Theatre Aurality [Hardcover]

This book explores the critical field of theatre sound and the sonic phenomena of theatre. It draws together a wide range of related topics, including sound design and sonic sonographies, voice as a performance of sound, listening as auditory performance, and audience as resonance. It explores radical forms of sonic performance and our engagement in it, from the creation of sonic subjectivities to noise as a politics of sound. The introductory chapters trace the innate aurality of theatre and the history of sound effects and design, while also interrogating why the art of theatre sound was delayed and underrepresented in philosophy as well as theatre and performance theory. Subsequent chapters explore the emergence of aurally engaged theatre practice and focus on examples of contemporary sound in and as theatre, including theatre in the dark, headphone theatre and immersive theatre, amongst others, through theories of perception and philosophies of listening, vocality, sonority and noise.Contemporary theatre practice is currently fuelled by a surge of interest in auditory experiences, the rise of sonic-led directorial practices and the immersive possibilities of sonic technologies. This book is a timely response to a number of these significant shifts in theatre making and performance, taking as its subject the discursive and material fields of aurality.Introduction.- 1.?Aurality.- 2.?Theatre aurality: beginnings.- 3.?Listening: headphone theatre and auditory performance.- 4.?Voice: a performance of sound.- 5.?Noise: a politics of sound.- 6.?Listening: sonority and subjectivity.-?Conclusion?& and sound.-?References.- Index.-

Lynne Kendrick is Senior Lecturer in New Theatre Practices at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, UK. Her publications include: Aural visions: sonic spectatorship in the dark in Theatre in the Dark: Shadow, Gloom and Blackout in Contemporary Theatre?(2017), AuralitelÓ+