ADSA Conference 2015, Sydney, Australia

University of Sydney, 23-26 June 2015

The ADSA Conference in 2015 will be ‘Revisiting The Player’s Passion: the Science(s) of Acting in 2015’, 23-26 June 2015, at the University of Sydney. 

I will be presenting my paper, 'Intracultural Approaches to Acting' 

It is possible to imagine and perform a multiracial society, a society where differences are honoured. If the students of this generation are to make a difference, that difference will be defined, in part, in terms of opposition or resistance to acceptance of the representations and interpretations of the racial order and the colour line that circulate in the mass media and the majority of social science writings. This resistance, in turn, will be shaped by how we read, write, perform, and critique culture.

Denzin.N, 2003.p.xiii

My paper shares my research on intracultural actor training.  It is research by practice with the aim of creating a rehearsal praxis, which can utilise the cultural context of the performer in the production of text based realism and other applications. It is my contention that many training environments and rehearsal rooms ignore and disavow rather than engage with the cultural context of the actor. The remit of my practice as research is to examine the causes and impact of this phenomenon and to offer a methodology that addresses this issue and actively plays with culture as a key tool in actor training and rehearsal room practices.

My methodology speaks to the multiracial society that Denzin imagines and ventures to realise this by giving practitioners the tools to perform a multiracial dynamic, where differences are acknowledged and utilised and are key to crafting work for performance. As such it can be seen as an intervention that seeks to break through “sedimented meanings and normative traditions” (Conquergood.D, 1998. p32) and my paper examines the traditions I break with in order to apply intracultural practice in the realisation of work for performance.

More info here.

To view the conference paper, click here.