The hybrid in the limen: British and Polish environment-oriented theatre in theory and practice

Contents
INTRODUCTION: Environment-oriented theatre * Contexts, continuations and the historical backdrop * The hybrid and the limen * Assumptions and hypotheses * The structure of the book Part I THE HYBRID AND ENVIRONMENTALITY CONTINUA Chapter 1. THE HYBRID AND MULTIMEDIA: The hybrid, multimedia, and postmodernism * The theories of the hybrid * The areas of hybridisation Chapter 2. ENVIRONMENTAL, SITE-SPECIFIC, AND OUTDOOR NON-SPECIFIC PERFORMANCES AND THE ENVIRONMENTALITY CONTINUA: Environmental theory * Spectator, performance, participation * Pure and bastard environments; matrixed and non-matrixed performance * Environment as a process * Environmentality and life/art hybridisation * Site-specific theory * The genre continua * Site-specific hybridity * Site-specific performance and its life/art hybridity * Performances in non-specific locations * The tables of the environmental, site-specific, and non-specific continua Part II THE LIMINAL, THE LIMINOID, AND ENVIRONMENT-ORIENTED PERFORMANCE Chapter 3. THE LIMINAL, THE LIMINOID AND RELATED CONCEPTS - TERMINOLOGY: The limen and anti-structure * The liminal and the liminoid * Modifications of the liminal theory * Carnival: deep and shallow play * Deep and shallow play versus Aristotle and Brecht * Conclusion: the relevance of liminal theory to the analysis of life/art environment-oriented performance Chapter 4. THE LIMINAL AND THE LIMINOID NATURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE: Invisible theatre - Akademia Ruchu: the urban action (1978) * Alternative environment and blending of work and leisure domains * Anti-spectator techniques * Anti-structural perceptions of reality * Invisible theatre, deception, and trading * Private Space - Akademia Ruchu: Dom (The House) (1978) * Alternative environment * Anti-spectator environment * Anti-structural perceptions * Public environments * Akademia Ruchu: Projekt Miasto (The Town Project) (1979) * The alternative environment * Anti-structural perception techniques * Anti-spectator techniques * Akademia Ruchu: Sytuacja Miasto (The Town Situation) * Forced Entertainment: Nights in This City (1995) * The alternative environments * Anti-spectator techniques * The ritual and the limen * Inter-Action: Fun Art Bus (1972) * The construction of the alternative environment * Anti-structural perceptions and anti-spectator techniques * The People Show: Yellow Suitcases (1973) * Created environments * Forced Entertainment: Ground Plans for Paradise (1994) * The alternative environment and alternative perceptions * The anti-spectator techniques * Station House Opera: The Oracle {1992) * Conclusion Chapter 5. SITE-SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE, THE LIMINAL AND THE LIMINOID: Pure metonymy - Forced Entertainment: Dreams' Winter (1995) * Complex metonymy * Lumiere & Son: Deadwood (1986) * Lumiere & Son: War Dance (1989) * Antithetic synecdoche - Akademia Ruchu: Happy Day (1978) and Piechota (The Infantry) (1977) * Conclusion Chapter 6. TOWARDS NON-SPECIFIC OUTDOOR PERFORMANCE - THE LIMINAL AND THE LIMINOID:Functional determining dependence * Akademia Ruchu: Heide Park (2000) * Functional and traditional dependence * Teatr Biuro Podrozy: Carmen Funebre (1993, 1995, 1996) * Biuro Podrozy: Giordano (1993) * Traditional dependence on the site - Teatr Strefa Ciszy: Misja (The Mission) (2000) * Surrealist non-specificity * IOU: Autoperipatetikos (1995) * Porywacze Ciał, Teatr Usta Usta: Sztuczne oddychanie (Artificial Respiration) (2000) * Locational anti-structures * Anti-structural perceptions * Akademia Ruchu: Uczty duchowe (Spiritual Feasts) (1993) * Non-specific outdoor performances * Conclusion CONCLUSION: The expanded environmental theory and the continua * Anti-structures and the liminal and the liminoid potential of environment-oriented performances * Life/art boundary performance and the aesthetic/the anaesthetic phenomena * The formalist preoccupations of environment-oriented theatre * The environment-oriented performance and the postmodern avant-garde REFERENCES; APPENDIX; PLATES

From the Introduction
The main body of the present study is divided into two extensive parts, each devoted to one of the title phenomena, the hybrid (contrasted with multimedia) and the limen (including liminality and liminoidality). The first part discusses the concepts of the hybrid and multimedia environment-oriented theatre and is subdivided into four chapters. Chapter 2.1 introduces and defines the concepts of the hybrid (intermedia) and multimedia performances and examines their interrelations. Chapter 2.2 identifies the essential components of hybrid environmental performances, starting from the existing theories of environmental design and theatre and arriving at several continua representing each component. Chapters 2.3 and 2.4 re-examine the environmental theory in relation to site-specific spectacles and non-specific outdoor theatre, respectively, each formulating idiosyncratic characteristics and gradations for the discussed genres. In the second part, subdivided into five chapters, the liminal and the liminoid potential of environment-oriented theatre is examined. Chapter 3.1 explains the adaptations of the liminal terminology originally associated with the anthropological study of ritual to performance analysis, identifying major liminoid anti-structures in environment-oriented performances. The subsequent three chapters analyse the anti-structures generated in each project, tracing similar patterns and differences within and across performance types. It is at this stage that the more theoretical remarks about the hybrid expressed in the first part of the book find their detailed illustration and incorporation into the liminal characteristics.

Edyta Lorek-Jezińska