Towards a theatre of new multimodal meanings : Applying second generation cognition to directorial devising practice in theatre which responds to trauma

This PhD seeks to develop and articulate a directorial theatre practice which creates new meanings in contexts of trauma, informed by second-generation cognitive science. It is grounded in my own past experience as a physical theatre director devising new productions in context of conflict, and grew from a need to find language through which to articulate the mechanisms of multimodal meaning-making in embodied theatre practice which responds to trauma specifically. The research applies Robin Nelson’s Practice as Research methodology, adapted to an enactivist epistemology and augmented by Robert Romanyshyn’s approach to researcher-reflexivity. The research design is centred around the development of semantic and experiential knowledge through the creation of two theatre projects: the first a cross-community participatory production in Derry, Northern Ireland which examined personal and collective memories of the Troubles; and the second a professional production exploring cultural identity, created with first- and second-generation migrant theatremakers in London during lockdown. The critical framework structuring the inquiry is grounded in definitions of ‘meaning’ and ‘trauma’ which consider schema-based embodied and symbolic process to be constitutive of all perception, and which consider trauma to be a breakdown in schema organisation at the level of self and world. This framework is applied as a lens to dialogue the PaR with two relevant areas of scholarship: trauma and performance studies, and cognitive theatre studies. Overall, the research evidences the ways that new-meaning creation through schema co-updating and transformation is facilitated and achieved in contexts of trauma through multimodal forms of theatre practice, and indicates that more research at this intersection is warranted. The thesis offers recommendations to theatre practitioners through a ‘Points of Departure’ document which describes key methods and synthesises learning from the inquiry.