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The expression 'being oneself on stage' is often used to characterize differences between those developments in (post)modern theatre in which performers are considered not playing roles anymore and more traditional types of theatre in which fictional worlds with fictional characters are shown on stage. Konijn (1992, 1994, 2000) concluded in her research about the relationship between actor's and character's emotions that during a performance actors experience emotions related to their acting task and not to the emotions they portray as character's emotions. With these results as point of departure a proposal is being made for a more detailed approach to the idea of 'being oneself on stage' by distinguishing between social roles and artistic roles. The conclusion is that the expression 'being oneself on stage' is hiding the fundamental similarities between performers portraying fictional characters and those who are considered to be oneself on stage. In both cases their dominant social role is the one of actor/crafts(wo)man of performer/crafts(wo)man. In both cases the assumed dominant emotions will be the ones related to their acting/performing task, which makes an image of oneself as much a construction as a fictional character is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the ways in which a public square can interact with its city through pre-arranged performances. The site of this study is a square in the middle of Stockholm, Sweden that was constructed in the late 1960s. Four performances that took place during 2007 and 2009 are studied. All four connected in different ways with the square. One of the main research questions is whether it is possible to construct a square designed to host public events and performances, and what the foremost problems are with a giant square such as Sergels torg. One of the conclusions is that while there is a need of open places in the city, the utilisation of open spaces for this purpose is threatened by increasing commercialisation of the city. These questions are discussed with the help of theories about city planning, public open space as well as theories of playing and the carnival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores playing culture from the perspective of the performative processes of naming and the subversive potential of the politics of naming. It focuses on the project by three Slovenia-based artists who, in the summer of 2007, officially changed their names to Janez Janša. Janez Janša is the name of the then Slovenian Prime Minister and the leader of the centre-right Slovenian Democratic Party. In 2007, his controversial decisions agitated the Slovenian public, causing a leftist and rightist polarisation. By appropriating his name, the artists enacted a unique performative gesture which became a theatrical event for everyone who used their new names. The play and manipulation with the name Janez Janša is examined within the concept of (Austin's) performativity. In the analysis of the surprising clash of the political, artistic and social contexts triggered in Slovenia by this name-change gesture, playing culture is explored as playing politics. Public participation in the symbolic power of the Prime Minister has provoked contradictory interpretations. Some have considered it as political conformism that supports the ruling regime, others as an attempt at subversive affirmation, which only apparently endorses the authority of the politician while in fact effectively undermining it from within. This chapter provides evidence of the latter interpretation and shows that, in dubious connotations at the intersection of art and politics, social discourses vibrate as playing culture. This gives rise to a playful order of being in which performative processes of naming destabilise dominant ideological discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, two phenomena are investigated together - writing and theatricality - in order to address the following questions: how an every-day phenomenon might become playing and/or even theatrical playing; and what does this particular conception of writing as performing tell us about playing and being human? For this purpose, a series of events staged under the name Literary Saturdays is investigated. The notions of playing, writing as playing, as well as the theatrical potential of writing and reading will be discussed. An everyday act becomes a play when a certain playful mood prevails that enriches the activity with the pleasure of freedom and creativity. An act becomes theatrical playing when it encompasses the meeting of different parties who accordingly become performers and spectators. The phenomenon Literary Saturdays demonstrates that the scale of cultural and artistic performances is constantly expanding, posing at the same time new theoretical questions that may revise our conceptions of performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of playing culture is profoundly connected to the Theatrical Event, the core concept of the IFTR Theatrical Event Working Group. In this article I first reconsider the contribution of the Theatrical Event concept to theatre and performance studies. I discuss the similarities and the differences between the theatrical event, which was crystallized during the 1960s and 1970s by the artists of the new theatre and later formulated by Richard Schechner as part of Performance Studies, and the Theatrical Event that has been conceptualized since 1997 by The Theatrical Event Working Group convened by Willmar Sauter within the framework of the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR/FIRT). An intertextual dialogue with Sauter's approach to playing and playing culture follows, conducted in light of contemporary performing society and within it the performing self. On the basis of this argument I present my idea of the playing self that signals a return of/to homo ludens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]