CfP: TDPT Special Issue, 17.3: Re-envisioning the Theatre Laboratory and Training in the 21st Century

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Call for contributions, ideas, proposals and dialogue with the editors
Special Issue 17.3: Re-envisioning the Theatre Laboratory and Training in the 21st Century
to be published in September 2026

Guest Editors
Dr Patrick Campbell (Manchester Metropolitan University / p.campbell@mmu.ac.uk)
Professor Adam Ledger (Birmingham University / a.j.ledger@bham.ac.uk)
Dr Jane Turner (Independent Researcher) / j.turner.res@gmail.com

Overview 
This special edition of TDPT seeks to explore an expanded notion of theatre laboratory praxis, revisiting traditional notions of training in the light of ongoing sociopolitical, economic changes and practical challenges. In a post-pandemic world, rocked by war, financial crisis and the insidious rise of mediatised neoliberalism, the theatre laboratory community is currently in a state of flux: the time and energy taken to develop a laboratory practice increasingly seems both an anachronism and a financial and logistic impossibility for many. Thus, we wish to interrogate the theatre laboratory as an historical notion, and in terms of its  contemporary valency as both a paradigm within the performing arts and a transnational community of group theatre practitioners united by a shared set of values and an ethics of practice. 

This issue will examine contemporary theatre laboratory practices from a range of diverse, situated perspectives, drawing on the experiences of artists, scholars and practitioner researchers from diverse geopolitical contexts. Contributors will come from a wide range of performance disciplines such as actor training; theatre; critical pedagogy; opera; studio practice; circus; and dance.

A key question is the extent to which organisations that were formally recognised as theatre laboratories are, were or have become what might be described as ‘cultures of practice’ or  ‘communities of practice’? Our concern here is to explore what is meant by an expanded notion of training/practice, especially in contemporary terms. Whereas training has traditionally been considered an introspective praxis, focussing on the individual body and/or the body of the group, an expanded laboratory might be identified as one that faces outwards. Following tenets such as those described as ‘cultural action’ (from Freire, 1970), training may be a space that is able to shift continually according to the needs of communities and groups of spectators. 

Despite current uncertainties, the theatre laboratory ethos of training and making theatre – a ‘culture of practice’ – has been dominant for more than sixty years in Europe and Latin America, and to an extent in North America. As an investigative approach, it has been a central tenet of western theatre practice  that emerged over the course of the twentieth century from the Russian ‘studios’ of Konstantin Stanislavski and Vsevolod Meyerhold. As a key paradigm of contemporary theatre, theatre laboratory practices have been responsible for the innovative, investigative drive within the wider field of the performing arts. Since the 1960s in particular, the term has encompassed independent, radical practices of creative investigation, training, and an ethics of personal and collective development, thanks to the work of international groups who inflected theatre craft to foreground aesthetic inquiry, formal experimentation and social engagement. 

In the light of contemporary pressures, is an ‘older’ vision of the theatre laboratory a romantic notion that no longer has traction? Training regimes such as those offered by the schools and centres of Lecoq and Grotowski, for example, provided in-depth training in a performance practice, yet the notion that an individual might spend decades ‘training’ in a single ‘tradition’ seems now to have become obsolete, and a luxury that cannot be afforded. Instead, the sometimes criticised ‘pick and mix’ approach to training derived from participating in a wide range of ‘workshop’ experiences is, perhaps pragmatically, the chosen pathway for many performers. In some Latin American contexts, for instance, as well as elsewhere, many people’s first experience of training arises in a workshop setting, where other artists teach their particular approach to the actor/performer’s craft. At the same time, this may risk training becoming the adoption of techniques, rather than an embodied ethos.

A number of social and cultural shifts furthermore lead us to question the relevance of laboratory training. Key practitioners are also ageing and/or have been forced to leave their historical institutional bases. Younger generations are questioning older models based on top-down hierarchies, disciplinary training regimes and epistemic paradigms predicated on the primacy of the Global North (see Alonso-Aude, 2022; La Selva, et. al. 2021; Turner and Campbell, 2021). 

Now is a fertile moment to ask some challenging questions regarding this field, communty or culture of practice. We invite proposals for articles, manifestos, provocations and artist pages that challenge or extend ideas around the theatre laboratory. Potential topics may include but are not limited to:

  • Emerging praxical paradigms within the theatre laboratory, in relation to training, dramaturgy and cultural action;
  • The elision between training and pedagogy in the theatre laboratory tradition;
  • The cultural material factors underpinning theatre laboratory practice and production;
  • ‘Social laboratories’ and their link to the theatre laboratory as paradigm;
  • Digital approaches to theatre laboratory practice, foregrounding film, mixed reality and archival practices;
  • Immediacy, sustainability and legacy in relation to contemporary theatre laboratory practices;
  • The hidden histories of theatre laboratory practice: moving beyond canonically proper names whilst charting the work of groups operating prior to the internet;
  • Contemporary British theatre laboratories;
  • Interfaces between the theatre laboratory tradition, practice-research and Higher Education;
  • Beyond the guru: horizontal approaches to training and making within the theatre laboratory tradition;
  • The episto-ontological ramifications of laboratory theatre training in relation to interculturalism, digital media and academic research;
  • The festival circuit as an alternative territory for theatre laboratory practice;
  • Decolonising the theatre laboratory; 
  • Objectivity, subjectivity and self-reflection in theatre laboratory practices;
  • Translating/transforming historical theatre laboratory practices;
  • Autodidactism, eclecticism and tradition within theatre laboratory training.

A key interest here is changed environments, provoking an expansion of theatre laboratory practices into social, digital and pedagogical contexts, including HE. This may relate to notions of dilution, intensification or accessibility for participants, as well as economic factors and sustainability, and tensions between iImmediacy and investment over time. What do we mean, now, by the notion of research or investigation within this field, a consideration that folds back into a scholarly approach to practice and PR in academia?

Submissions
We are especially interested in contributions from practitioners and artists, and contributions that emerge through co-authorship and collaboration.

To signal your intention to make a contribution to this special issue in any one of the ways identified above please email an abstract (max 250 words) to:
Patrick Campbell: p.campbell@mmu.ac.uk; Adam Ledger: a.j.ledger@bham.ac.uk; Jane Turner: j.turner.res@gmail.com  
Training Grounds proposals are to be made to Thomas Wilson: Thomas.Wilson@bruford.ac.uk

Our deadline for these abstracts is 22 August 2025

Theatre, Dance and Performance Training has three sections:

  • “Articles” features contributions in a range of critical and scholarly formats (approx. 5,000-6,500 words)
  • “Sources” provides an outlet for the documentation and analysis of primary materials of performer training. We are particularly keen to receive material that documents the histories and contemporary practices associated with the issue’s theme.
  • “Training Grounds” hosts shorter pieces, which are not peer reviewed, including essais (more speculative pieces up to 1500 words); postcards (up to 100 words); visual essays and scores; Speaking Images (short texts responding to a photo, drawing, visual score, etc.); and book or event reviews. We welcome a wide range of different proposals for contributions including edited interviews and previously unpublished archive or source material. We also welcome suggestions for recent books on the theme to be reviewed; or for foundational texts to be re-reviewed.


Innovative cross-over print/digital formats are possible, including the submission of audiovisual training materials, which can be housed on the online interactive Theatre, Dance and Performance Training journal blog: https://theatredanceperformancetraining.org/.

Issue Schedule:

22 August 2025: proposals to be submitted.

Mid August – October 2025: Response from editors and, if successful, invitation to submit contribution

Early November to end January 2026: writing/preparation period

End January to end March 2026: peer review period

March – May 2026: author revisions post peer review

May – August 2026: Proofing, corrections and final editing.

September 2026: publication as Issue 16.3

About Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (TDPT)

Special Issues of Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (TDPT) are an essential part of its offer and complement the open issues in each volume. TDPT is an international academic journal devoted to all aspects of ‘training’ (broadly defined) within the performing arts. It was founded in 2010 and launched its own blog in 2015. Our target readership comprises scholars and the many varieties of professional performers, makers, choreographers, directors, dramaturgs and composers working in theatre, dance, performance and live art who have an interest in the practices of training. TDPT’s co-editors are James McLaughlin (University of Greenwich) and Sarah Weston (Queens University Belfast).

References

Alonso-Aude, L. (2022) Corpo Zero: Energia e Presença na Construção do Corpo Teatral. Sao Paulo: Giostri.

Campbell, P., La Selva, A., Maciel, A. & Nie, M. (2021) ‘Cross Pollination’s Nomadic Laboratory: a praxis in-between practices.’ Brazilian Journal on Presence Studies, vol. 11, no.4, https://www.scielo.br/j/rbep/a/mrTzXXYk9b5spFtQpGtnNvm/?lang=en

Freire, P. (2000 [1970]) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Trans. M. Bergman Ramos. London: Continuum.

Turner, J. and Campbell, P. (2021) A Poetics of Third Theatre: Performer Training, Dramaturgy, Cultural Action. Abingdon: Routledge.