New Performance/New Writing

Contemporary practitioners such as Orlan, Franko B, Robert Wilson and Tim Etchells are creating work that flies in the face of traditional thinking about what performance might mean. New Performance/New Writing offers contextualisation and guidance for those wishing to explore these innovative approaches. With chapters on the relationships between written text and body, self, space and devising, the author traces the history of performance practice in a critically informed and accessible way. Each chapter contains recommendations for further reading, alongside in-depth performance writing exercises.

JOHN FREEMAN is Senior Lecturer in Performance Studies at De Montfort University. The former editor of ‘Performance Practice’, he is associate editor of ‘Theatre Topics’ and ‘Body, Space and Technology’. He is a member of the International Association of University Theatre and has taught in Helsinki, Casablanca, Liege and New York. As a performer he has worked with practitioners as diverse as Edward Bond (world premiere of ‘Jackets’) and Pete Brooks (Insomniac’s production of ‘Clare de Luz’).

Timeline: 1900 to the Present * Introduction: Preparing the Ground * Nothing Dates Like the Nearly New: Futurism, Dada, Surrealism and a Century of Change * Writing the Space * Writing the Body, Writing the Self * Writing the Written: Writing the Group