[Candrama] Notice of Publication

[Conrad Alexandrowicz]

My latest book, Performing the Nonhuman: Towards a Theatre of Transformation, has just been published by Routledge. It radically reimagines theatre/performance pedagogy and dramaturgy in response to the accelerating climate crisis.

From the back cover summary:

“The theatre is the most anthropocentric of all the arts: the means of its representation, the human figure, is identical with its conventional object, the human narrative, broadly considered. To respond ethically to the climate crisis—and to overall eco-crisis—it must expand its range to include performing as/in response to the nonhuman.

“Conrad Alexandrowicz concisely explores theoretical approaches to the other-than-human, found in the work of, among others, Jane Bennett, Timothy Morton, Rosi Braidotti, and Cary Wolfe. The implications of this move are far-reaching and commence with displacing realism from its traditional position of dominance. The practices of 20th century physical theatre visionaries such as Tadeusz Kantor, Jacques Lecoq, and Jerzy Grotowski are revisited and reconsidered for their applicability to forms of theatre that might serve the needs of establishing storytelling deriving from nonhuman phenomena.

“This logically leads to the matter of responding appropriately to Indigenous ways of knowing and being, such as those articulated by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Braiding Sweetgrass, Milkweed, 2013It next imagines transformations in how theatre is situated, delivered, and received and considers the ways in which the performer/spectator binary may have to be reconfigured, with reference to Grotowski’s experiments in participatory theatre.

“It poses an even more provocative question: is such theorized performance work pointing in the direction of some re-imagined version of ritual and ceremony that may find antecedents in pre-Christian European belief and practice?

“Finally, it locates such eco-theatre in the realm of healing: climate anxiety, depression, and grief on the part of instructors, students, and artists will require us to consider and activate the healing power of the art form; perhaps the core purpose of all the arts will shift to support the need to generate solace in times of fear, sorrow, and uncertainty.”

--
Conrad Alexandrowicz, Professor
Department of Theatre
University of Victoria

I acknowledge and respect the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples on whose traditional territory the university stands, and the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.


--
Conrad Alexandrowicz, Professor
Department of Theatre
University of Victoria

I acknowledge and respect the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples on whose traditional territory the university stands, and the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.

Cell: 250.882.5030

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