Small Acts of Repair

Goat Island are one of the worlds leading contemporary performance ensembles. Their intimate, low-tech, intensely physical performances represent a unique hybrid of strategies and techniques drawn from live art, experimental theatre and postmodern dance. Small Acts of Repair: Performance, Ecology and Goat Island, is the first book to document and critique the companys performances, processes, politics, aesthetics, and philosophies. It reflects on the companys work through the critical lens of ecology an emerging and urgent concern in performance studies and elsewhere. This collage text combines and juxtaposes writing by company members and arts commentators, to look in detail at Goat Islands distinctive collaborative processes and the reception of their work in performance. The book includes a section of practical workshop exercises and thoughts on teaching drawn from the companys extensive experience, providing an invaluable classroom resource. By documenting the creative processes of this extraordinary company, this book will make an important contribution to the critical debates surrounding contemporary performance practices. In so doing, it pays compelling tribute to committed art-making, creativity, collaboration, and the nature of the possible.