Processen med Fröken Julie. En studie i performativitet och genusmedveten gestaltning

Abstract

In my article, I attempt to theorize my own process of staging August Strindberg’s classical drama, Miss Julie, at Scenkonst Sörmland, one of Sweden’s regional theatres, in 2012. My assignment was to stage the play with a critical gender perspective, but without in any way deconstructing the text, altering the plot or recasting the characters. In describing my directorial strategies, which consisted mainly in finding ways to frame the play, developing the notion of character, and generating an awareness in the cast of performative bodily practices, I attempt to adopt a combined analytical and creative perspective on the play and on my own practice. Attempting to outline a possible methodology for artistic research in performance, I situate my own creative process in the context of well-established feminist theories of performativity and theatrical practice, and describe my creative choices in dialogue with the theoretical ideas that inform those choices.