Performing Ensemble

The book presents a novel analysis supporting the idea that a theatre ensemble is not just an entity but an emergent process. Through the lens of a theatre company's performative, creative, organizational, and activist practices, the ensemble is conceptualized in its collective becoming. This socio-historical and new materialist analysis of a European theatre company (ATIR) over thirty years highlights how a group's performative capacity to make-ensemble stimulates its organizational and social processes. With a commitment to participation, listening, and horizontality, the ensemble is shown to challenge the structures of capitalism, and fosters a vision of hope for societies.

Carmen Pellegrinelli is a post-doc at the University of Trieste (Italy) and a playwright and theatre director. She holds Master’s degrees in Theatre and Clinical Psychology from the universities of Bologna and Bergamo and a PhD (2023) from the University of Lapland, Faculty of Social Science. In addition to being an award-winning playwright and theatre director, she has published several articles and chapters on creative practices, social activism, and post-qualitative research methods. She is currently engaged in research concerning the intersection between arts, aesthetics of care, and posthumanist theory.