Output details

Psychedelia : A Performance by Edward Wadsworth with Cyrff Ystwyth in which Ames is principal research investigator and director. This work contributes to the enquiry into how elements of the autobiographical, embodied by disabled and untrained performers, might react with the discourse of theatre and performance.

A Performance by Edward Wadsworth with Cyrff Ystwyth (performed Aberystwyth University, Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies June 9th and 10th 2011), in which Ames is principal research investigator and director. This work contributes to the enquiry into how might elements of the autobiographical, embodied by disabled and untrained performers, react with the discourse of theatre and performance? This practice based output was the second time learning-disabled colleague Wadsworth worked with Cyrff Ystwyth as author, working alongside Ames, acting as Principal Investigator and director. 'Psychedelia' as research focused on a response to Wadsworth's initial statement of intent to create a work of this name. This initial proposal was then linked to personal experience. Current in the UK news at the beginning of the project was an exposé into abuse of learning disabled people. The research considered practical and creative possibilities of exploring personal experiences concerning this issue. Through discussion and action that linked media representations of disability, social behaviours, 'othering' and daily life experiences of colleagues with disabilities the choreography was developed with the Principal Investigator acting as the director providing an organizational structure for material that was often beyond verbal explanation. Themes embodied by disabled and untrained performers, emerging from conditions which activists have recently identified as 'ablist', revealed powerful yet usually hidden emotional responses. The research was both a medium for expression and an investigation into how affect is embodied and reacts with the dominant discourses of theatre.