Third-year doctoral researchers, Anna-Helena McLean and Sandeep Gurrapadi bring their insider experiences as international, multi-disciplinary practitioners to this Researchworks.

Unpacking the role of Identity in their unique practices, the presentation runs in two parts. A film and some practical exercises culminate in a conversation about voice work as a narrative tool for facilitating collective experiences of identity.

Part 1: The ACT-ing Voice (Anna-Helena McLean, Guildhall School)

In establishing her own professional identity (ACT INTERNATIONAL Practice and Workshops) after 7-years as principal of a seminal experimental anthropological theatre in Poland (Gardzienice), Anna-Helena came to research to interrogate what it might mean to ‘feminise’ the male-dominated post-Grotowskian canon in which she was trained. Opening with a film captured during a professional workshop (August 2022), the presentation analyses how feminist theoretical frameworks (Braidotti, Magnat, Peck) might help ‘give voice’ to formerly underwritten, side-lined and silenced (practice-based) knowledge and innovation – and specifically in the field of laboratory theatre.

Part 2: Facilitating in the Third-Space (Sandeep Gurrapadi, Guildhall School)

Sandeep’s research investigates the role of a western community music facilitator within an Indian metropolitan and institutional context – and considers the post-colonial implications, relevancy and ‘novelty’ of such endeavors. The research situates itself within the larger framework of third space theory (Homi K. Bhabha, 1990) and also delves into the context/implications of institutional collaborations between UK conservatoires and Indian musical institutions. In this presentation, Sandeep will offer his findings of working at the cross roads of community music and devised theatre facilitation in India, and will then discuss the challenges and differentiations of following the ideals of ‘UK Community music’ within an Indian institutional context.