The current attempts of theatre makers to increase diversity by including non-professionals in their casts and of social policy makers to promote participation in the arts justify the perception that there is an \u2018amateur turn\u2019 in performance practice. Yet this \u2018turn\u2019 has not brought about a revolution in attitudes to the amateur. As Sarah Jane Bailes points out, the amateur actor is an \u2018often risible and endearing figure to a British public\u2019. And often more risible than anything else. The tension between the commitment with which amateurs pursue their activities and the indifference they meet in professional and academic circles inspired us to champion the very notion of the amateur in this issue. We challenge the notion of the amateur as secondary or second rate. These essays explore the geographies and histories of amateur performance, think through the nature and limits of the idea of the amateur in different cultural contexts and help us to develop a new vocabulary to understand the complexity and nuances of amateur performance. Authors address such subjects as the global reach of amateur performance through new social media, changing work patterns, spaces of performance, amateur participation as political activism and the distinctive aesthetics of amateur performance.<\/p>\n
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Contents:<\/p>\n
On Amateurs\u2009: An introduction and a manifesto<\/strong> An Amateur Manifesto<\/strong> Fancy Dress as an Amateur Craft<\/strong> Not Another Drag Competition\u2009: From amateur to professional drag performance<\/strong> \u2018Never be Dull\u2019\u2009: Girl Guides of Canada performing physical culture and gymnastics drills in 1910\u201321<\/strong> High Culture\u2009: Presentations of the self in mountain environments<\/strong> Amateur Theatre Networks in the Archive<\/strong> Karaoke Instagram\u2009: Amateur desire and the performance economy<\/strong> Revealing All\u2009: From novice to amateur in the community printmaking workshop<\/strong> Built not Bought\u2009: The performance of enthusiast labour and modified VW cars<\/strong> The Influence of Intimacy\u2009: Amateur performance on new media\u2019s neoliberal stage<\/strong> \u2018At 20p \u2013 It Can\u2019t be Bad!\u2019\u2009: The socio-political purpose of Live Theatre Newcastle\u2019s amateur aesthetic, 1973\u20138<\/strong> Dilettante Theatricals\u2009: The elite amateur in the Georgian period<\/strong> Amateur Choruses\u2009: The professionalization of the choric form<\/strong> Foreign Maids and Beauty Queens\u2009: Filipina labour and amateur performance in Hong Kong<\/strong> The Repairer and the Ad Hocist\u2009: Understanding the \u2018ongoingness\u2019 of the amateur theatre maker\u2019s craft<\/strong> Being Among Bluebells\u2009: Amateurism as a mode of queer futurity at Duckie\u2019s Slaughterhouse Club<\/strong> Dancing Swords and Somersaults\u2009: Precariousness in amateur traditional dancing<\/strong> Seasons of Love\u2009: Chinese millennials\u2019 affective amateur musical theatre performances<\/strong> Amateur Performance and the Labour of Love\u2009: or cultural reproduction \u2018after\u2019 the collapse of capitalism<\/strong>
\nDavid Gilbert, Judith Hawley, Helen Nicholson, Libby Worth, Libby Worth<\/p>\n
\nClare Dan\u011bk<\/p>\n
\nStephen Knott<\/p>\n
\nJoe Parslow<\/p>\n
\nHeather Fitzsimmons Frey<\/p>\n
\nJonathan Pitches<\/p>\n
\nDavid Coates<\/p>\n
\nKevin Brown<\/p>\n
\nClare Dan\u011bk<\/p>\n
\nWill Andrews<\/p>\n
\nArcher Porter<\/p>\n
\nRosalind Haslett<\/p>\n
\nJudith Hawley<\/p>\n
\nPierre Katuszewski, Stefan Donath<\/p>\n
\nJimena Ortuzar<\/p>\n
\nCara Gray<\/p>\n
\nBen Walters<\/p>\n
\nLibby Worth<\/p>\n
\nLaura MacDonald<\/p>\n
\nJennifer Beth Spiegel<\/p>\n\n\n