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Young People and Performance: the Impact of Deterritorialisation on Contemporary Theatre for Young People

Within contemporary performance arenas young people are fast becoming part of the vanguard of contemporary performance. Performativity, convergence and openness of form are key animating concepts in the landscape of Theatre for Young People (TYP). To ignore what is taking place in the making of performance for and by young people is to ignore the new possibilities in meaning-making and theatrical form. In this period of rapid technological change young people are embracing and manipulating technology (sound, image, music) to represent who they are and what they want to say. Positioned as &quotcultural catalysts", &quotthe new pioneers" and &quotfirst navigators" young people are using mediatised culture and digital technologies with ease, placing them at the forefront of a shift in cultural production. Performance commentators (Schnechner 2002; Shusterman 2000; Auslander 1999; Hill and Paris 2001; Phelan 1993 and Kershaw 1992) believe that there has been a profound shift in the nature of making theatre and performance works. The forces of globalisation, the new economy and advancements in new media technologies have affected young people's making of performance. Three key concepts animate contemporary young people's performance devising and presenting processes. These concepts can be defined as: performativity, convergence and openness of form. These three categories can be harnessed under the umbrella concept of deterritorialisation. The processes of deterritorialisation allows for the synthesis of new cultural and performance genres by fragmenting and hybridising traditional cultural categories and forms including the use of new media technologies. Almost half of all TYP performances now incorporate the technologies of reproduction. The relationship between live and mediated forms, the visceral and the virtual is allowing young people to navigate and make meaning of cultural codes and cultural forms as well as to engage in an open dialogue with their audiences. This thesis examines the way young people are using elements of deterritorialisation to become producers of new performance genres.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/264929
Date January 2004
CreatorsGattenhof, Sandra Jane
PublisherQueensland University of Technology
Source SetsAustraliasian Digital Theses Program
Detected LanguageEnglish
RightsCopyright Sandra Jane Gattenhof

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