The Performing Body Lecture Consider ~ How the body creates meaning onstage The body is never neutral it is always a signifier of gender, sexuality, social identity, ethnicity, able bodiedness all of which are ideological. Identities onstage always mean something to an audience and the body can signify multiple models and versions of the self in relation to power, theatrical techniques. The Natural Body The body is never natural it is inherently political, as the body and how we see it is historically dependant and the view of bodies is dependant on the historical ideology of the time. This ideological stance on the natural body places people in relation to the ideal changing power dynamics. Some body types are considered more human and more desirable than others, changing the notion of ourself to fit within the times ideology and these inform our engagement with bodies on and off stage. On Stage The choice of casting is also inherently political as it changes the audience's views on a character. Gender neutral casting, the casting of different race and disabled cast changes the ideal onstage and dramatically changes the dynamic of the whole play. Brain Eleavery 'Origin of the Species' the protagonist Molly (archeologist) and the play is based around an archeological dig finding the first man, however she finds the first woman and then continues to discover that it was women not men, who discovered fire and its uses. Here we have challenges on society based on the change of identity of a formally well known fact. While the play changes from patriarchy to matriarchy but upholds the white colonialist ideology Examine what bodies on stage are they for meaning and how bodies on stage that seem natural is all controlled and to prove to an audience how unnatural these assumptions are. Renè Descarte ~ 'I Think therefore, I am'
Political Bodies ~ Michel Foucault Research Political Technology of the Body ~ A mastery of the body and an ability to control it to your own advantage. Power of body language allows you to be identified from afar such as a solider with straight back, confident posture. This is a body which creates political power as opposed to possesses it. The body and how it is used can create or destroy own own power as well as conveying it to an audience during a performance. Knowledge of the Body ~ fields of individuality that you aren't conscious of e.g.sexuality, gender ect. Can be based upon background ect. Different areas of knowledge based upon assumption and ideology as opposed to scientific fact. Epistemology ~ Theory of knowledge, greek term understanding how and why do we know things as well as the contraction of knowledge. However bodies in these situations are also under power with regulations and obligations for example the solider again had to learn his proud posture and strong stance to increase his perceived power. This was achieved by not training the body all at once but in sections exercising upon