This is the first textbook designed for students, practitioners and
scholars of the performing arts who are curious about the power of the
cognitive sciences to throw light on the processes of performance. It
equips readers with a clear understanding of how research in cognitive
neuroscience has illuminated and expanded traditional approaches to
thinking about topics such as the performer, the spectator, space and
time, culture, and the text. Each chapter considers four layers of
performance: conventional forms of theatre, performance art, and
everyday life, offering an expansive vision of the impact of the
cognitive sciences on performance in the widest sense.
Written in an approachable style, An Introduction to Theatre,
Performance and the Cognitive Sciences weaves together case studies of
a wide range of performances with scientific evidence and
post-structural theory. Artists such as Robert Wilson, Societas
Raffaello Sanzio, Ariane Mnouchkine, Bertolt Brecht, and Antonin Artaud
are brought into conversation with theories of Gilles Deleuze, Shaun
Gallagher, Alva Noë, Tim Ingold and the science of V. S. Ramachandran,
Vittorio Gallese, and Antonio Damasio. John Lutterbie offers a complex
understanding of not only the act of performing but the forces that mark
the place of theatre in contemporary society.
In drawing on a variety of scientific articles, Lutterbie provides
readers with an accessible account of significant research in areas in
the field and reveals how the sciences can help us understand the
experience of art.
