Table Of ContentT H E AT R E
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Theatre Aurality
“Lynne Kendrick has presented those of us who think about theater and per-
formance a useful challenge, namely to reconsider the uses of sound in this very
sonically-ordered set of practices. Noting and describing how theater—despite its
name, which suggests it is primarily ‘a place of seeing’—has long been in reality a
place of hearing and listening, Kendrick gets us to think more broadly about not
merely what sound serves in theater but what sound does and can do in theater.
Grounded in solid historical and scientific scholarship about both sonic and
theater research, Kendrick also presents us with case studies of the most current
sorts of sonic practices in theater production and audience reception, from cases
using new technologies to cases using new twists on long-standing practices that
now demand new forms of audience attention. The result is a book that should
challenge a number of the preconceptions dominant in performance and theater
studies.”
—Prof. James Hamilton, Kansas State University, USA
Lynne Kendrick
Theatre Aurality
Lynne Kendrick
The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
London, UK
ISBN 978-1-137-45232-0 ISBN 978-1-137-45233-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-45233-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017949192
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
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Cover illustration: ‘Ring’ by Glen Neath and David Rosenberg, featuring Simon Kane‚ Fuel
Theatre © Suzanne Dietz
Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
The registered company address is: The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW,
United Kingdom
For James and Jacob
T T
hanks o
First and foremost, my thanks go to all the sound designers and com-
posers, artists and theatre makers who generously shared their practice
and processes; in particular, John Collins, Tom Gibbons, Chris Goode,
Matthias Kispert, Glen Neath and Maria Oshodi. Thanks also to those
who shared their latest thinking, through previews of forthcoming pub-
lications, keynotes, and much valued conversations, including: Andy
Lavender, Josephine Machon, Dan Scott, Andreas Skourtis, Martin
Welton, Sam Cutting, Lee Campbell, Jennifer Bates, Griffyn Gilligan,
Jessica Kaufman and Miriam Verghese. Particular thanks go to those col-
leagues who took the time to read drafts and give valuable feedback: Gilli
Bush-Bailey, Ross Brown, Maria Delgado, Joshua Edelman, Tony Fisher,
George Home-Cook, Alice Lagaay, Robin Nelson, Tom Parkinson and
Gareth White.
I’d also like to thank the producers, company managers and admin-
istrators whose help in sourcing images, scripts, texts and permissions
is invaluable, including: Louise Blackwell and Kate McGrath at Fuel,
Joanna Lally and Lou Errington at Extant, and Ariana Smart Truman
at Elevator Repair Service Theatre. I am grateful for financial support
from the Research Office at the Royal Central School of Speech and
Drama, University of London, and I owe big thanks to Becky Gooby,
Dan Hetherington and Sarah Carter for their advice and patience. For
their unstinting support of this publication, I give special thanks to Vicky
Bates and Victoria Peters, Paula Kennedy, April James and Jenny McCall
at Palgrave Macmillan.
vii
viii THANKS TO
Finally, thanks to all those who have lent their ears over the years,
from colleagues and students on the BA Drama, Applied Theatre and
Education, at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, who were
privy to my early research into aurality and noise, to those colleagues
and students at Central’s MA in Advanced Theatre Practice who have
immersed themselves in my ideas and practice around theatre aural-
ity and composition. But most of all, my thanks go to those who have
been listening long-term, in particular to Kate Bowe, Shaun Glanville,
Alex Mermikides, Mr and Mrs C.L.T. Kendrick, Victoria Wainwright and
James Snodgrass (who listened to the entirety of this book, from first
ideas to final drafts), and Jacob Snodgrass (who slept through it all). This
book is written in loving memory of Ben; thanks for your brilliance.
a
cknowledgemenTs
Figure 1, featuring Simon McBurney in Complicite’s production of
The Encounter (by Complicite and Simon McBurney) at the Edinburgh
International Festival (2015), is reprinted with the kind permission of
Robbie Jack. Figure 3.1 (and cover image), with Simon Kane as Michael
in Ring (by David Rosenberg, Glen Neath and Fuel, 2013), is by
Suzanne Dietz and is reprinted with the kind permission of Fuel Theatre.
Figure 3.2, the ‘Auditory-Visual Overlap’ from Don Ihde’s (2007)
Listening and Voice: Phenomenologies of Sound is reprinted with the kind
permission of the State University of New York Press, Albany; and Fig.
4.1, featuring Scott Shepherd as Nick Carraway, Jim Fletcher as Gatsby
and Lucy Taylor as Daisy Buchanan in Gatz (by Elevator Repair Service,
dir. John Collins), is reprinted with permission from Tristram Kenton.
Figure 6.1 of Patrick Roberts wearing a spacelander suit and holding the
animotous of Flatland by Extant, director Maria Oshodi and Fig. 6.2
showing writer Michael Achtman testing the hospital zone of Flatland
(by Extant, dir. Maria Oshodi) photographed by Terry Braun, Braun
Arts, are reprinted with the kind permission of Extant Theatre.
ix
c
onTenTs
Introduction xv
1 Aurality 1
2 Theatre Aurality: Beginnings 27
3 Listening: Headphone Theatre and Auditory Performance 51
4 Voice: A Performance of Sound 73
5 Noise: A Politics of Sound 103
6 Listening: Sonority and Subjectivity 133
Conclusion 157
Index 161
xi
l f
isT of igures
Fig. 3.1 Simon Kane as Michael in Neath and Rosenberg’s Ring
(produced by Fuel Theatre, 2013), photograph
by Suzanne Dietz 53
Fig. 3.2 Don Ihde’s Auditory Visual Overlap (2007, p. 53) which
demonstrates how ‘the area of mute objects (x) seems to
be closed to the auditory experience as these objects lie in
silence, so within auditory experience the invisible sounds
(–z–) are present to the ear but absent to the eye. There
are also some presences that are “synthesised” (–y–) or
present to both “senses” or “regions”’ (ibid.) 56
Fig. 4.1 Scott Shepherd as Nick Carraway, Jim Fletcher as Gatsby
and Lucy Taylor as Daisy Buchanan in Gatz by Elevator Repair
Service (dir. John Collins), photograph by Tristram Kenton 93
Fig. 6.1 Audience member Patrick Roberts, wearing a spacelander
suit and holding the haptic device referred to as the
‘animotous’, in Flatland by Extant, (dir. Maria Oshodi),
photograph by Terry Braun 137
Fig. 6.2 Michael Achtman (the production’s playwright) testing
the Hospital zone of Flatland by Extant, (dir. Maria
Oshodi), photograph by Terry Braun 139
xiii
