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44-652: The Belgrade Theatre is a live performance venue in Coventry , England . It was the first civic theatre to be built in Britain after the Second World War and is now a Grade II listed building . Coventry was the fastest growing city in Britain between the First and Second World Wars . Its cramped medieval streets were becoming dangerously congested and overcrowded, and in 1938

88-508: A farcical aspect of the class war . Wuolijoki translated Brecht's play into Finnish for the competition but it did not win a prize. The two authors agreed that Wuolijoki could develop the Finnish version for production throughout Scandinavia (for which she renamed the protagonist "Johannes Iso-Heikkilä"), while Brecht could negotiate performances anywhere else, where the royalties would be split equally between them. A theatrical production of

132-561: A quarter circle shaped car park , centred roughly on the site of the Belgrade. Through the late 1940s and early 1950s it became increasingly clear that only one theatre was needed, so Arthur Ling began work on the building that stands there today. The south east elevation is reminiscent of Gibson's Broadgate House (1948–53) with an arcade of shopfronts underneath a brick-clad block of flats for visiting actors, with regular square windows framed with pale stone. Ling departed from Gibson's theme for

176-468: A German translation of which Wuolijoki dictated to Margarete Steffin during August 1940. Wuolijoki's work had the dramatic structure of a well-made play , which, Brecht concluded, hampered her achievement as a writer. Its protagonist , Puntila (who is described as a "Finnish Bacchus "), was based on a cousin of Wuolijoki's former husband called Roope Juntula. Juntula had become engaged with three village women and had also driven his Buick recklessly in

220-408: A car crash in 1960. It was recast in bronze and placed on its current plinth in 2008. It sits between the fountain and the front of the theatre. 52°24′37″N 1°30′52″W  /  52.41017°N 1.51433°W  / 52.41017; -1.51433 Two Sides of a Woman is a bronze sculpture by Helaine Blumenfeld , acquired by Coventry City in 1986. It sits to the west of the fountain in

264-522: A drinking problem. In his essay "Notes on the Folk Play " (written in 1940), Brecht warns that " naturalistic acting is not enough in this case" and recommends an approach to staging that draws on the Commedia dell'Arte . The central relationship between Mr Puntila and Matti—in which Puntila is warm, friendly and loving when drunk, but cold, cynical and penny-pinching when sober—echoes the relationship between

308-568: A gift of beech timber to be used in the new theatre. It is after this city that the Belgrade is named. The Yugoslavian ambassador Ivo Vejvoda visited the construction site in 1957, during the same trip he also opened an exhibition of modern Yugoslavian art at the Herbert Gallery . In the same year, the Arts Council announced that they would give financial support to the City Council to equip

352-740: A massive canvas on his studio floor. Situationists in France, led by Guy Debord , married avant-garde art with revolutionary politics to incite everyday acts of anarchy. The "Naked City Map" (1957) fragments the 19 sections of Paris, featuring the technique of détournement and abstraction of the traditional environment, deconstructing the geometry and order of a typical city map. At the New School for Social Research in New York, John Cage and Allan Kaprow became involved in developing happening performance art. These carefully scripted one-off events incorporated

396-491: A new seven-storey block to the north west of the existing theatre containing a 300-seat auditorium and additional rehearsal space. Its form and size aims to "[respond] to the scale of an adjacent new mixed-use development ". The extension won a RIBA National award in 2008, and was described as "stunning" and "imposing" by the British Theatre Guide in 2007. Belgrade Square sits with the theatre to its south east, and

440-469: A raised bed. The Belgrade is run by the Belgrade Theatre Trust, a registered charity (number 219163) controlled by a board of trustees . The trust's objectives as stated in their memorandum of association are to "promote, maintain, improve and advance education, particularly by the production of educational plays and the encouragement of the arts". The trust's income was around £7.1 million in

484-446: A set of individual activity/contribution (prosocial organizational behavior) that supports organizational culture . In performing arts , a performance generally comprises an event in which a performer, or group of performers, present one or more works of art to an audience . In instrumental music and drama, a performance is typically described as a "play". Typically, the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand to practice

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528-472: Is a performance of the artist rolling and moving in mud, using their body as the art-making tool, and emphasizing the temporary nature of performance art. Valie Export , an Austrian artist born Waltraud Lehner, performed "Tap and Touch Cinema" in 1968. She walked around the streets in Vienna during a film festival wearing a styrofoam box with a curtain over her chest. Bystanders were asked to put their hands inside

572-456: Is also dependent on adaptation of eight areas: Handling crisis, managing stress, creative problem solving, knowing necessary functional tools and skills, agile management of complex processes, interpersonal adaptability, cultural adaptability, and physical fitness. Performance is not always a result of practice, but rather about honing in a skill. Over practicing itself can result in failure due to ego depletion . According to Andranik Tangian ,

616-458: Is faced by the Telegraph hotel from the north east. It contains a fountain of rectangular stepped pools and two sculptures. 52°24′35″N 1°30′50″W  /  52.40985°N 1.51385°W  / 52.40985; -1.51385 A Memorial to Bryan Bailey is a sculpture by Norelle Keddie originally produced in 1962. It commemorates the death of Bryan Bailey, the theatre's first director, in

660-566: Is going to collaborate with the Coventry UK City of Culture Trust to produce a number of events in 2021. These will include a series of performances in the Roundabout pop-up theatre as well as online and outdoor performances such as Can You Hear Me, Now? and Like There's No Tomorrow . The Coventry City Architect's Department under Donald Gibson produced a model in 1944 that showed three interlinked theatres and cinemas arranged radially around

704-562: The City Council appointed Donald Gibson to become the first city architect . The newly created City Architect's Department had ambitious plans, and the devastation of the Coventry Blitz allowed it more freedom to design an entirely new city centre. In 1955 Gibson resigned; extensive work had already taken place in the city centre but a growing Coventry required further development. The person that took over from him, Arthur Ling , would be

748-727: The adrenal glands , and increased blood pressure. Mr Puntila and His Man Matti Mr Puntila and His Man Matti ( German : Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti ) is an epic comedy by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht . It was written in 1940 and first performed in 1948 . The story describes the aristocratic land-owner Puntila's relationship to his servant , Matti, as well as his daughter, Eva, whom he wants to marry off to an Attaché. Eva herself loves Matti and so Puntila has to decide whether to marry his daughter to his driver or to an Attaché, while he also deals with

792-465: The 1950s with Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning gave way to action painting , a technique that emphasized the dynamic movements of artists as they splattered paint and other media on canvas or glass. For these artists, the motion of putting paint on canvas was just as valuable as the finished painting, and so it was common for artists to document their work in film; such as the short film Jackson Pollock 51(1951), featuring Pollock dripping paint onto

836-474: The 1960s the Belgrade developed the innovative Theatre in Education concept, beginning with its project Pow Wow . This took a group of children and encouraged them to form a relationship with a cowboy . They were then introduced to an American Indian who was being kept in a cage as a prisoner , and given more information about the characters and their views. In the end the children had to decide whether to free

880-847: The 2019–20 financial year, predominantly from donations and charitable activities. Performance In the work place, job performance is the hypothesized conception or requirements of a role. There are two types of job performances: contextual and task. Task performance is dependent on cognitive ability, while contextual performance is dependent on personality. Task performance relates to behavioral roles that are recognized in job descriptions and remuneration systems. They are directly related to organizational performance, whereas contextual performances are value-based and add additional behavioral roles that are not recognized in job descriptions and covered by compensation; these are extra roles that are indirectly related to organizational performance. Citizenship performance, like contextual performance, relates to

924-792: The Tramp and the Millionaire in Charlie Chaplin 's City Lights (1931). The duality of Mr. Puntila is an example of Brecht's use of the literary device, the split character. The play is also an inspiration for some of the main characters in Vishal Bhardwaj 's Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola . Brecht's play is based on another by his host during his exile in Finland —the Finnish-Estonian playwright Hella Wuolijoki —called The Sawdust Princess ,

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968-452: The audience into acts of chaos and spontaneity. These happenings challenged traditional art conventions and encouraged artists to carefully consider the role of an audience. In Japan, the 1954 Gutai group led by Yoshihara Jiro, Kanayma Akira, Murakami Saburo, Kazuo Shiraga, and Shimamoto Shozo made the materials of art-making come to life with body movement and blurring the line between art and theater. Kazuo Shiraga 's Challenging Mud (1955)

1012-442: The best results are achieved when spontaneity and even improvisation are backed up by rational elements that arrange means of expression in a certain structure, supporting the communication (not just verbal) with the audience. Theatrical performances, especially when the audience is limited to only a few observers, can lead to significant increases in the performer's heart rate. This increase takes place in several stages relative to

1056-452: The box and touch her bare chest. This commentary on women sexualization in film focused on the sense of touch rather than sight. Adrian Piper and her performance Catalysis III (1970) featured the artist walking down New York City streets with her outfit painted white and a sign across her chest that said "wet paint." She was interested in the invisible social and racial dynamics in America and

1100-605: The designer of the Belgrade Theatre. Some versions of the overall plan for the city centre included three new theatres and cinemas , but during the 1950s it became clear that this would not be viable. There were still two pre-war cinemas operating in the city centre, and audiences were falling. It was decided that a single new theatre would be built on the corner of Corporation Street and Upper Well Street. The first steps of construction took place in 1952, when Coventry's twin city of Belgrade , Yugoslavia (now Serbia ), pledged

1144-606: The first show began, Half in Earnest by Vivian Ellis . Under Bryan Bailey, the theatre's first director, the Belgrade's resident company was established. This was the first Coventry-based theatre company since the Midland Theatre Company was disbanded by the Arts Council in 1957, producing the premieres of the "Wesker trilogy" ( Chicken Soup with Barley , Roots and I'm Talking About Jerusalem ) by Arnold Wesker . In

1188-623: The middle of the night to procure alcohol—both episodes that would be dramatised in Brecht's story. Wuolijoki suggested a collaboration with Brecht on an entry for a competition run by the Finnish Dramatists' League for a "people's play," whose deadline was to fall in October. The title page of Brecht's play describes it as "a people's play" that is "after stories and a draft play by Hella Wuolijoki." Brecht began work on his non-Aristotelian version of

1232-560: The new theatre, which was going over budget. The Belgrade was officially opened at 8 pm on 27 March 1958 by the Duchess of Kent in a ceremony attended by many "civic personalities and representatives of the theatre world" including Sir Kenneth Clark and Sam Wanamaker . Coventry's first female Lord Mayor , Pearl Hyde , gave an address of welcome and thanks to the Duchess from the Royal box before

1276-457: The performance itself, including anticipatory activation (one minute before the start of subject's speaking role), confrontation activation (during the subject's speaking role, at which point their heart rate peaks) and release period (one minute after the conclusion of the subject's speech). The same physiological reactions can be experienced in other mediums such as instrumental performance. When experiments were conducted to determine whether there

1320-719: The play became a priority for Brecht on his return from exile in 1947; he helped to direct its premiere at the Schauspielhaus Zürich , where it opened on 5 June 1948, with scenic design by Teo Otto . Leonard Steckel played Puntila and Gustav Knuth played Matti. Brecht chose Puntila for the opening production of the first season of the Berliner Ensemble , the world-renowned theatre company that he founded in 1949 in East Germany with his wife, Helene Weigel . Brecht co-directed this production with Erich Engel ; Puntila

1364-419: The prisoner or not. This blend of theatre and education had never been seen before. The theatre received a number of grants for maintenance and renovation through the 1980s and 1990s, before a major refurbishment was announced as part of Coventry's Millenium project. It was closed in 2006 for extensive building work including the addition of a new performance space, which took ten months longer than expected, but

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1408-412: The rest of the building though, with its north east flank of Portland stone and glass. The north east elevation faces Belgrade Square, an open area with a fountain and some green space. When originally built the theatre had a covered entrance for people arriving in vehicles, which has since been removed. Ling utilised the gift of beech timber from Belgrade to panel the inside of the auditorium, which

1452-432: The story on 2 September and finished a first draft three weeks later. Along with the structural transformation from dramatic to epic, Brecht described his main tasks in re-working Wuolijoki's original as: "to bring out the underlying farce , dismantle the psychological discussions so as to make place for tales from Finnish popular life or statements of opinion, find a theatrical form for the master/man contradiction, and give

1496-462: The theatre where Coventrians had gathered to hear the announcement of the winner. Three co-artistic directors were appointed for the City of Culture year: Justine Themen , Corey Campbell and Balisha Karra. They were to oversee the producing programme for 2021, "providing an opportunity for a new generation of creative talent to explore their own ideas about how to take the industry forward". On 3 March 2021 it

1540-499: The theme back its poetic and comic aspects." Brecht gave his story a downbeat ending, in which Matti resigns himself to the impossibility of authentic human relationships across the divide of social class , excepting the intoxicated illusions that alcohol provides. He transformed the treatment of alcoholism from a national problem for the Finnish, as it was dramatised in The Sawdust Princess , to its epic presentation as

1584-577: The way in which an actor performs. In a solo capacity, it may also refer to a mime artist , comedian , conjurer , magician, or other entertainer. Another aspect of performance that grew in popularity in the early 20th century is performance art . The origins of Performance art started with Dada and Russian constructivism groups, focusing on avant-garde poetry readings and live paintings meant to be viewed by an audience. It can be scripted or completely improvised and includes audience participation if desired. The emergence of abstract expressionism in

1628-437: The work. An effective performance is determined by the achieved skills and competency of the performer, also known as the level of skill and knowledge. In 1994, Spencer and McClelland defined competency as "a combination of motives, traits, self-concepts, attitudes, cognitive behavior skills (content knowledge) that helps a performer to differentiate themselves as superior from the average performer". A performance also describes

1672-417: Was a correlation between audience size and heart rate (an indicator of anxiety) of instrumental performers, the researcher's findings ran contrary to previous studies, showing a positive correlation rather than a negative one. Heart rate shares a strong, positive correlation with the self reported anxiety of performers. Other physiological responses to public performance include perspiration , secretion of

1716-403: Was announced that two producers would join the creative team for 2021: Sâmir Bhamra and Krysztina Winkel. Bhamra praised the theatre for its "commitment [to] ensuring diverse voices are at the heart of the team leading its produced programme for 2021". The Belgrade's 2021 Spring Season will run from March to July, and will include "an eclectic mix" of drama, musicals and live music. The Belgrade

1760-424: Was completed fully funded at a total cost of around £14 million. The theatre eventually reopened on 22 September 2007 with a performance of Mr Puntila and His Man Matti . The new B2 studio performance area was opened by Prince Edward on 4 February 2008, the 50th anniversary year of the Belgrade's inaugural performance. A further capital project to expand and upgrade facilities (architects Corstorphine & Wright)

1804-517: Was completed fully funded in 2021 despite the Pandemic, with an adjacent shop being seamlessly absorbed into the footprint resulting in an enlarged stylish cafe and glamorous new first floor Bar called 1958. Led by Artistic Director Hamish Glen (2003 to 2021) the Belgrade was involved in the bid for Coventry to become UK City of Culture 2021 , which it won in December 2017. There were scenes of jubilation at

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1848-611: Was determined to encourage civic-mindedness and interruption of the system. Carolee Schneemann , American artist, performed Interior Scroll in 1975, where she unrolls Super-8 film "Kitsch's Last Meal" from her genitals. This nude performance contributes to a discourse on femininity, sexualization, and film. Williams and Krane define the ideal performance state as a mental state having the following characteristics: Other related factors are: motivation to achieve success or avoid failure, task relevant attention, positive self-talk, and cognitive regulation to achieve automaticity . Performance

1892-487: Was fitted out in the style of the Royal Festival Hall . The Russian architect Arkady Mordvinov visited in 1958, and praised the theatre's "intimate note" as well as the quality of the acoustics in the auditorium. The extension opened in 2008 was designed by Stanton Williams , "contrasting [the] use of coloured renders and translucent panels" to "signal [...] presence within an evolving cityscape". It consists of

1936-449: Was played initially by Leonard Steckel (as with the Zurich production), then by the comedian Curt Bois . The composer Paul Dessau wrote a musical setting for the songs for this production, while Casper Neher designed the sets. Brecht introduced the linking "Puntila Song" and decided to discourage the audience's empathy towards Puntila by means of defamiliarising masks for him and all

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