Carless, Victoria Leigh (2008) Making invisible pathways visible: case studies of Shadow Play and The Rainbow Dark. PhD thesis, James Cook University.

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Abstract

This study seeks to articulate a particular type of theatre aesthetic, that which manifests as invisible in the performative mode. This invisiblist theatrical paradigm might comprise an otherness of form, character and/or language in both the written and performed text. The thesis navigates a writer’s teasing out of aspects of the Invisible for performance, as well as ways in which to plot conditions conducive to an invisiblist theatrical experience.

The study also looks to a further aspect of invisiblist theatre: its temporality or aliveness, which essentially represents an engagement with the immediate now in performance. This sense of the immediate now is contextualised within the wider or peripheral now - the social/cultural/ political status quo. Aspects of the peripheral now are extrapolated in the context of the works of theorists and theatre practitioners, in order to reflect the values of this epoch, or acknowledge contemporaneity within a theatre piece.

The outcomes of the research are tested and utilised in the writing and staging of a play entitled The Rainbow Dark (2006). This process was informed by experimentation within a pilot study, implementing a text entitled Shadow Play (2005). The Rainbow Dark (2006) was realised in two different ways; as a reading with Queensland Theatre Company and in performative mode with Backbone Youth Arts; both these realisations took place in Brisbane in 2006.

The Rainbow Dark (2006) is a hybrid text with an invisiblist aesthetic. It borrows from the peripheral now with its specific political content, yet is able to avoid the effect of rhetoric in performance. Herein lies my potential model for contemporaneity in theatre writing.

The outcomes of this study also include an ongoing trajectory for the creative project of The Rainbow Dark (2006). The play is currently contracted for broadcast by ABC Radio National, and will also be realised as part of Just Us Theatre Ensemble’s Independent season in Cairns, in November 2008.

Item ID:	3565
Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Keywords:	invisiblist theatre, aesthetics, theatrical experience, performance, contemporaneity, live theatre, play-writing, texts, language construction, otherness, meaning, staging, stagecraft, Queensland Theatre Company, Backbone Youth Arts
Date Deposited:	14 Jul 2009 04:17
FoR Codes:	19 STUDIES IN CREATIVE ARTS AND WRITING > 1904 Performing Arts and Creative Writing > 190404 Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies @ 50% 19 STUDIES IN CREATIVE ARTS AND WRITING > 1904 Performing Arts and Creative Writing > 190402 Creative Writing (incl Playwriting) @ 50%
SEO Codes:	95 CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING > 9501 Arts and Leisure > 950105 The Performing Arts (incl. Theatre and Dance) @ 100%
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