‘ACTING WITH FACTS’: ACTORS PERFORMING THE REAL IN BRITISH THEATRE AND
TELEVISION SINCE 1990.
We would like to announce that FINAL PROGRAMME for the University of Reading/AHRC
‘Acting with Facts’ Symposium, to be held on Friday 8th May 2009, is now available at the
following link:
http://www.reading.ac.uk/ftt/research/ftt-actingwithfacts_symposium.asp
All relevant registration documentation is also available here
The final registration date for the symposium is Friday 1st May.
Speakers to include actors Phil Davis (The Curse of Steptoe, Vera Drake, Bleak House)
and Ian McNeice (Conspiracy, Valkyrie).
Palgrave will also be launching at the event the collection ‘Get Real: Documentary Theatre
Past and Present’, edited by Dr Chris Megson and Dr Alison Forsyth.
For further information please contact Dr Heather Sutherland;
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SYMPOSIUM INFORMATION:
The ‘Acting with Facts’ project, which began in October 2007, is concerned with actors’
contributions to the burgeoning field of documentary drama. The project team members
have already interviewed over twenty actors directly concerned with theatre and screen
docudrama, as well as a number of actor trainers, writers and directors. The project also
participated in a National Theatre ‘Platform’ event in May 2008.
At the half-way stage of our work, we will host a one-day symposium at the University of
Reading further to explore research issues through debate and dialogue with interested
academic colleagues, actor trainers and people with direct experience of staging and
screening docudrama and drama ‘based on’ fact. The symposium therefore has several
aims:
• to present some initial findings
• to gather together other researchers in the field
• to have plenary presentations from industry and actor-training personnel.
Two sessions will be available during the day for parallel panels to present papers.
Papers will not exclusively address the project’s research questions, but we present them
here as a guideline to our own work so far:
• What specific demands does factual drama make on actors’ competencies?
• How do actors respond to these demands in specific theatre and television practice?
• What comparisons and correspondences exist for actors between docudrama and
fictional drama in theatre and television, given their likely involvement in both media?
• How has the making of television docudrama responded to the 1990 Broadcasting Act,
increased international co-production, the digital revolution and accelerated social and
political change since 1990?
• How has social and political change (nationally and internationally) provoked change in
documentary theatre since 1990?
• What impact do ethical, institutional and practical constraints in both media (e.g. legal
restrictions, marketability, cost) have on docudrama, and with what aesthetic
consequences?
• How do existing theories (of form, genre, format and audience address) and the
production of docudrama in theatre and television interact?
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