Christopher McCullough – författare

This collection of essays is in no way an attempt to instruct people in ways to teach Drama. Nor is it homogeneous in its range of arguments. What is attempted is a lively discourse on a variety of practices that, by recognising their clearly rooted and often diverse ideologies, we may term praxis. The challenge here is that no practice may claim an ideological innocence, appealing to some vague transcendental natural state of existence. One of the problems when we encounter practical work in the context of the university Drama department is its uneasy relationship with the more conventionally accepted disciplines. Often the answer has been in the form of a retreat into subjectivity and mystery; denying the place of practice in the material world. Each of the essays in this volume challenges that perception, but all of them challenge it in very different ways. What they do have in common is a rejection of the idea that learning is a passive activity.

This volume, while it raises all the questions appertaining to the cultural, historical and critical contexts of the play, has as its primary focus the play as theatrical performance. This focus is not taken in isolation, but observed in terms of all the social, material and practical aspects of theatrical production. The questions raised are those that face actors, stage managers and directors, scenic and costume designers, in the rehearsal room and on the stage.

This volume, while it raises all the questions appertaining to the cultural, historical and critical contexts of the play, has as its primary focus the play as theatrical performance. This focus is not taken in isolation, but observed in terms of all the social, material and practical aspects of theatrical production. The questions raised are those that face actors, stage managers and directors, scenic and costume designers, in the rehearsal room and on the stage.