Environmental Theater

Interaction and participation in performance have a significant historical precedent – one which is often missed in contemporary analysis. Although current practices can be traced through a lineage dating back at least until the 1960s, there does not seem to be much recognition of this in recent literature. For example: although Punchdrunk’s form of multi-spatial performance can be traced as least as far as The Performance Group’s experiments in Environmental Theatre, and experienced a renaissance in North America in the 1980s (leading Charles Deemer to coin the description ‘hyperdrama’), you would be hard pressed to discover this in most discussions of Punchdrunk or their format.

However, many of the questions regarding contemporary participatory practices – such as responsibility and ethics (Gaines, 2015; White, 2013), agency (Breel, 2015), and power relationships between audience and performer (Fletcher-Watson, 2015; Chinyowa, 2015) – can be recognised in their 20th Century counterparts. While the history of Happenings, Environmental Theatre, site-specific performance and now immersive and participatory performance may be well documented, there is room for further consideration of how the practical lessons of the past may inform ongoing understanding of contemporary work.

This paper examines The Performance Group’s experiments in the 1960s in relation to ongoing discussions of ethics, responsibility, and power relations in participatory performance. Through examining TPG’s struggles to reconcile participatory practices with their own artistic desires – and the sometimes extreme practical and psychological problems this led to – it offers something of a ‘how not-to’ for contemporary practice aiming to create successful and meaningful participatory performances.

Verdant grass fills a shopping cart pushed down a residential street. A leashed box of cacti is taken out for a walk. Moss in a glass dome rests on a human head. These images, conceived by contemporary performance and installation artist Vaughn Bell, uproot plants from their expected place-the store, the garden, the greenhouse, the windowsill-and reimagine them in motion. Bell's performance pieces feature plants "out of place"-plants on the move throughout busy urbanscapes, plants simultaneously rooted in soil and uprooted from fixed locations. Performing what I call "transplantment," Bell's pieces quite literally traverse the spatial demarcations of private/public, "nature"/culture, and plant/animal/human. 1 In motion or prepared for movement, the plants perform material crossings throughout the city that inspire theoretical crossings as well. Through the transplantment of plants and place, Bell both critiques the taxonomic marginalization of plants and performs an alternate ecology in which plants and people are inter-embodied. Reimagining their socio-spatial relationship to each other, Bell signals an innovative engagement between urban plants and people and, with it, a new form of interspecies performance.

Il libro documenta e racconta la parte conclusiva della tournée internazionale di uno degli spettacoli più innovativi e festivi della ricerca teatrale italiana: l’Orlando Furioso di Lodovico Ariosto nella riduzione di Edoardo Sanguineti per la regia di Luca Ronconi (Spoleto, Festival dei Due Mondi, luglio 1969). New York, che lo ospitò a partire dal 4 novembre del 1970, avrebbe dovuto essere il punto di partenza per una lunga tournée nelle principali città americane. Invece, fu il punto del suo ultimo compimento. Una pregiudiziale ricezione, dovuta a questioni soprattutto interne, legata alle lotte sindacali dei portuali contro le politiche culturali dell’amministrazione del sindaco John V. Lindsay, hanno compromesso la sopravvivenza di un’operazione teatrale di grande impegno produttivo. Dopo molte polemiche, la sede per l’Orlando fu individuata in Bryant Park, nel cuore di Manhattan. Una imponente tensostruttura (Bubble Theater) fu costruita appositamente e il debutto poté avere luogo. Lo spettacolo che meglio aveva incarnato il clima politico-culturale successivo al Sessantotto, applaudito a Parigi con il motto del Maggio francese, l’Orlando a New York mancò il suo pubblico. Le recensioni inizialmente negative, con una coordinata coda polemica sui giornali, resero tuttavia impossibile la sua sopravvivenza. Il gigante mostrò tutta la sua fragilità e una trionfale parabola dunque qui si chiuse. Grazie alla scoperta di tutta la documentazione, in gran parte inedita, è stato possibile ricostruire l’intera vicenda. Sono state ascoltate e qui raccolte le voci di chi allora c’era, per mostrare, in tutta questa storia materiale, la forza intatta di un’utopia possibile: quella di un teatro popolare ritrovato perché capace di mantenere in comune l’intero immaginario della sua festa. Un teatro vissuto e attivamente partecipato dallo spettatore, secondo la felice definizione di Luciano Berio, come una «polifonia di eventi per gente libera».

Looking deep through the history of theatre, we will see, many Ritual performative events such as celebrations, religious rites, and annual festivals were held in the outdoor found environment - in the street, private houses, or taverns. What is now called environmental theatre was once part of a long tradition that had its roots in the European medieval theatre and numerous examples of non-western, eastern theatres such as Persian passion theatre. Study on this non-theatrical environment and its connection with ritual and death ceremony in Persian Passion theatre is the main direction in this research paper.
In This study, all the second hand existed data and information about the research keywords had been gathered and analysed In the main body of discussion to answer these questions:
What are the origins of Persian Passion Theatre (Taaziyeh)? Is it coming from a funeral ceremony? What are the origins of space for this kind of ritual ceremony? Do these events have anything to do with rituals? What is the role of the environment in Persian Passion Theatre? Are there any cultural and social relationships between the space and people who are watching Taaziyeh every year?
Taaziyeh for the Iranian audience is part of ritual mourning where its audience standing in a circle of exchanging dynamic energy with performance. The effects of the environment to build up the cultural and social relationship between performance and audience in this ritual performance, have been discussed in the main body of this paper.
The case study for this research is Taaziyeh. This ritual traditional environmental theatre which has been performed for more than 1000 years is a good example to emphasise the relationship of ritual, environment, and performance.
In Taaziyeh, spectators explore the environment of performance as a social space. This found environment is part of their social environment. It could be in the street, in the street corner, or front of a mosque. The space of performance in Taaziyeh is defined originally by the action of performers and spectators. This natural environment is the very place where the social and cultural relationship between audience and performance is shaped.
This paper concludes by this fact that environmental theatre, receives its essence from a ritual ceremony that has been happened more than 1000 years ago in natural spaces.
Key words: Environmental theatre, Ritual, Death, Persian Passion Theatre