Abstract
This thesis examines the dramaturgical relation between practice and event in the performing arts. It advances the notion of microdramaturgy to describe the relational dynamics of thinking in performance processes and how such dynamics can make artistic events crystallise from experimental practising. It does so by developing a performance philosophical methodology that utilises the fluctuating function of the dramaturg to study microdramaturgies at work by being actively engaged in them. The research thereby combines a theoretical and practical study into the relational and processual aspects of dramaturgical collaboration with a methodological enquiry into the potential of conjoining philosophical and practice-led research into a reciprocal research model. The thesis argues that such an experimental model is more congruent with relational approaches to dramaturgical collaboration, which makes it appropriate for the present study.
Practically, the thesis investigates microdramaturgies at work in three collaborations between myself as dramaturg and performance philosopher and the following artists in the contemporary field of performance: choreographer Marcelo Evelin (BR), performance maker Catarina Vieira (PT), and theatre director Lena Bondeson (DK-SE). In each collaboration, I analyse the microdramaturgical relation between a singular mode of practising and the artistic event it crystallises. As the collaborations span across contemporary dance, participatory performance, and experimental theatre, the thesis seeks to articulate the multiplicities rather than generalities of microdramaturgy. However, by discussing the practice-led research in relation to a Deleuzian notion of the event, I articulate an ethico-aesthetic potential in each collaboration that reaches beyond its limited sphere. These potentials are: choreohapticality (Evelin), affirmative withdrawal (Vieira), and sloppy immersion (Bondeson). By doing so, I show how microdramaturgy can configure events inclusive of different modes of existing in time and space. Thereby, the thesis demonstrates not only the theoretical and methodological but also the ethical contribution of the work of microdramaturgy.