Book Launch: Queer Dramaturgies, International Perspectives on Where Performance Leads Queer.

QUEER SHIFTS, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama’s occasional seminar series exploring queer performance, in association with Theatre Workings, is pleased to present the launch of an innovative edited collection focusing on queer performance practice. Please join us for a chaired discussion between co-editors Alyson Campbell and Stephen Farrier, with input from contributors to the volume, about the development of the field and the interventions that the book Queer Dramaturgies makes into the area.

Queer Dramaturgies is an international collection that gathers together groundbreaking work on queer dramaturgies from new and established voices. Starting from the premise that live performance is experienced in a material, local context, the contributions analyse the intricate and complex workings of queer dramaturgy within specific venues, cities, nations or transnationally. The volume deliberates what it is that makes a dramaturgy queer, suggesting it is a weave that is more to do with the self-identity of the maker, the venue and wider context it takes place in, and the relationship with its audience, than simply its content and form. Dramaturgy, by its nature, is concerned with the relationship of an aesthetic work to its socio-political context, and the book’s access to work taking place beyond the UK-US axis so dominant in writings on queer – including Lebanon, Turkey, Singapore and South Africa – opens up vital questions about what constitutes as queer, when and where.