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Performance and Consent workshop (Rosie Middleton) 26/7/24

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two women on stage, dressed colourfully, acting in a n opera and singing. Text reads: but faster, be sexier, more

A discussion workshop on consent and performance featuring Rosie Middleton's work on abuse in opera as a lens to discuss all disciplines. Alongside her co-creators Amy Bryce, Sarah Parkin, Maya-Leigh Rosenwasser, and Catherine Valve, Rosie will present reflections on the creation process, and excerpts of PLASTIC BODIES - an opera about opera. We invite attendees to expand this discussion into other areas/disciplines of performance.

Friday, July 26, 12:30–4pm (lunch provided 12.30–1)

School of Music, Rehearsal Hall (basement - in the door, down the stairs, immediately left at the bottom)

 

Opera: how does an industry so obsessed with the voice leave its performers without one?

This workshop is to discuss questions of consent in performance, across different disciplines on stage, screen, gallery, and beyond. The event is framed with reflections-on and live-extracts-from practice research by Rosie Middleton and collaborators on PLASTIC BODIES: an opera about opera. The event will then fan out to an open discussion about performance and consent in all artistic contexts. Framing questions includea white background with shadow and low light. A woman in strapless dress shown from waist up, she's about to eat a piece of plastic bubblewrap.

  • How can we safely create work about abuse in a way that takes care of our performers?
  • How can we show abuse onstage through a female or queer lens, without perpetuating harmful tropes about women?

Plastic Bodies is an ongoing work-in-process, conceived in response to over 400 anecdotal accounts of abuse and discrimination collected from classical singers on social media. These stories are reflected in a growing body of research: onstage ‘acts of sexual and physical violence against women’ (Blackwood et al., 2019) and outdated female storylines (Clément, 1988), combined with well-documented discrimination (Williams, 2022) and sexual, physical, and emotional abuse (Finkelstein et al., 2020) demonstrate a culture of disempowerment for women.

There are increasing initiatives to enact positive change in the opera industry, with the rise of intimacy coordinators, attempts to diversify the workforce, and feminist reworkings of canonic opera. However in this conservative industry progress is slow, and female and upper-voice singers continue to experience discrimination and abuse.

PLASTIC BODIES trailer: http://bit.ly/plasticbodies

Schedule:

TBC but something like: two singers embracing onstage, implied intimacy

  • 12.30–1pm lunch
  • 1–2pm discussion and performance of Plastic Bodies
  • 2–2.30 coffee
  • 2.30–4pm open discussion

RSVP:

Please email s.mclaughlin@leeds.ac.uk if you'd like to attend, spaces are limited: and include any dietary requirements if you'll be there for lunch.