Uni­ver­sity of Glamorgan

August 29, 2008

Rea Den­nis, a senior lec­turer in drama at the Uni­ver­sity of Glam­or­gan is tak­ing part in a per­for­mance as part of ‘Per­form­ing the World ’08’ (PTW ’08), an inter­na­tional con­fer­ence and fes­ti­val that will take place from 2nd – 5th Octo­ber in New York City.

Rea will join with Brazil­ian actress Magda Miranda from Scripti Artes e Desen­volvi­mento, São Paulo and dynamo Welsh com­mu­nity artist Miranda Ballin, who works with young peo­ple Val­leys Kids, to present “Per­formed sto­ries of migra­tion and place in Cul­tural Development”.

PTW ‘’08 is expected to attract over 400 grass­roots prac­ti­tion­ers, activists, schol­ars and researchers from through­out the United States and around the world.

The trio will present Train tracks and rooftops, a con­tem­po­rary per­for­mance piece draw­ing inspi­ra­tion from child­hood places of refuge and with extracts from Den­nis’ solo work, Apart of and apart from. The works explore expe­ri­ences of dis­place­ment and migration.

Rea explained, “Magda and I devised the piece to explore embod­ied mem­ory of place. We have the Aus­tralian coast­line of my child­hood and the São Paulo inner city of Magda’s infused with our research of South Walean child­hoods. The work plays with fixed bound­aries and fixed iden­tity posi­tions by blend­ing auto­bi­og­ra­phy, the­atri­cal lan­guage, and local mem­o­ries of places. In a way we are ask­ing: Where is place? Who owns place? Do I have a place?”

The per­for­mances offer potent metaphors for spa­tial and rela­tional alien­ation and belong­ing in con­tem­po­rary organ­i­sa­tions and com­mu­ni­ties that are con­stantly nego­ti­at­ing tran­si­tional change.

Part of a larger research agenda in cre­ative indus­tries, the appear­ance in New York fol­lows the pre­mier of Train Tracks and Rooftops in UK in June.

Per­formed Sto­ries is just one of over 150 pre­sen­ta­tions and per­for­mances that will take place at PTW ’08, a bi-annual con­fer­ence co-sponsored by the East Side Insti­tute for Group and Short Term Psy­chother­apy (Insti­tute) and the All Stars Project.

New York­ers from through­out the city are open­ing up their homes to out-of-towners as a way to build person-to-person ties between New York­ers and per­form­ers, pre­sen­ters and schol­ars from around the world.

PTW ‘08 will be based out of the All Stars’ per­for­mance and devel­op­ment cen­tre on 42nd Street, though work­shops and per­for­mances will also take place at other venues through­out the city.