Overview

The Routledge Companion to Performance and Science investigates and illuminates the growing international interest in the intersections and interactions between theatre, drama, performance and the sciences. These disciplines are explored through an extensive range of essays from artists, practitioners, researchers and scholars, many of whom are working in interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary or multidisciplinary contexts. With a largely contemporary focus underpinned by an introductory section that sets out a history of antecedent intersections, the volume offers a diverse range of perspectives on science, scientific methods, and scientific knowledge in dialogue with performance scholarship and practice. Our understanding of ‘practice’ is capacious, from different performance forms to science communication and interpretation, to scientific approaches to performance, to ways of generating and disseminating scientific knowledge. Within this vast scene, a number of key questions and themes emerge: How can scientific knowledge be interrogated by performance practices? How can performance explore the human implications of scientific development? How can scientific practices be understood through performance theories? How are scientists or scientific practices, and ideas represented in performance? This is a key resource for scholars and upper-level students of performing arts, science communication, medical and health humanities, science and technology studies, and interdisciplinary arts/humanities/sciences projects.

Full Product Details

Author:   Paul Johnson ,  Simon Parry ,  Adele Senior
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.453kg
ISBN:  

9781032138992

ISBN 10:   1032138998
Pages:   576
Publication Date:   19 November 2025
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

List of Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction Paul Johnson, Simon Parry and Adele Senior PART I Histories of Science and Performance Chapter 1. Performing Science in Early Modern England: Experimental Entertainment and its Audiences Mark Thomas Young Chapter 2. Dramatic representations of the astrologer on the verge of modern science Mário Montenegro Chapter 3. Samuel Pepys’ Traumatic Autopsia Kara Reilly Chapter 4. Artists with differentiated bodies in performing arts Felipe Henrique Monteiro Oliveira Chapter 5. The brigands of medicine: charlatanry, sexuality and medical demonstration in late nineteenth century France Jonathan W. Marshall Chapter 6. Physique Amusante: Optics, Mechanics, Anatomy and Anthropology at the Fairground in Nineteenth-century Europe Nele Wynants Chapter 7. All Fall Down: Fainting, Dying, and Mad Scenes on the Nineteenth-Century Stage Elyse Singer Chapter 8. “The Velocity of the Stage: Physics Meets Metaphysics in Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s Theatrical Theory” Alisa Ballard Lin Chapter 9. ‘Heal as well as dance’: Margaret Morris Movement and physiotherapy as performance Clare Button PART II Disciplined Performance Chapter 10. Computer Science and Performance: A Reintroduction Robert Ellis Walton Chapter 11. ASMR – performance and psychology of sensation in the online space Julie Rose Bower & Giulia Poerio Chapter 12. Abnormal Psychology and The Case of Becky: Science and Imagination in the Performance of Dual Personality John M. Andrick Chapter 13. Investigating Biological Dramaturgies: Using cancer biology as a dramaturgical tool Diane Stubbings Chapter 14. The dementia science play: Balancing science with humanity in dementia-themed performance Morgan Batch Chapter 15. O (Symptom): Performing in between doctor, patient and cadaver Olivia Turner Chapter 16. Displacing performance mastery with ecological tools Anthony Gritten Chapter 17. The Aesthetics of Mathematics in the Physical Theatre Yael Via-Dorembus Chapter 18. Parameters for Understanding Uncertainty: Methodologies for Intellectual Loitering within Scientific Infrastructure & Communication Rebecca Collins PART III Performance Cultures and Science Chapter 19. Applying an immersive intelligent aesthetic to wildfire visualisation: Exploring terrestrial agency Susanne Thurow, Dennis Del Favero, Jason Sharples, Khalid Moinuddin, Charles Green Chapter 20. Charge – interpreting scientific research through Interdisciplinary devised practice Sophy Smith Chapter 21. From Carbon-Dating to Light Theory in the Dystopic Archeology of Istanbul Deniz Başar Chapter 22. Whose Technology? A Sufi Love Note on Decolonizing our Historical Dances with Science and Technology Studies Assad Assad Chapter 23. Blood Magic in Biotech – a case study WhiteFeather Hunter Chapter 24. The Disquieting Body in VestandPage's Performance Art: Diagnose, Cure, Heal, Perform Andrea Pagnes Chapter 25. Ecosomatic practice for living and dying on a damaged planet Olive Bieringa Chapter 26. Building Science Communication as a Space for Scientists: Science Comedy in the United Kingdom Edward Thomas Bankes Chapter 27. Room Service as sf theatre: communicating science through sf performance Sanja Vodovnik Chapter 28. No Space In Between: A Case Study of Theatrescience Rebecca Gould and David Cottis PART IV Sciences of Performance Chapter 29. Banishing homunculus: in-bodying imagination in acting processes Micia de Wet Chapter 30. Emotion Theory and Theatre Practice: From William James to Konstantin Stanislavski Aphrodite Evangelatou Chapter 31. Theatre as Science: Performing Empathy in Beatrix Cenci Graça P. Corrêa Chapter 32. Centring the ‘subjective’ when examining performance in the field of Dance Medicine and Science Gemma Harman Chapter 33. Conversations on the tensions of dance and science in an emerging research field Frances Clarke, Naomi Lefebvre Sell, Matthew Wyon, Derrick Brown-Appenzeller Chapter 34. Rehearsing the Art and Science of Healing: Simulation Performance in Nursing Education Alexander Munro PART V Science, Performance and Communication Chapter 35. Audiences for science-theatre: valued but under-explored Carla Almeida and Emma Weitkamp Chapter 36. Performing Public Health Meghan Moe Beitiks, Marina Heron Tsaplina, Aaron Colverson, Kaitlyn Wittig Menguc, Jill Sonke, Edith Moore Hubert & Katrina Pineda Chapter 37. Pharmakon: An Experimental Collaboration between Performance and Pharmacy Michael Valdez Chapter 38. Don’t Smile Nigel Townsend Chapter 39. Taking over Authorship – The Power of Writing Processes for another Science Lydia Schulze Heuling & Laura Colucci-Gray Chapter 40. Discussing problematic legacies of science through theatre: racism, misogyny, and skull measuring in The Science of the Future Daniel Gamito-Marques Chapter 41. Wild Things: Using improvised comedy to communicate and explore conservation science Sofia Castelló y Tickell & Matthew Kemp Chapter 42. ‘A Small Show About Big Ideas: Third Angel’s 600 People’ Simon Goodwin, Alex Kelly & Rachael Walton Index

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Author Information

Paul Johnson is Deputy Provost and Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Chester. Simon Parry is Senior Lecturer in Drama and Arts Management at University of Manchester. Adele Senior is Reader in Theatre and Performance at Leeds Beckett University.

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