Bruce A McConachie - Routledge companion to theatre, performance, and cognitive science.

THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO THEATRE, PERFORMANCE, AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE

Edited by Rick Kemp and Bruce McConachie

First published 2019

by Routledge

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2019 selection and editorial matter, Rick Kemp and Bruce McConachie; individual chapters, the contributors

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ISBN: 978-1-138-04889-8 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-16992-7 (ebk)

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This book is dedicated to our students

The Routledge Companion to Theatre, Performance and Cognitive Science integrates key findings from the cognitive sciences (cognitive psychology, neuroscience, evolutionary studies and relevant social sciences) with insights from theatre and performance studies. This rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field dynamically advances critical and theoretical knowledge, as well as driving innovation in practice. The anthology includes 30 specially commissioned chapters, many written by authors who have been at the cutting-edge of research and practice in the field over the last 15 years. These authors offer many empirical answers to four significant questions:

• How can performances in theatre, dance and other media achieve more emotional and social impact?

• How can we become more adept teachers and learners of performance both within and outside of classrooms?

• What can the cognitive sciences reveal about the nature of drama and human nature in general?

• How can knowledge transfer, from a synthesis of science and performance, assist professionals such as nurses, care-givers, therapists and emergency workers in their jobs?

A wide-ranging and authoritative guide, The Routledge Companion to Theatre, Performance and Cognitive Science is an accessible tool for not only students, but practitioners and researchers in the arts and sciences as well.

Rick Kemp is Professor of Theatre and Head of Acting and Directing at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA. An actor, director and Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar on Neuroscience and Art, his publications include Embodied Acting: What Neuroscience Tells Us About Performance (2012) and The Routledge Companion to Jacques Lecoq (2016).

Bruce McConachie, Emeritus Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, has published widely in theatre history and cognitive studies. His scholarship includes Engaging Audiences (2008), Evolution, Cognition, and Performance (2015) and chapters in Theatre Histories: An Introduction (3rd edition, 2016). A former president of the American Society for Theatre Research, McConachie also acts and directs.

THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO PUPPETRY AND MATERIAL PERFORMANCE

Edited by Dassia N. Posner, Claudia Orenstein, and John Bell

THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO DRAMATURGY

Edited by Magda Romanska

THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO COMMEDIA DELLARTE

Edited by Judith Chaffee and Olly Crick

THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO MICHAEL CHEKHOV

Edited by Marie Christine Autant Mathieu and Yana Meerzon

THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO JACQUES LECOQ

Edited by Mark Evans and Rick Kemp

THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO SCENOGRAPHY

Edited by Arnold Aronson

THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO ADAPTATION

Edited by Dennis Cutchins

THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO BUTOH PERFORMANCE

Edited by Bruce Baird and Rosemary Candelario

THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO THEATRE, PERFORMANCE, AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE

Edited by Rick Kemp and Bruce McConachie

For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/handbooks/products/SCAR30

Ana Margarida Abrantes studied German and English at the Universities of Aveiro, Essen and Innsbruck. She completed her masters degree in cognitive linguistics in 2001, with a dissertation on the semantic and pragmatic dimensions of euphemism in the press. In 2008, she received her doctoral degree in German language and literature from the Catholic University of Portugal, with a thesis on a cognitive poetic approach to selected works by Peter Weiss. Between 2006 and 2009, she was visiting scholar at the Center for Semiotics of Aarhus University and at the Department of Cognitive Science of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, USA. In 2006, she joined the Research Center for Communication and Culture Studies at the Catholic University of Portugal in Lisbon, where she is currently senior researcher in the research line Culture, Translation and Cognition. She is Professor of Languages and Linguistics at the same university. Her publications include Meaning and Mind. A Cognitive Approach to Peter Weiss Prose Work (2010) and Cognition and Culture. An Interdisciplinary Dialogue (co-edited with Peter Hanenberg, 2011).

Rhonda Blair is Professor of Theatre at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Publications include Theatre, Performance and Cognition: Languages, Bodies and Ecologies (2016, co-edited with Amy Cook); The Actor, Image, and Action: Acting and Cognitive Neuroscience (2008); editing an edition of Richard Boleslavskys Acting: The First Six Lessons that includes documents from the American Laboratory Theatre (2010); articles in the anthologies Affective Performance and Cognitive Science, Routledge Companion to Stanislavsky, and Performance and Cognition: Theatre Studies and the Cognitive Turn, and in the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Theatre Survey, TDR: The Drama Review, and Theatre Topics among others. Board member, Centre for Kinesthetics, Cognition and Performance. Editorial board member, JDTC, Theatre Topics, and Theatre, Dance and Performance Training. She has keynoted or given featured talks on applications of cognitive science to acting, theatre and performance in Paris, Rome, Kent, Wroclaw and Zurich, as well as in various U.S. cities. She directs and creates performances pieces. She was President of the American Society for Theatre Research, 20092012.