This roundtable discussion marks a collaboration between the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and The Victorian College of the Arts (University of Melbourne) as part of the British Council’s UK Australia season.

Springing from the staging of the UK premiere of Australian playwright Lachlan Philpott’s play promiscuous/cities as part of the Season, the roundtable brings together queer performance makers to talk about what preoccupies queer performance at this moment and how queer performance responds to current pressing issues. The discussion will then zone in on how queer performance sits within the training of performers.

The roots of queer performance are present in the non-conformist, the antinormative and the anti-institutional. Despite these resistances, queer performance has found a strong concentration within the academy and is increasingly present in performer training. This discussion looks at this paradoxical homing, asking if it is a process of ‘domesticating’ queer performance by wrapping it into frameworks of learning and training.

Roundtable Participants

Professor Alyson Campbell – Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. Director promiscuous/cities.

Dr Stephen Farrier – The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Reader in Theatre and Performance

Dr Nando Messias – performer and Lecturer, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Dr Vanessa Macaulay – performer and Lecturer, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Meta Cohen – PhD candidate, Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. Composer and dramaturg, promiscuous/cities.

Amelia Cavallo – PhD candidate, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, co-founder of Quiplash and exceptionally attractive Drag King.