Livecasting in Twenty-First-Century British Theatre

Heidi Lucja Liedke is Interim Professor in English Literature at Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. From 2018-2020 she was a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London, UK. She is the co-editor of a special issue of Theatre Research International on “Presence, Politics, Resistance: Tendencies in (Post-)Pandemic Performance and Theatre” (March 2023). Her work has been published in Performance Matters (2019), Journal of Contemporary Drama in English (2021) and Participations (2021). Twitter: @heidilulie

Makes a significant contribution to how we understand the live recording and broadcasting of stage plays ... Liedke’s reflections on social media marketing, technological mediation, and pandemic-era adaptations are particularly valuable for understanding new digital strategies and performance models in Britain’s major theatre institutions. The book will therefore appeal to theatre practitioners, scholars, and readers interested in more thoroughly examining the intersections of theatre and media.

• List of Figures AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Locating Livecasting – Twenty-First Century British Theatre on the ThresholdLocating LivecastingConstructing the LiveDistractions, Slippages and Turns: Spectacle – ArchiveResearch OverviewAims and Structure of the BookPart I: Spectacle and MaterialityChapter 1. Old New Media: The Optionality of the Theatre Space and Different Forms of Embodiment in Early Live Theatre and Music BroadcastingEarly Broadcasting Technologies as SubstitutesAcousmatic Livecasting in the Nineteenth Century: Visual LandscapesNot A Substitute for the Real Thing – The NT’s Dip Into Broadcasting in the 1940s and 1950sThe Launch of NT LiveThen and Now: The Fifth AuditoriumChapter 2. Watching Others Having Fun – Livecasting as SpectacleThe Best of British TheatreSpectacle and Theatre on Screens – Images and DeceptionSports Events, Spectacle and NT LiveFraming Livecasting: Mediated Spectacle and CommunitasLivecasting as Affective Spectacle: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bridge Theatre/NT Live) Chapter 3. Capturing the Atmosphere: The Material-TheatricalA Word on Wires, Screens and Electricians from a Brechtian PerspectiveTheatrical and Cinematic Modes – Filmed TheatreSpatially Extended Atmospheres: The Materiality of the Theatrical Space ShiftsMaking the Theatrical Experience Porous: Stuttering ScreensPART II: EngagementChapter 4. Livecasting, Liveness, and the Feeling ISpectator-Centric Theatre and Modes of Engagement with LivecastsLivecasts, Liveness and “We” Bakhtinian and Benjaminian Traces—Fabrics of EngagementI Feel, Therefore I am (a Spectator) Chapter 5. Quasi-Experts in the Context of LivecastingImmediacy and AfterlifeQuasi-Experts at Work: Liveness and After-Liveness Enabled by Social MediaWe Are In It Together: Critiquing the Experience OnlineAgainst a Stagnation of TheatreChapter 6. Covidian Theatre: The Move to Small Screens and into HomesMasks and Socially Distanced TheatreViral Affect on ScreensCovidian TheatreRetrospective Synchronicity and NT At HomeChapter 7. Concluding Discussion and Future Directions: What Remains of Livecasting? Responsible Responsiveness and LivenessWhat Remains of Livecasting? Works CitedIndex