performance, and cultural events. The organisation also supports year-round activity in London. LIFT was founded by Rose Fenton and Lucy Neal, with the first festival in 1981 hoping to ‘challenge British theatre and open a window on the world’. It has been a significant force in internationalising the UK

Abstract Shona McCullagh, Artistic Director of Auckland Arts Festival, Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki, speaks to Sarah Thomasson about her experience of festival programming during the pandemic and the challenges and opportunities artists and festivals in Aotearoa will face in the future.

Abstract Gateshead International Festival of Theatre (GIFT) is an annual festival of contemporary performance in Gateshead, in the North East of England. It was founded in 2011 to provide a platform for contemporary performance in the region and as a creative response to Gateshead town centre’s redevelopment. It includes performances, workshops, discussions, and other informal ways for artists and

Abstract In this interview, Karen Fricker and Melissa Poll speak with Martine Dennewald and Jessie Mill, the new co-directors of the Tiohtiá:ke/Montréal-based Festival TransAmériques (FTA), North America’s largest performing arts festival. Dennewald and Mill discuss how COVID-19 and the global racial reckoning have impacted the FTA, particularly through the festival’s approach to artist–producer partnerships

Abstract This article examines the impact of COVID on festivals and the future of the industry. Analysing more than 50 items of online news, scholarly reviews and reports, and governmental guidance, this article examines the immediate effects of COVID in the industry as a whole, and particularly on its precarious artists and workforce. It also explores the changing behavioural attitudes towards festivals

Abstract Geddy Aniksdal has been a core member of Grenland Friteater, Norway, since the early 1980s. She is an actress, director, and writer and runs the annual Stedsans (Sense of Place) Festival and, along with other company members, the Porsgrunn International Theater Festival. She is also a founder member of the Magdalena Project. In this contemplative essay, Aniksdal reflects poetically on what

The Gateshead International Festival of Theatre (GIFT) has been running since 2011. It is an annual opportunity for audiences and artists to gather and share experimental work with a strong focus on collaboration and conversation. As noted in my interview with the Festival’s Director, Kate Craddock (which is also published in this special issue of CTR), it went online for 2020 and 2021. 2022 marked

Backpages is an opportunity for the academy to engage with theatre and performance practice with immediacy and insight, and for theatre workers and performance artists to engage critically and reflectively on their work and the work of their peers.

Published in Contemporary Theatre Review (Vol. 32, No. 2, 2022)

Abstract Among the challenges posed by the Anthropocene, perhaps none has been more central than redefining ‘the human’ that this epoch seems to name. It is no secret that the European liberal subject has been the directing force of the Anthropocene and the model from which a global humanity, and its globalising technology, has been envisioned. This essay begins by bringing together a diversity interdisciplinary

Abstract With an understanding of climate crisis as informed by performativity, this article offers an overview of 2010s British climate crisis theatre (or, ‘CCT’). While similar surveys of theatre that depict ecological issues have been written before, the approach this article takes is distinct in its application of performativity, as well as its specificity to theatre in 2010s Britain: a time and

Abstract This article explores the role of music in forms of ‘becoming’ in the adaptation of Alan Warner’s novel The Sopranos (1998) for the stage by Lee Hall as Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour (2015). Telling the story of six choirgirls’ visit to Edinburgh for a choir competition, a musical strain in Warner’s novel ameliorates the ‘reprofuturity’ felt by the girls as a pressure leading with deathly

Abstract It is only recently that VR has become one of the most sought out technologies to create a narrative experience. However, as David Z. Saltz points out, ‘scholars and practitioners have yet to settle on a name to describe performances that incorporate digital media’. In this article, I extend Jennifer Parker-Starbuck’s concept of ‘cyborg theatre’ to the three technological retellings of Shakespeare

Abstract Taking Jordan Tannahill’s play rihannaboi95 as case study, this article examines the ways in which digital theatre forms cultivate a unique spectator experience of perceived realness. Specifically, this article examines how the conventions of the YouTube video carry over and impact the audience experience of rihannaboi95, a theatrical monologue told in the style of a YouTube confessional.

Published in Contemporary Theatre Review (Vol. 32, No. 2, 2022)

Published in Contemporary Theatre Review (Vol. 32, No. 2, 2022)

Backpages is an opportunity for the academy to engage with theatre and performance practice with immediacy and insight, and for theatre workers and performance artists to engage critically and reflectively on their work and the work of their peers.

Backpages is an opportunity for the academy to engage with theatre and performance practice with immediacy and insight, and for theatre workers and performance artists to engage critically and reflectively on their work and the work of their peers.

(2022). Editorial 32.1. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 1-3.

Abstract The continued lack of visibility and representation of Black women in studies of historical and contemporary performance art not only forces their work to exist within the margins, but their exclusion also exposes broader questions around the terrain for decolonising performance histories. In order to begin to recover interventionist performances by Black women, this article focuses on the

Abstract The nation as performed by the state has found either endorsement or criticism on the stage in postindependence India. The decolonization drive, undertaken during the 1950s, aimed at identifying performance forms that would define what ‘national theatre’ would be for a free India and thus help reclaim the ‘Indian’ cultural ethos. Nation in contemporary Indian theatre is as much a thematic

Abstract This article considers Wael Shawky’s The Song of Roland: The Arabic Version as a key work in the artist’s ongoing investigation of the mechanisms of stereotypical racial and cultural othering from a historical perspective and an Arab point of view. Shawky translates La Chanson de Roland, one of the earliest major works of French literature, into Classical Arabic and stages it as an hour-long

Abstract This article analyses how language choice, linguistic access and opacity in multilingual productions influence theatre institutions’ (inter)cultural and socio-political engagement as well as audiences’ access to and encounters with linguistic and cultural diversity. It uses multilingualism, and the associated use of unfamiliar languages, as a prism for revealing how language use is deeply

Abstract This article charts the evolution of one of the most significant Polish non-institutional theatres, the W#ęgajty Theatre. We focus not only on the artists’ interests, forms, and methods of work on performances, but also on the organizational structure of the theatre and its ensemble. This analysis of the team ethic underpinning W#ęgajty’s working practices and its evolution reveals how some

Abstract By using audiences as co-creators of their own experience, participatory theatre becomes imbricated in neoliberal labour practices, characterized by a D-I-Y ethos. At the same time, co-creative audiences are positioned at the privileged centre of a customized, intimate experience that is not only by me, but also for me, and about me. This article explores the tensions between the negative

(2022). Theater as Data: Computational Journeys into Theater Research. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 101-102.

(2022). Beyond the Happening: Performance Art and the Politics of Communication. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 102-103.

(2022). Theatre of Anger: Radical Transnational Performance in Contemporary Berlin by Olivia Landry. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 103-104.

(2021). Notes on Contributors. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 385-386.

(2021). Editorial 31.4. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 387-389.

(2021). Towards an Eighth Fire Approach: Developing Modes of Indigenous-Settler Performance-Making on Turtle Island. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 390-408.

(2021). Immigration Infrastructure Theatricalised in Illegalised and The Claim. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 409-421.

(2021). Playing Slaughter: On Staging Animal Deaths and Entangling Art with Life. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 422-437.

(2021). Staging Beckettian Minds: Umwelt and Cartesian Stage Space in Beckett’s Plays. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 438-454.

(2021). Power, Perception, and Professionalism: An Empirical Study of Digital Theatre Criticism in Canada. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 455-470.

(2021). Share Your Work: Lola Arias’s Lecture Performance Series and the Artistic Cognitariat of the Global Pandemic. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 471-495.

(2021). Adapting​ David Foster Wallace for​ the Swiss National Stage: An Interview with Yana Ross. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 496-507.

(2021). Shakespeare’s Accents: Voicing Identity in Performance. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 508-509.

(2021). Playing Real: Mimesis, Media, and Mischief. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 509-510.

(2021). No More Masterpieces: Modern Art After Artaud. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 510-511.

(2021). Performing Specimens: Contemporary Performance and Biomedical Display. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 512-513.

(2021). A Story that Happens: On Playwriting, Childhood & Other Traumas. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 513-514.

Backpages is an opportunity for the academy to engage with theatre and performance practice with immediacy and insight, and for theatre workers and performance artists to engage critically and reflectively on their work and the work of their peers. This issue features two special sections curated by Maria M. Delgado: one of them reflecting on the ten-year anniversary of the passing of eminent scholar

(2021). Abstracts. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 531-534.

(2021). Notes on Contributors. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 261-262.

(2021). Editorial 31.3. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 263-265.

(2021). ‘Brecht in Practice’: Critical Reflections on Staging Drama Dialectically. Contemporary Theatre Review: Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 266-285.