Collisions

17/10/2021

15/09/2021

Collisions is an annual festival of practice-research in theatre and performance, hosted by the Research Degrees Programme Royal Central School of Speech & Drama 29-30 September, 2020.
Book your free ticket here:

COLLISIONS is an RCSSD annual performance festival showcasing thriving doctoral practice research

14/09/2021

This year's programme is now live! See the full schedule of events and book your free ticket here.

COLLISIONS is an RCSSD annual performance festival showcasing thriving doctoral practice research

18/06/2021

We are excited to invite participant proposals for COLLISIONS, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama’s festival of practice research. This year the theme will be centred on “regeneration and liberation”.

This year COLLISIONS will take place as a hybrid festival (curating a mixture of both live and online presentations) on Tuesday 28 September and Wednesday 29 September 2021. We are seeking applications from doctoral students to contribute to the festival itself, and to participate in exchanges during the summer leading up to it, whether in person or virtually.

This year, as we emerge from lockdown disorientated and mentally fatigued, COLLISIONS is particularly interested in curating conversations around “regeneration and liberation” within practice research. How might we re-orientate our practice and ourselves in relation to the people/communities we work with to embrace new facings and futures? Can we find liberation in what writer Rebecca Solnit calls the “spaciousness of uncertainty” (2016)?

COLLISIONS invites applications from doctoral students interested in sharing short work in a semi-formal setting, developing practice research alongside others, and contributing to furthering the conversation around the field of practice research through events including, but not limited to:

• Performances
• Participatory practices
• Presentations, lecture performances/performance lectures
• Performative acts
• Workshops
• Film/Media installation
• Any other forms of practice that might expand the boundaries of a practice research festival.

COLLISIONS offers:

• Rehearsal spaces available to book from July – September (in accordance with government guidance)
• Technical Support during the festival
• Pairing and Sharing: including pairing up with other practitioners and the opportunity for a mid-point sharing with other presenters.
• Mentoring: academic and practical mentoring from staff and professional practitioners.
• Reflections: opportunity for discussions after showing work.

Your practice/presentation could happen on zoom, a pre-recorded video or even live at Central, in accordance with current government guidance at the time.

In order to apply, please complete the attached Expression of Interest (EOI) Form by Friday, 2nd July, 2021 and return it to [email protected]

Please note that you must be able to attend a meeting at Central on Friday 23rd July, 2021 (2-5pm), to meet everyone involved, share your current research/practice, and discuss the Festival in more depth.

Collisions Team
Co-Curators: Laura Kressly, Josephine Leask, Filomena Campus, Anthony Woods
Producer: Rebecca Laughton
Academic Mentor: Broderick Chow

25/09/2020

Have you had a look at this year's programme? There's a full schedule and bios of all presenters on our eventbrite

COLLISIONS is an annual festival showcasing the thriving doctoral practice research at RCSSD, this year presented online

22/09/2020

Collisions 2020 is nearly here!

See the full schedule and book your free ticket on our eventbrite page, and follow us over on Twitter to learn more about this year's presenters

COLLISIONS is an annual festival showcasing the thriving doctoral practice research at RCSSD, this year presented online

07/08/2020

Collisions Online 2020: shifting perceptions

This year due to COVID-19, we present COLLISIONS as an online festival featuring a retrospective of digitally-documented presentations from past Collisions as well as showcasing how current practice-research students are making digital practice. The work prompts questions about how we shift our perceptions of practice-research over time, across changing contexts and new formats.​ What are the challenges in adapting our practice to a virtual platform? How do we reflect productively on past or current practice to develop research for an uncertain future? Collisions 2020 Online: shifting perceptions aims to encourage dialogue and reflection across past and present projects alongside interviews, Q&As and chatrooms, asking how our research insights might speak to each other’s work and help us stay connected.

More information will be coming soon, but mark your diaries for 29-30 September!

24/09/2019

Participants sharing their practice

23/09/2019

Collisions 2019 is next week! Cathy Sloan is one of our practice-researchers who is presenting at the event.

23/09/2018

Make sure you catch RCSSD PhD candidate Karoline Moen's 'out of her throat' at Collisions next week! Presented as a rehearsed reading, the play text 'out of her throat' is an experiment with form, which explores what it might mean to 'break the frame' - Thursday 27th 2.40pm

22/09/2018

Make sure you come along to see RCSSD PhD candidate Clio Unger's presentation: 'Would Shakespeare Have Given a TED talk?' at Collisions next week to find out what Shakespeare and TED talks have in common!

The talk will playfully engage with the persona of Shakespeare and the dramaturgies of TED-talks to ask: What is at stake when knowledge is both a vital source of empowerment and a commodifiable resource? Tickets at:
https://www.cssd.ac.uk/event/collisions-festival-2018

20/09/2018

We are very much looking forwards to seeing Simon Dodi present 'FLASH BANG WALLOP' at Collisions next week! FLASH BANG WALLOP is a work in progress about fragmentation, reenactment, q***r and affective historiography.

Get tickets: https://www.cssd.ac.uk/event/collisions-festival-2018