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Launching the landmark Performing Landscapes series, Performing Mountains brings together for the first time Mountain Studies and Performance Studies in order to examine an international selection of dramatic responses to mountain landscapes. Moving between different registers of writing, the book offers a critical assessment of how the cultural turn in landscape studies interacts with the practices of environmental theatre and performance. Conceived in three main parts, it begins by unpicking the layers of disciplinary complexity in both fields, before surveying the rich history and practice of rituals, playtexts and site specific works inspired by mountains. The last section moves to a unique analysis of mountains themselves using key concepts from performance: training, scenography, acting and spectatorship. Threaded throughout is a very personal tale of mountain research, offering a handrail or alternative guide through the book.
List of contents
1. Handrail 1: Beginnings: Pavey Ark and Harrison Stickle (W#1 and 2/214).- 2. Part 1: Mountain Studies meets Performance.- 3. Part 2: Mountains in Ritual, Drama and Site-related Performance.- 4. Handrail 2: Little Rituals: Bowfell (W#9/214).- 5. Part 2.1: Mountain Rituals.- 6. Handrail 3: Narrative paths: The Fairfield Horseshoe (W#18-25/214).- 7. Part 2.2: Mountain Drama.- 8. Handrail 4: Site, light and a dark memory put to rest: Barrow and Outerside (W#41-42/214).- 9. Part 2.3: Mountain Site-related Performance.- 10. Handrail 5: Stepping up, training and a new urgency: Skiddaw and its neighbours (W#135-140/214).- 11. Part 3.1: Mountains in Microcosm: The Artistry of Training in the Studio and on the Wall.- 12. Part 3.2: Skywalk scenography: stage-managing fear and delight in mountain.- 13. Part 3.3: From Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn: Deep and Dark Play in the Alps.- 14. General Conclusion.- 15. Handrail 6: Endings: Pillar (W#214)
About the author
Jonathan Pitches is Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Leeds, UK, and specialises in environmental performance, performer training and blended learning. He is a keen hill walker and completed the Wainwright challenge of climbing 214 summits in the Lake District along with his family in 2018.
Report
"There is much in this book, and indeed the Performing Landscapes series, that is crying out for further ecocritical discussion." (Terry Gifford, Green Letters, February 21, 2021)
