The Routledge Performance Archive is a developing resource produced in partnership with Digital Theatre, providing unique access to an unprecedented range of audio-visual material from past and present practitioners of performance. This ground-breaking and constantly growing online collection delivers essential resources direct to the classroom, lecture theatre and library. The video material spans more than fifty years of documented work direct from renowned practitioners and specialists, and ranges across the entire spectrum of theatre topics.
Practitioners
Browse the Archive through our list of practitioners, ranging from legendary figures to contemporary pioneers. Trace connections between individuals and entire movements, via specially commissioned biographies and peer-reviewed cross-referencing. All biographical information and video descriptions come direct from the practitioners themselves, unless otherwise stated.
Subjects
Explore content thematically through our carefully structured taxonomy, and reflect on fascinating new relationships between concept and content. All entries have been taken from Paul Allain’s and Jen Harvie’s Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance (Routledge: London, 2006), and are edited by Maggie B. Gale, unless otherwise indicated.
Balduzzi, Massimiliano
Massimiliano Balduzzi is an Italian performer, director, and teacher based in New York City.
Rasmussen, Iben Nagel
Iben Nagel Rasmussen is an actor, director, teacher and writer born in Denmark. She has been a member of Odin Teatret since 1966, and conducts independent research as leader of ‘The Bridge of Winds’.
Butcher, Rosemary
Rosemary Butcher is one of the UK's leading contemporary choreographers.
Hall, Peter
Hall’s work is characterised by attention to detail, meticulous verse speaking, and a strong design aesthetic. He has written and spoken at length about mask work, classical theatre and verse.
Gómez-Peña, Guillermo
Guillermo Gómez-Peña is a performance artist, writer, activist, radical pedagogue and director of performance troupe La Pocha Nostra. His work has been presented internationally at over 800 venues.
Installation Art
The term ‘installation art’ has been used since the 1960s to designate art practice which explicitly aims to include and refer to its site and context as a crucial constituent of its meanings.
Seyferth, Katharina
Katharina Seyferth worked with Grotowski during the “Paratheatre” and “Theatre of Sources” periods. She is Director of the International Centre for Theatrical Research and Training of Las Téoulères.
Puppetry
What separates puppets in performance from art objects or curios hung on a domestic or art gallery wall is the puppeteer or performer’s ability to manipulate the object and thus bring it to ‘life’.
Acting
Acting is the art of performing in theatre, especially using the actor’s voice/ body: it is intentional and theatrical, whereas other performance forms, i.e. participating in protest, may be neither.
Devising
Devising is a method of making performance that is not dominated by text and includes the collaborative participation of the whole creative company in all stages and aspects of performance-making.
Pearson, Mike / Brith Gof
Mike Pearson is Professor of Performance Studies and Leverhulme Research Fellow, Dept. of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, Aberystwyth University. Director: Brith Gof Theatre Company, 1981-97.
Street Theatre
Many performance traditions have involved parades and displays in streets, towns or village squares, and the majority of these performances have been constructed with this spatial context in mind.
Ritual
Ritual denotes an action or series of actions that are done in order to have an effect – to alter the weather, or to move a person from one phase of life to another in a transitional rite of passage.