Abstract
In this chapter, the author documents her teaching experiences in the MAIPR programme in terms of how a course unfolded in its two iterations in Finland: in Tampere and Helsinki respectively. She outlines how this form of teaching instilled in the students an active learning about spatiality in the theatre. It brought an element of site-specificity to this type of teaching, something that is rarely possible in the institutional context presented by most universities. Instead of using the lecture theatre or the classroom, the students in the first cohort encountered spatiality through the different (theatre) locations in which the classes were held. They attended live theatre productions and discussed each performance’s use of space. Many students reported after the course was completed that they finally understood the significance of and possibilities in space. The author thinks what really raised their understanding about spatiality was the opportunity to understand its potential in numerous ‘locations’. This chapter maps how a form of ‘site-specificity’, a well-known and popular genre of theatre, is an ideal means for introducing students to the intricacies of spatiality in performance.
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- 1.
I wish to thank Professor Hanna Suutela for the suggestion and Disa Kamula for making the arrangements for this ‘mobile course’ to take place.
- 2.
See Theatre’s Heterotopias: Performance and the Cultural Politics of Space (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). Discussions with the MAIPR students were very important in the development of my thinking.
- 3.
The one student who was a Tampere local may not have experienced this but she did provide a very useful spatial function as local expert, a role that gave her a sense of confidence as she exemplified her home town to the rest of us.
- 4.
The Unknown Soldier became a touchstone for both groups since it was a spatially (and politically) complex production that we all had in common.
- 5.
Thanks to Professor Pirkko Koski for suggesting the performances and Tiina Erkkilä for arranging tickets.
- 6.
Had the course modules been longer, it would have been productive to explore the economic implications of the different venues, in conjunction with their spatial implications, in a country where theatre is generally better supported than in most nations. The Finnish examples alone varied from student performance venues to the National Opera.
- 7.
One student, Michelle Nicholson Sanz, has completed a doctoral thesis on a topic that emerged from the awareness of the potential of spatiality that she gained in this module.
References
Chaudhuri, U. (1995). Staging Place: The Geography Of Modern Drama. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Pearson, M. (2006). ‘In Comes I’: Performance, Memory and Landscape. Exeter: University of Exeter Press.
Pearson, M. & M. Shanks (2001). Theatre Archaeology: Disciplinary Dialogues. London: Routledge.
Turner, C. (2004). ‘Palimpsest or Potential Space? Finding a Vocabulary for Site-Specific Performance.’ New Theatre Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 373–390.
Van Den Berg, K. (1991). ‘The Geometry of Culture: Urban Space and Theatre Buildings in Twentieth-Century Berlin.’ Theatre Research International, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 1–17.
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Tompkins, J. (2017). Teaching Spatial Theory and Theatre ‘Site-Specifically’. In: Bala, S., Gluhovic, M., Korsberg, H., Röttger, K. (eds) International Performance Research Pedagogies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53943-0_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53943-0_12
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