Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival 2014

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Staging Beckett: Constructing Performance Histories

University of Reading · Inaugural Conference, 4-5 April 2014

4-5 April 2014, Minghella Building, University of Reading, Whiteknights Campus.
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Staging Beckett's Inaugural Conference on 4th - 5th April 2014 will focus on the history, documentation and analysis of Beckett's theatre in performance in the UK, Ireland and internationally.

Staging Beckett: The Impact of Productions of Samuel Beckett's Plays in the UK and Ireland is an AHRC-funded project which runs from 2012-2015. It is a collaboration between the Universities of Reading and Chester and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The project is compiling a database of all professional productions of Beckett's plays in the UK and Ireland, with accompanying research resources. The project's conferences are: Staging Beckett: Constructing Performance Histories (Reading April 4-5, 2014), Staging Beckett in the Regions (Chester, 11-12 September, 2014), and Samuel Beckett and Contemporary Theatre Cultures (Reading, April 2015).

Staging Beckett blog: http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/staging-beckett/

Staging Beckett: Constructing Performance Histories features papers on productions of Beckett from across the globe, including Belgium, Brazil, Hungary, India, Ireland, Mexico, Poland, Turkey, the United States and the UK. Topics will cover Beckett and stage design, Beckett's theatrical intersections with Pinter and with Shakespeare, staging Beckett in situations of censorship, or crisis and resistance from besieged Sarajevo to the Occupy movement in Zuccotti Park New York, staging Beckett beyond the theatrical frame, and performance histories and perspectives.

Registration fee: £50 per day waged; £30 per day students, seniors and unwaged.

Keynote Lecture: 'Beckett and the Non-Place in Irish Performance', Professor Brian Singleton, Trinity College Dublin, Friday 4th April, 2.30pm

Practitioners' Panel: 'Staging Beckett Now': Saturday 5th April, 3pm.

• Natalie Abrahami (director of Happy Days, starring Juliet Stevenson at the Young Vic, London, Feb-March 2014)
• Lisa Dwan (recent performances of Not I / Footfalls / Rockaby at the Royal Court and Duchess Theatre, London, on tour during 2014)
• Sarah Jane Scaife (director of site specific performances of Act Without Words II and Rough for Theatre 1 in Dublin (2013), Limerick, London and New York).

The Staging Beckett Research Team: Matthew McFrederick (Reading), Anna McMullan (Reading), Patricia McTighe (Reading), David Pattie (Chester), Graham Saunders (Reading), David Tucker (Chester).

Provisional Schedule

Friday April 4th

9.00-10.15 Tea / Coffee and Registration

10.15-10.30 Welcome (Professor James Knowlson) and Introduction

10.30-12.00 Panel 1: Historical Intersections

• Raquel Merino Alvarez 'Staging Beckett on Spanish censored stages: 1955-1976'
• Paulo Henrique Da Silva Gregorio 'Beckett and the Shakespeare Revolution in the 1960s'
• David Tucker 'That first last look in the shadows': Using Performance Histories of Beckett and Pinter'

12.00-12.15 Tea / Coffee

12.15 - 1.45 Panel 2: Staging Beckett Globally 1

• Priyanka Chatterjee 'Staging Beckett in Bengal: Revisiting History and Art'
• Burç Dincel '"They…To Play": A Turkish Take On Beckett'
• Brendan McCall and E. K. McFall, 'Staging Krapp's Last Tape in Turkey, Western Australia and Norway'

1.45 - 2.30 Lunch (served in the Minghella Foyer)

2.30 - 3.30 Keynote Lecture, Professor Brian Singleton, 'Beckett and the Non-Place in Irish Performance'

3.30 - 4.00 Tea / coffee

4.00-5.30 Panel 3: Beyond the Theatrical Frame

• Luz María Sánchez Cardona, 'Beckett, the electronic medium of radio, and Krapp's Last Tape'
• Brenda Farrell, 'Culture Shock: (Re) Staging Beckett in caves and car parks'
• Lisa FitzGerald 'Coming out of the Dark: Performing Place in Pan Pan's Production of Beckett's All that Fall'

5.30 -7.00 Book launch and wine reception (served in the Minghella) 

• Patricia McTighe, The Haptic Aesthetic in Samuel Beckett's Drama, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013
• David Tucker, A Dream and its Legacies: The Samuel Beckett Theatre Project, Oxford c. 1967-76, Oxford: Colin Smythe, 2013.

8pm Dinner: Pepe Sale, 3, Queen's Walk, Reading city centre (£27.50pp): http://www.pepesale.co.uk

Saturday April 5th

8.30-9.00 Tea / Coffee and day registration

9.00-10.30 Panel 4: Staging Beckett Globally 2

• Robson Corrêa de Camargo 'Playing Beckett in Brazil'
• Anita Rákóczy 'Godots That Arrived: Waiting for Godot In Budapest Before and After 1989'.
• Ewa Brzeska 'Violating Becketts' Prescriptions For Theatre in Poland'

10.30-10.45: Tea / Coffee

10.45-12.15: Panel 5 Staging Beckett and Survival / Resistance

• Thomas Saunders 'Ownership and orphaned Irish identity in Susan Sontag's staging of Waiting for Godot'
• Arthur Rose 'Developing Beckett in New Orleans'
• Lance Duerfahrd 'An Unprotesting Play within a Protest: Waiting for Godot in Zuccotti Park'

12.15-12.30 Tea / Coffee

12.30-2.00 Panel 6: Designing Beckett

• Sophie Jump, 'Physicalising the Text: Jocelyn Herbert and Samuel Beckett'
• Anna McMullan 'Beckett and Irish Scenography'
• Trish McTighe 'The Tree at the Gate: Beckett and Le Brocquy'

2.00-3.00: Lunch (served in the Minghella Foyer)

3.00-4.15 Practitioner Panel: Staging Beckett Now

• Natalie Abrahami (director of Happy Days, starring Juliet Stevenson at the Young Vic, London, Feb-March 2014)
• Lisa Dwan (recent performances of Not I / Footfalls / Rockaby at the Royal Court and Duchess Theatre, London, on tour during 2014)
• Sarah Jane Scaife (director of site specific performances of Act Without Words II and Rough for Theatre 1 in Dublin (2013), Limerick, London and New York)

4.15-4.30 Tea / Coffee

4.30-6.00 Panel 7: Performance Histories and Perspectives

• Kate Dorney, 'Beckett in the Frame: a visual history of productions documented at the Victoria & Albert Museum'
• Matthew McFrederick 'Staging Beckett at the Royal Court Theatre'
• Nicholas Johnson and Jonathan Heron 'The Performance Issue'

6-7pm Launch of Journal Of Beckett Studies special issue on Performance, and closing of conference.

Beckett and Contemporary Art: Make Sense Who May

Derval Tubridy to appear at this year's Edinburgh International Festival

Derval Tubridy, Goldsmiths, University of London, explores the vibrant interplay between Samuel Beckett’s work and contemporary art with a particular focus on bodies and technology.

Chaired by Octavian Saiu.

Date and Time: 28 August 2013, 2.30pm.
Tickets: £6
Duration: 1 hour approximately
Venue: The Hub
Series: Beckett at the Festival [Source]

Samuel Beckett Chess Set

Unique set of sculptures by Fermanagh artist Alan Milligan

Alan Milligan's chess set, based on the works of Samuel Beckett

From the Fermanagh Herald:

The world premiere of the Beckett Chess set by artist Alan Milligan, finished up this week.

The exhibition ran from Saturday June 15, until Friday June 21 at the old regal cinema, the Unionist Hall, Enniskillen.

The 32 chess pieces have been inspired from the characters and props of Irish Nobel Prize writer, and former Portora student, Samuel Beckett.

The pieces were created in bronze by local Fermanagh sculptor Alan Milligan, the piece of artwork was commissioned by Sean Doran, artistic director of the Happy-Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival which takes place between August 22 and August 26. [Read More]

via apieceofmonologue.com

Daniel Domig: Clay Animation Project

A video experiment

Simon Larsen has kindly drawn my attention to this experimental video animation, based on an extract from Samuel Beckett's Malone Dies. It is a test by Austrian/American artist Daniel Domig, who is developing a series of works based on Beckett's Texts for Nothing. The spoken word element of the video is provided by the late Jack MacGowran. You can find out more about the artist and his work at currentlynowhere.com.

via apieceofmonologue.com