Eco-Aesthetics in Performance and in Design

March 20, 2021 3-4:15pm ET – Eco-Aesthetics in Performance and in Design Moderator: Conrad Alexandrowicz, Tanja Beer, Rachel Bowditch, Joan Lipkin, David Vivian Conrad Alexandrowicz, MFA, is an associate professor in the Department of Theatre at the University of Victoria, where he teaches movement for actors. Over a decades-long career in performance he migrated from dance to theatre and has been a dancer, choreographer, writer of texts for dance, playwright, actor, director and producer. He created over fifty dance- and physical theatre works, many of which were presented across Canada, and internationally. His writing has been published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, Studies in Theatre and Performance and Theatre Topics. His first book, Acting Queer: Gender Dissidence and the Subversion of Realism, was published by Palgrave in February 2020. Tanja Beer is an ecoscenographer and community artist who is passionate about co-creating social gathering spaces that accentuate the interconnectedness of the more-than-human world. Originally trained as a performance designer and theatre maker, Tanja’s work increasingly crosses many disciplines, often collaborating with landscape architects, urban ecologists, horticulturists and placemakers to inspire communication and action on environmental issues. Her most celebrated project is The Living Stage: a global initiative that combines spatial design, horticulture and community engagement to create recyclable, biodegradable, biodiverse and edible event spaces. The Living Stage has been realized in Castlemaine, Cardiff, Glasgow, Armidale, New York and Melbourne, with outcomes of the work exhibited at the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space and the V&A in London. Tanja is currently a senior lecturer in design (spatial/interior) at Griffith University. Rachel Bowditch (PhD/Full Professor) is the director of graduate studies in the School of Film, Dance, and Theatre in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts overseeing eight graduate programs: MFA in Theatre for Youth, MFA in Dance, MFA in Directing, MFA in Performance, MFA in Dramatic Writing, and MFA in Interdisciplinary Digital Media as well as the PhD in Theatre for Youth and PhD in Theatre and Performance of the Americas. She was a fellow at the Harvard Mellon Institute for Performance Research in “Public Humanities,” in 2018 and was featured as one of the “Top 100 Creatives,” by Origins Magazine in 2015. She is a theatre director and author of three books, “On the Edge of Utopia: Performance and Ritual at Burning Man” (Seagull/University of Chicago Press 2010), “Performing Utopia” co-edited with Pegge Vissicaro (Seagull/University of Chicago Press 2018) and “Physical Dramaturgy: Perspectives from the Field” co-edited with Jeff Casazza and Annette Thornton (Routledge 2018). She is currently working on her fourth book under contract with Routledge about Richard Schechner’s performance workshop and Rasaboxes with Paula Murray Cole and Michele Minnick (expected publication 2020). Joan Lipkin is the Producing Artistic Director of That Uppity Theatre Company in St. Louis, Missouri where she founded the nationally acclaimed Alternate Currents/Direct Currents Series, The DisAbility Project, the Louies and Apple Pie. A strong proponent of collaboration, she also co-founded Women CenterStage! with the Center of Creative Arts, the Nadadada Festival at The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Democracy on Stage with the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Mid-Sized Arts Cooperative. A playwright, director, activist, educator, and social critic, her award-winning work has been featured on network television, National Public Radio, the BBC and the Associated Press. Her work has been published and presented throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Europe, Australia and Asia. She was an Artist-in-Residence at Washington University for five years and served on the faculty of the Community Arts Training Institute for three years. David Vivian, MFA, ENTC/NTSC, is the scenographer in the Department of Dramatic Arts at Brock University, and Director of Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. Formerly with Concordia University in Montreal, his designs for theatre, film, television and industry have been seen across Canada. His work at Brock has included the set and costume designs for the Mainstage productions since 2004. He teaches theatrical design, production and stagecraft at Brock. David researches marginalized and virtual spaces through visual arts and theatre design, the application of digital technologies to the collection of performance ephemera and regional identity construction and transmission through scenographic practice and research. Discount code available on the Routledge website: enter the code FLR40 at checkout: https://www.routledge.com/Theatre-Ped...