Deleuze, Artaud, and the Bard: Envisioning a Shakespearean Theater Education Yet to Come

• In Event: 64.088 - Sheraton Roundtable 12 - Osgoode Ballroom
  In Roundtable Session: 64.088-1 - Space and Place: Embodied and Performed

Abstract

Gilles Deleuze, drawing from Antonin Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty, proposed a radical change to our conception of the performing arts, envisioning the theatre as a factory, the actor as a contr-dieu (anti-God), and artistic expression itself as a means for the generation and preservation of affects. This “minor theatre” replaces the stable elements of power and representation—author, text, structure, conflict, setting—with a theatre of pure, immanent expression. As the patron-saint of majoritarian theatre, Shakespeare is a productive site for this transformation, and for exploration of nonrepresentational performance techniques. This paper describes the results of an experimental performance of this Shakespeare-turned-minor, and its results bear profound implications for the future of Shakespearean performance education.

Authors

• Erin Bailey, The George Washington University

• Evan Crump, The George Washington University