Theatre, Performance and Cognition - (Performance and Science: Interdisciplinary Dialogues) (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Theatre, Performance and Cognition introduces readers to the key debates, areas of research, and applications of the cognitive sciences to the humanities, and to theatre and performance in particular. It features the most exciting work being done at the intersection of theatre and cognitive science, containing both selected scientific studies that have been influential in the field, each introduced and contextualised by the editors, together with related scholarship from the field of theatre and performance that demonstrates some of the applications of the cognitive sciences to actor training, the rehearsal room and the realm of performance more generally.

The three sections consider the principal areas of research and application in this interdisciplinary field, starting with a focus on language and meaning-making in which Shakespeare's work and Tom Stoppard's Arcadia are considered. In the second part which focuses on the body, chapters consider applications for actor and dance training, while the third part focuses on dynamic ecologies, of which the body is a part.

Review Quotes

"The three concepts addressed in this volume are central, contested, and used in significantly different ways in the humanities, neuroscience and psychology. Through presenting essays that use the term and then inviting someone more familiar with the sciences, this book challenges preconceptions about how terms are used and serve as a means of improving the quality of communication between disciplines." --John Lutterbie, Stony Brook University, USA

"There is much in this book to intrigue, inform, and inspire scholars, students, teachers, and practitioners of theatre and performance. Editors Rhonda Blair and Amy Cook provide accessible introductions for those who might be new to the intersection of cognitive science and theatre, while individual chapters advance the knowledge that arises from this confluence by engaging with specific topics in detailed and provocative ways. The chapters are written by authors of diverse provenances, including dance, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, and narratology, alongside theatre and performance studies. The book also includes helpful appendices in the form of abstracts of influential references that informed the chapter authors' writing, and fascinating "After Words" in which practitioners talk about how their work responds to concepts from cognitive science ... The application of cognitive science to theatre and performance studies has become an established theoretical approach. This book advances the field significantly-not just by virtue of the content of the individual chapters, but also by the success of its interdisciplinary format, which stimulates valuable dialogue among its authors." --Theatre Topics

"In their excellent edited collection Rhonda Blair and Amy Cook highlight the evolving and broadening interest in cognitive science (a field that includes neuroscience, psychology, cognitive linguistics, and philosophy) by scholars and practitioners of performance ... their book demonstrates how rich and varied this interdisciplinary research has become over the twenty years since it first emerged ... one of the strengths of this collection is its demonstration that theatre, dance, and performance studies offer essential insights to the sciences of the mind by analyzing perception, movement, and action in their material, social, and cultural environments." --Theatre Journal

"Appealing to readers from diverse disciplines, the collection is for those beginning to explore the rich terrain of the cognitive humanities." --Theatre Survey

"Editors Rhonda Blair and Amy Cook bring together a diverse collection of essays that serve three different audiences: theatre and performance scholars, performance practitioners, and scientists ... Blair and Cook make obvious the symbiotic potential of questions asked in two seemingly divergent fields ... Theatre, Performance and Cognition serves the field by providing concrete actions for practicing artists, an excellent starting point for established scholars and students, and a robust exploration of the intersections of cognitive science and theatre/performance. Further, this useful co-edited study establishes alternative methods of understanding fundamental questions within the fields of theatre, performance, and dance." --Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism

About the Author

Rhonda Blair, Professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, USA, is the author of The Actor, Image, and Action: Acting and Cognitive Neuroscience (2008), and essays in Theatre Topics, TDR, the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, among others, and several edited volumes. She was president of the American Society for Theatre Research, 2009-2012.

Amy Cook, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts and English at Stony Brook University, New York, USA, is the author of Shakespearean Neuroplay: Reinvigorating the Study of Dramatic Texts and Performance through Cognitive Science, (2010) and essays in, among others, Theatre Journal, TDR, SubStance, the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Oxford Handbook of Dance and Theatre, the Oxford Handbook of 4E Cognition (forthcoming). She was the co-chair of the Working Group in Cognitive Science and Performance for American Society for Theatre Research from 2010-2014.