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Wild Performances: Theatrical Encounters with Animals and Landscapes

Module description

This module examines human/non-human interactions through notions of performance/performativity and theatricality and with an accent on environmentalism. It explores human/non-human encounters in a range of Western contexts, including historical and contemporary representations of animals and landscapes (e.g. in theatre, film, television) and performances involving living animals in staged spectacles (e.g. in theatres, zoos, aquariums, circuses). In addition to considering animals and environments in performance the module will also explore wildlife and wilderness as performance. You will consider how theatre and performance can provide us with skills to understand the affective aspect of human/non-human interactions as well as the tools to influence pro-environmental behaviour. The module will draw on theoretical approaches from theatre and performance studies, ecocriticism, animal studies, cultural geography and leisure and tourism studies.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module aims:

• To explore how theatre/performance mediates our relationship with the natural world in different contexts and to consider the environmental impact and potential for environmentalism of these encounters.
• To introduce and apply a range of inter- and cross-disciplinary theoretical debates about the relationship between humans and the natural world to theatre and performance analysis.
• To use theatre and performance theory and practice to explore and understand encounters between humans and non-humans in a range of contexts beyond the theatre.
• To develop students’ interdisciplinary knowledge, critical analysis and presentation skills.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate understanding of a range of plays and/or performances that engage with the natural world.
• 2. Use environmentalism as a critical framework or practice to analyse a range of performances of/in the natural world.
• 3. Employ theatre and performance as a critical framework or practice to analyse the relationship between encounters in/with the natural world and pro-environmental behaviour.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Demonstrate the ability to engage critically and analytically from different theoretic perspectives, to explore theoretical concerns through practice, and vice versa, and to synthesise findings in practical and written tasks, to interpret research into physical practice and vice versa.
• 5. Demonstrate the ability to contribute research to small groups in effective presentations, to evaluate visual evidence and to develop advanced confidence in the ability to analyse, critique and manipulate complex material.
• 6. Demonstrate the ability to apply a wide range of library and IT skills in detailed independent research.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Develop advanced personal research skills using personal initiative; to set personal objectives that are linked to a sense of challenge and extending boundaries and to identify and evaluate personal learning strategies that are self-critical as much as self-reflective.
• 8. Develop group cooperation skills, including the ability to give and receive constructive critical feedback, and to improve communication skills and advanced analytic abilities in discussions.
• 9. Develop advanced confidence in performance skills and public presentation, in a variety of situations and/or with a variety of audiences, both of dramatic practice and researched material.

Syllabus plan

The module will address three broad areas:

• The representation of wildlife and wilderness in a selection of plays, performances, film and television using animal studies and ecocriticism as theoretical lenses. Through analysis of these representations we will trace the evolving relationship between the natural world and humans (mainly in a globalized Western context) interrogating terms such as ‘nature’, ‘wild’ and ‘environment’ before turning to consider how theatre and performance is responding to our contemporary situation of climate change, rapid biodiversity loss and environmental destruction.
• Performances with living animals (e.g. in zoos, aquariums, circuses). Placing these human-wildlife/wilderness encounters on an entertainment/education continuum, we will consider the theatrical techniques employed to achieve and maximise these outcomes as well as the ethical issues that these encounters raise.
• Going into “nature” (on “safari”). We will explore on how these affective experiences generate (or don’t) pro-environmental feelings, how we can use performance theory and practice to understand how these encounters function, and also how we might use performance theory and practice to increase the impact of encounters with wildness and wilderness.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Indicative Reading

• Arons, W. (2010). ‘Beyond the Nature/Culture Divide.’ Theatre Historiography: Critical Interventions. Bial, H. and Magelssen, S. (Eds). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010. 148-161.
• Baratay, E. et al. (2002). Zoo: A History of Zoological Gardens in the West. London: Reaktion Books.
• Baker, S. (2001). Picturing the Beast: Animals, Identity, and Representation. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
• Chaudhuri, U. (1994). “‘There Must Be a Lot of Fish in That Lake’: Toward an Ecological Theater.” Theater 25.1: 23–31.
• Chaudhuri, U. (1995). Staging Place: The Geography of Modern Drama. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• Chaudhuri, U. (2007). ‘Animal Rites: Performing beyond the Human.’ Critical Theory and Performance. Reinelt, J. G. and Roach, J. R. (Eds). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 506-520.
• Chaudhuri, U. and Hughes, H. (2014). Animal Acts: Performing Species Today. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• Chaudhuri, U. and Fuchs, E. (Eds.). (2002). Land/Scape/Theater. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• Dawes, B. and Maufort, M. (Eds.). (2014). Enacting Nature: Ecocritical Perspectives on Indigenous Performance. Peter Lang.
• Cless, D. (2010). Ecology and Environment in European Drama. New York, London: Routledge.
• Ellis, J. and Kisling, V. (2000). Zoo and Aquarium History: Ancient Animal Collections to Zoological Gardens. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
• Giannachi, G. and Nigel, Stewart. (Eds.). (2005). Performing Nature: Explorations in Ecology and the Arts. Berne: Peter Lang.
• Ingold, T. (2000). The Perception of the Environment: Essays in Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill, London: Routledge
• May, T. J. (1999). ‘Taking the Cage Out of the Gaze: Perception, Wilderness and the New Zoo.’ Theatre Insight. 10:2.
• May, T. J. (2005). ‘Greening the Theatre: Taking Ecocriticism from Page to Stage.’ Interdisciplinary Literary Studies: A Journal of Criticism and Theory. 7.1, 84–103.
• May, T. J. (2007). ‘Beyond Bambi: Toward a Dangerous Ecocriticism in Theatre Studies’. Theatre Topics, 17.2, 95-110.
• Orozco, L. (2013). Theatre & animals. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
• Orozco, L. (2018). Animals in Socially Engaged Performance Practice: Becomings on the Edges of Extinction. Studies in Theatre and Performance, 38:2, 176-189
• Parker-Starbuck, J. (2015). Performing Animality: Animals in Performance Practices. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Pearson, M. (2006). ‘In Comes I’: Performance, Memory and Landscape. Exeter: University of Exeter Press.
• Raber, K. and Mattfeld, M. (Eds.). (2017). Performing Animals: History, Agency, Theater. Pennsylvania State University Press.
• Rothfels, N. (Ed.). (2002). Representing Animals. Indiana: Indiana University Press.
• Szerszynski, B. Heim, W. and Waterton, C. (Eds.). (2004). Nature Performed: Environment, Culture and Performance. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Grant, T. Gay, I. R. and Recarte, C. A. (2018). Introduction: Real Animals on the Stage. Studies in Theatre and Performance, 38:2, 103-112.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11179
  

Key words search

theatre, performance, animals, wildlife, environment, wilderness, nature