In the middle of last year when we were considering how best to celebrate 10 years of TDPT, we focused in on the idea of 10 free-to-access articles representing the last decade of the journal’s activity: A Desert Island Discs, or Training Top Ten.
That was before the profound changes brought about by the global pandemic, an event which seems to have carved history into two: BEFORE and AFTER. Then, in the blissful period of BEFORE, we had no idea how precious online resources would be, how far the digital space would become home for so many of us, so quickly and involuntarily.
Now in the deeply unsettling and unknown period of AFTER, this selective retrospective of the Journal’s activity since 2010, joins an unprecedented landscape of free digital resources and innovative online endeavour gifted to the world. In our selection, editors, Libby and Jonathan have tried to represent the international and intellectual diversity which has characterised contributions to TDPT from the very beginning. In doing so, we have had to leave out the vast majority of the excellent contributions we have published over the years. What we offer here, then, is a snapshot of TDPT’s sizeable intervention into the field of Performer Training, one produced in what now seems a different world. If you can, please read every one of the free to access articles, and engage with us and the authors, in the comments box on the blog. Why not start, where it all began in 2010, with Marijke Hoogenboom’s, ‘Building with Blocks’ article? Her final words, turning Kafka on its head, are more pertinent than ever: ‘We are here, so there is hope’.
By Jonathan Pitches
A number of the authors of these articles are writing reflections on their work from their current perspective. These will be posted on this Blog in the coming weeks. The first of these is Roanna Mitchell’s reflection on her 2014 article, ‘Seen But Not Heard’, ”Seen But Not Heard’: Some thoughts on the actor’s aesthetic labour six years on.’
The Full list of Free-to Access Articles are:
2010 (1.1): ‘Building with Blocks‘ by Marijke Hoogenboom
2011 (2.2): Locating the Self: Narratives and Practices of Authenticity in French Clown Training by Laura Purcell Gates
2012 (3.2): From sweat and Tears by Seppo Kumpulainen
2013 (2.2): ‘A new kind of conversation’: Michael Chekhov’s ‘turn to the crafts’ by Tom Cornford
2014 (5.3): An embodied account of the (student) actor’s aesthetic labour by Roanna Mitchell
2015 (6.1): Transnational pedagogy of classical dance: politics of ideology between Bangladesh and India by Munjulika Rahman
2016 (7.1): A Brazilian pedagogical project by Ivam Cabral & Rodolfo García Vázquez
2017 (8.3): Exploring psychological wellbeing in acting training: an Australian interview study Alison E. Robb & Clemence Due
2018 (9.1): Theatre training and performance as gender mainstreaming strategies in Zimbabwe by Nkululeko Sibanda
2019 (9.2): Designing performer training: digital encounters with things and people Göze Saner & Scott Robinson