The Routledge Companion to Theatre, Performance and Cognitive Science

The Routledge Companion to Theatre, Performance and Cognitive Science integrates key findings from the cognitive sciences (cognitive psychology, neuroscience, evolutionary studies and relevant social sciences) with insights from theatre and performance studies. This rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field dynamically advances critical and theoretical knowledge, as well as driving innovation in practice. The anthology includes30 specially commissioned chapters, many written by authors who have been at the cutting-edge of research and practice in the field over the last15 years. These authors offer many empirical answers to four significant questions: How can performances in theatre, dance and other media achieve more emotional and social impact? How can we become more adept teachers and learners of performance both within and outside of classrooms? What can the cognitive sciences reveal about the nature of drama and human nature in general? How can knowledge transfer, from a synthesis of science and performance, assist professionals such as nurses, care-givers, therapists and emergency workers in their jobs? A wide-ranging and authoritative guide, The Routledge Companion to Theatre, Performance and Cognitive Science is an accessible tool for not only students, but practitioners and researchers in the arts and sciences as well.

General Introduction Bruce McConachie PartI: Artistry Introduction Rick Kemp Stanislavsky’s prescience: The conscious self in the system and Active Analysis as a theory of mind Sharon Marie Carnicke The improviser’s lazy brain: improvisation and cognition Gunter Lösel Devising – embodied creation in distributed systems Rick Kemp Embodied cognition and Shakespearean performance Darren Tunstall The remains of ancient action: Understanding affect and empathy in Greek drama Peter Meineck Minding implicit constraints in dance improvisation Pil Hansen Applying developmental epistemic cognition to theatre for young audiences Jeanne Klein 4E cognition for directing: Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and Caryl Churchill’s Light Shining in Buckinghamshire Rhonda Blair Acting and Emotion Vladimir Mirodan Part II: Learning Introduction Bruce McConachie Improvising communication in Pleistocene performances Bruce McConachie Ritual transformation and transmission David Mason Communities of gesture: Empathy and embodiment in Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company’s 100 Migrations Ariel Nereson Creative storytelling, crossing boundaries, high-impact learning and social engagement Nancy Kindelan From banana phones to the bard: The developmental psychology of acting Thalia R. Goldstein 'I'm giving everybody notes using his body': Framing actors’ observation of performance Claire Syler Acting technique, Jacques Lecoq, and embodied meaning Rick Kemp PartIII: Scholarship Introduction Bruce McConachie Systems theory, enaction and performing arts Gabriele Sofia Watching movement: Phenomenology, cognition, performance Stanton B. Garner, Jr. Attention to theatrical performances James Hamilton Emergence, meaningand presence: An interdisciplinary approach to a disciplinary question Amy Cook Relishing performance: Rasa as participatory sense-making Erin B. Mee The self, ethics, agency and tragedy David Palmer Aesthetics and the sensible John Lutterbie Talk this dance: On the conceptualization of dance as fictive conversation Ana Margarida Abrantes and Esther Pascual Distributed cognition: Studying theatre in the wild Evelyn Tribble and Robin Dixon Part IV: Translational Applications Introduction Rick Kemp A theatrical intervention to lower the risk of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia Tony and Helga Noice The Performance of Caring: Theatre, empathetic communication and healthcare Rick Kemp and Rachel DeSoto-Jackson Awareness performing: Practice and protocol Experience Bryon Imagining the ecologies of autism Melissa Trimingham and Nicola Shaughnessy Toward consilience: Integrating performance history with the coevolution of our species Bruce McConachie

Rick Kemp is Professor of Theatre and Head of Acting and Directing at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA. An actor, director and Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar on Neuroscience and Art, his publications include Embodied Acting: What Neuroscience Tells Us About Performance (2012) and The Routledge Companion to Jacques Lecoq (2016). Bruce McConachie, Emeritus Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, USA,has published widely in theatre history and cognitive studies. His scholarship includes Engaging Audiences (2008), Evolution, Cognition, and Performance (2015), and chapters in Theatre Histories: An Introduction (3rd edition, 2016). A former president of the American Society for Theatre Research, McConachie also acts and directs.