Considering "performance across boundaries"

How does one “entertain the town?”

That sounds like an abstract question but it has particular applications in the history of performance art. Last week the annual MacKay Lecture Series kicked off with a talk from Christopher Baugh from the University of Leeds titled “Devices of Wonder” — an examination of how theatre became part of modern urban life.

Prof. Baugh, professor emeritus in the Department of Performance and Technology at Leeds, sought to explain how “in today’s late capitalist, post-modern world, theatre [was able to] become a part of every day metropolitan life.” Dr. Baugh was able to address music, production, technology, set design and art as shaping aspects of performance in modern times.

The lecture was the first in the MacKay series, hosted annually in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. It features three lectures around a common interdisciplinary theme with a fourth historical lecture. This year’s theme is “Performance Across Boundaries,” with the series being organized by the Fountain School of Performing Arts.

Connections across time

Through his thorough exploration of technology in performance dating back to Greek antiquity, Prof. Baugh (left, with lecture organizer Roberta Barker) was able to give a chronological account of performance practice across the ages. From discussion of the De Medicis and their extravagance to the effect of the light bulb on human imagination, his presentation took topics that, on the surface, seemed irrelevant to the world of performance and made them central to the discussion in a way that felt entirely organic.

In this vein, Prof. Baugh drew a direct line from Greek antiquity to digital technology through the De Medicis, opera, Italian engravings, the printing press, the light bulb and projection. The progression was seamless and it became easy to understand how a crane used to hoist a God over a Greek tragedy might be relevant to digital music production used on Broadway.

The lecture was followed by a wonderful discussion with attendees, with many fantastic, fascinating questions from faculty and students. It’s well worth attending lectures such as this one simply to take in the way they highlight the immense curiosity of Dal’s faculty and their and constant desire to continue learning.

Upcoming in the series

The series continues next week with Phillip Auslander of the Georgia Institute of Technology, one of the world’s best-known academics on questions of “liveness” and “mediaisation” in musical, cinematic and theatrical performance. His lecture on October 15 will be titled “Barbie in a Meat Dress: Performance and Mediatisation in the 21st Century.”

The third lecture by Marlis Schweitzer of York University will take place on November 6, with the title: “Precious Objects: The Material Culture of 19th- Century Child Performers.” The historical lecture will follow on November 20 with Maria Subteiny of the University of Toronto on “Rules for Rulers: Political Ethics in Medieval Islam.”

Full details: MacKay Lecture Series website

Fountain School of Performing Arts faculty member Roberta Barker, who organized the series, says she hopes the lectures offer attendees insight into, “how performance crosses national borders — [and], moreover, how they come to us from a range of geographical locations. They not only explore international exchange, but will also allow us to experience it first hand.”