Assignments

Theatre Anthtropology
ASSIGNMENT FOR THE THIRD EVALUTATION


In the final lecture of my Theatre Anthropology Unit (in Poznan) the following subjects were discussed:
1. the brain space-of-action shared between actor and spectator, related to the mirror neuron system;
2. how group culture becomes mind that guides the performers of a group.

In the light of the above discussions, sum-up and comment the extracts handed out from The Edge Point of Performance by Thomas Richards.



3000 WORDS

4th and final assignment for SPC 5000

A group of persons responsible for the running of a particular socio-cultural set-up you are reasonably familiar with has given you a brief – they have commissioned you to analyse the way in which that set-up functions so that you may arrive at proposing ways in which all those operating in it could find in it the possibility of becoming empowered so as to stand a much better chance than they do at present of fulfilling their potential.


Against a firm background of your readings related to the Alterity lectures you have followed, draw upon:
a. the discourse on the praxis of performer pedagogy and performer dramaturgy as posited in this Study-Unit and
b. the ongoing research and findings of the cognitive sciences in the fields of performance (including sport) as presented to you in this study-unit and in study-units SPC 5002 and SPC 5005.
in order to be able to:
1. assess what it is that you consider most needing rethinking in the set-up’s current state of affairs, if one truly wishes it to enable the empowerment of potential,
2. chart out a number of objectives one ought to aim for and a number of measures that could lead towards those objectives and
3. propose a number of tests/checks/ways in which you could evaluate [i] how correct your assessment in (1) above is and [ii ] how truly feasible are the objectives and the measures you would have charted out in (2) above.


The persons responsible for the running of the set-up are a very mixed group. Four of them happen to have a consuming, side-line interest in a particular field or another… although it is not because of their interests that they happen to form part of the group of persons responsible for the running of that set-up. Those disciplines, however, happen to be the ones you need to work with in your task – thus: one of those four is a keen reader of philosophy, one is a retired Olympic champion, one subscribes to (and avidly reads) a number of scientific journals and one travels the five continents in search of true theatre. You therefore know that you need to support your work very well from the right sources .