Discursive Practices in Performing Arts
On the assumption that the performing arts are complex manifestations that develop singular forms of experimentation, intermediality, and criticality, this line of research dedicates itself to the generation of transversal and intersectional thinking from listening to the practices of composition, research, and artistic study.
With a declared focus on the particularity of “practices” – artistic and/or study/research –, its ecologies and conditions of production, an epistemological positioning is privileged that does not simply consider artistic processes and products as objects of aesthetic analysis but as generators of multiple forms of knowledge and activators of other possible worlds.
Affirming discourse as a situated practice of sociopolitical intervention, the research developed in the PDAP line of research pays special attention to the performativity of vocabularies in use and their transformation processes, studying the connection between the invention of concepts and the emergence of other ways of living and imagining.
Around a common interest in the tension between discourse as a performative act and performance as a possible act of research, the aim is to open space and generate a context for critical reflection that operates between artistic practice as research and theoretical research as practice – both situated, contingent and aware of their socio-political dimensions and their environmental impact.
By bringing together researchers with different paths, the research space opened by PDAP line of research generates meetings between diverse areas of knowledge – Theatre and Performance Studies, Dance Studies, Literary and Comparative Studies, Philosophy of Language, Aesthetics, Post-humanist and Environmental, Dramaturgy, Gender Studies, Disability Studies, Translation Studies, Feminist Science Studies, Cinema Studies, Archive and Memory Studies, Curatorial Studies, Museology, Black Studies, Affect Theory, Ecocriticism, Cognitive Sciences, New Materialisms, Theory of Criticism, among others –, developing transdisciplinary collaborations with various academic institutions and other research and/or artistic production spaces, nationally and internationally.
In close relation with the strategic project of the Centre for Theatre Studies, the work of the PDAP line of research is located in the “expanded field” of contemporary performing arts, unfolding into various types of activities: publishing projects, organization of conferences and other scientific events, research workshops and training actions, artistic research projects in collaboration with other institutions, development and integration of research networks, organization of reading and experimental translation meetings, sharing actions and critical reflection around research and/or artistic ongoing projects, missions and establishment of international partnerships, among others to be invented and/or discovered. It is responsible for publication of a specialized journal – Sinais de Cena: Journal of Theatre Studies and Performing Arts – and operates in permanent dialogue with the Program in Theatre Studies of the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon.
Coord. Gustavo Vicente (gv@edu.ulisboa.pt).
History of Theatre and Performance
The History of Theatre and Performance research group translates one of the programme lines that guided the creation of the Centre for Theatre Studies: solid documentary sources are the foundation for the study and critical analysis of the theatrical phenomenon. Based on a historical and documental dimension, the group’s activity is organised along converging lines of research, in a programme of open science online resources that sustains the Centre for Theatre Studies’ pioneering legacy in the Digital Humanities:
– History of theatre in Portugal
Study of the theatrical systems that have organised theatrical activity in Portugal over the centuries, and the aesthetic assumptions that have marked it. The object of study are theatres as entities, entrepreneurs, actors, singers, dancers, set designers, costume designers, directors, rehearsers, points, technicians, and other theatre people, as well as authors and composers, repertoires performed, genres, and the different components of the show.
– Rhetoric and Poetics
Study and edition of the theoretical texts that have established the precepts of theatre writing and acting over the centuries.
– Corpus
Collection, edition and study of theatre texts by Portuguese authors from the 16th to the 20th centuries. It includes originals, translations and adaptations. It is published in two formats: digital and paper.
– Influences, Migrations and Circuits
On the one hand, we study the reception of foreign authors, actors, directors, etc. in Portugal and how they have influenced the aesthetic canon of Portuguese theatre; on the other hand, we study the global diffusion of Portuguese theatre throughout history, in its diversity of production modes and practices.
– Documentation and archives
a) collecting, transcribing (diplomatically and with modernised spelling) and analysing documents that make it possible to establish the History of Theatre in Portugal, from the 13th to the 20th centuries, establishing relationships between them and making them available digitally in general and thematic collections.
b) extracting and making available data collected from various sources, in a complex information system based on records of shows presented in Portugal in the 20th and 21st centuries.
– Lost Architectures
Studies leading to the virtual reconstruction of disappeared theatre spaces.
Coord. Paula Gomes Magalhães (paula.magalhaes@campus.ul.pt) e José Pedro Sousa (joselouro@campus.ul.pt).
Theatre and Image
Theatre and Image proposes the study of the visual materials associated with performing. Both materials that are particularly interesting in building a history of theatre through images and their interpretation are considered, as well as the presence of the image in the construction of the theatrical spectacle. It focuses on the analysis of the relations between theatre and image, together with the contamination of the theatre space by the cinematographic image, calling for a theoretical reflection on the status of the image and the technological conditions of its production.
Coord. Cosimo Chiarelli (cchiarelli@letras.ulisboa.pt) and Filipe Figueiredo (ffigueiredo2005@gmail.com)
