Theatre, Performance and Cognition: Languages, Bodies and Ecologies

About the Author Nicola Shaughnessy is Professor of Performance at the University of Kent. She is Director of the Research Centre for Cognition, Kinesthetics and Performance and is leading the AHRC funded project 'Imagining Autism.'She is the author of Applying Performance (2012), Gertrude Stein (2007) and co-editor of Margaret Woffington (2008).Professor John Lutterbie is Chair of the Departments of Art and of Theatre Arts at Stony Brook University, USA, and is on the board of directors of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. Product Description Theatre, Performance and Cognition introduces readers to the key debates, areas of research, and applications of the cognitive sciences to the humanities, and to theatre and performance in particular. It features the most exciting work being done at the intersection of theatre and cognitive science, containing both selected scientific studies that have been influential in the field, each introduced and contextualised by the editors, together with related scholarship from the field of theatre and performance that demonstrates some of the applications of the cognitive sciences to actor training, the rehearsal room and the realm of performance more generally.The three sections consider the principal areas of research and application in this interdisciplinary field, starting with a focus on language and meaning-making in which Shakespeare's work and Tom Stoppard's Arcadia are considered. In the second part which focuses on the body, chapters consider applications for actor and dance training, while the third part focuses on dynamic ecologies, of which the body is a part. Review “The three concepts addressed in this volume are central, contested, and used in significantly different ways in the humanities, neuroscience and psychology. Through presenting essays that use the term and then inviting someone more familiar with the sciences, this book challenges preconceptions about how terms are used and serve as a means of improving the quality of communication between disciplines.” ―John Lutterbie, Stony Brook University, USA“In their excellent edited collection Rhonda Blair and Amy Cook highlight the evolving and broadening interest in cognitive science (a field that includes neuroscience, psychology, cognitive linguistics, and philosophy) by scholars and practitioners of performance … their book demonstrates how rich and varied this interdisciplinary research has become over the twenty years since it first emerged … one of the strengths of this collection is its demonstration that theatre, dance, and performance studies offer essential insights to the sciences of the mind by analyzing perception, movement, and action in their material, social, and cultural environments.” –Theatre Journal“Appealing to readers from diverse disciplines, the collection is for those beginning to explore the rich terrain of the cognitive humanities.” –Theatre Survey“Editors Rhonda Blair and Amy Cook bring together a diverse collection of essays that serve three different audiences: theatre and performance scholars, performance practitioners, and scientists … Blair and Cook make obvious the symbiotic potential of questions asked in two seemingly divergent fields … Theatre, Performance and Cognition serves the field by providing concrete actions for practicing artists, an excellent starting point for established scholars and students, and a robust exploration of the intersections of cognitive science and theatre/performance. Further, this useful co-edited study establishes alternative methods of understanding fundamental questions within the fields of theatre, performance, and dance.” - Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism