Research Seminar - Postcards from the Edge of Collapse

Postcards from the Edge of Collapse

Presented by: A/Prof Stephen Carleton and Dr Chris Hay

Date: Friday 30 October 2020
Time: 12–1pm
Location: Online via Zoom 

Abstract

In this presentation, we examine the postcard as pandemic performance, by considering how Playwriting Australia’s Dear Australia online performance project responded to both organizational collapse and global stasis. Combining a reading of the postcard’s functions and the critical responses to Dear Australia, we suggest while the postcard is a practical medium for performance in response to global lockdowns and physical distancing protocols, it compromises the ability of playwriting to intervene in the situations that it depicts and imagine how things might be different.

Presenters

Associate Professor Stephen Carleton is the Director of the Centre for Critical and Creative Writing at the University of Queensland, and teaches into the Drama major in the School of Communication and Arts. He is a playwright and theatre scholar, with particular research interests in Australian theatre, Gothic drama, cultural landscapes and playwriting.

Dr Chris Hay is a Lecturer in Drama and ARC DECRA Fellow in the School of Communication and Arts at the University of Queensland. He is an Australian theatre and cultural historian, whose research examines the history of arts subsidy in Australia, and the impact of state funding on the nation’s live performance culture.