Livecasting in Twenty-First-Century British Theatre

Uses an interdisciplinary approach and includes case studies from recent National Theatre Live plays (2018-2020) and an exclusive interview with renowned livecast producer, Ross MacGibbon

Heidi Lucja Liedke is Interim Professor in English Literature at Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. From 2018-2020 she was a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London, UK. She is the co-editor of a special issue of Theatre Research International on "Presence, Politics, Resistance: Tendencies in (Post-)Pandemic Performance and Theatre" (March 2023). Her work has been published in Performance Matters (2019), Journal of Contemporary Drama in English (2021) and Participations (2021). Twitter: @heidilulie

List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction: Locating Livecasting - Twenty-First Century British Theatre on the ThresholdLocating LivecastingConstructing the LiveDistractions, Slippages and Turns: Spectacle - ArchiveResearch OverviewAims and Structure of the BookPart I: Spectacle and MaterialityChapter 1. Old New Media: The Optionality of the Theatre Space and Different Forms of Embodiment in Early Live Theatre and Music BroadcastingEarly Broadcasting Technologies as SubstitutesAcousmatic Livecasting in the Nineteenth Century: Visual LandscapesNot A Substitute for the Real Thing - The NT's Dip Into Broadcasting in the 1940s and 1950sThe Launch of NT LiveThen and Now: The Fifth AuditoriumChapter 2. Watching Others Having Fun - Livecasting as SpectacleThe Best of British TheatreSpectacle and Theatre on Screens - Images and DeceptionSports Events, Spectacle and NT LiveFraming Livecasting: Mediated Spectacle and CommunitasLivecasting as Affective Spectacle: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bridge Theatre/NT Live) Chapter 3. Capturing the Atmosphere: The Material-TheatricalA Word on Wires, Screens and Electricians from a Brechtian PerspectiveTheatrical and Cinematic Modes - Filmed TheatreSpatially Extended Atmospheres: The Materiality of the Theatrical Space ShiftsMaking the Theatrical Experience Porous: Stuttering ScreensPART II: EngagementChapter 4. Livecasting, Liveness, and the Feeling ISpectator-Centric Theatre and Modes of Engagement with LivecastsLivecasts, Liveness and "We" Bakhtinian and Benjaminian Traces-Fabrics of EngagementI Feel, Therefore I am (a Spectator) Chapter 5. Quasi-Experts in the Context of LivecastingImmediacy and AfterlifeQuasi-Experts at Work: Liveness and After-Liveness Enabled by Social MediaWe Are In It Together: Critiquing the Experience OnlineAgainst a Stagnation of TheatreChapter 6. Covidian Theatre: The Move to Small Screens and into HomesMasks and Socially Distanced TheatreViral Affect on ScreensCovidian TheatreRetrospective Synchronicity and NT At HomeChapter 7. Concluding Discussion and Future Directions: What Remains of Livecasting? Responsible Responsiveness and LivenessWhat Remains of Livecasting? Works CitedIndex

Livecasting in Twenty-First-Century British Theatre is a rich, rigorous and provocative study of both this new creative hybrid of cinema, television and theatre and of the radical cultural changes imposed by lockdown. An essential read for those studying this form - and for those who make it.