Seeing it feelingly : on affect and bodyworld in performance

Abstract

In this article, the performing body is considered via a three-pronged approach involving affect theory and affective science, a scene from King Lear, and long-distance running. Inspired by the chiaroscuro of painting, this variety and mix of sources act as a methodological device to shed unfamiliar light (and shade) on the elusive topic of affect. While ‘body’ is viewed from the perspective of ‘bodyworld’ to denote constitutive and reciprocally shaping human–nonhuman relationalities, the ‘performance’ that occurs in bodies is analyzed in terms of a ‘drama of affect’ to signal the activity that germinates and circulates at various levels of consciousness in human behaviour, whether aesthetic, athletic, or daily. Frank Camilleri is Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Malta and Artistic Director of Icarus Performance Project. He has performed, given workshops, and published various texts on performer training, theatre as a laboratory, and practice as research. He is the author of Performer Training Reconfigured: Post-Psychophysical Perspectives for the Twenty-first Century (Bloomsbury, 2019) and Performer Training for Actors and Athletes (Bloomsbury, forthcoming).