Topic guide
Joining a P4 Theatre Project: Calls, Roles and Records
Read P4U, Meat Grinder and The Last Rehearsal to distinguish creative, performing, observing and production roles in P4’s archive.
P4 / TOPICS
Read P4 by Topic
Topic guides connect P4 project records, articles and rehearsal footage, with source links and participant credits.
Topic guide
Starting a Project at P4: From a Proposal to Shared Work
P4’s records connect personal proposals, shared calls and ongoing documentation while preserving the distinct beginnings of each project.
Topic guide
Collective Creation: Authorship and Production Credits
Read distributed authorship through P4 project records: joint credits, named directors, writing, production and documentation across collaborative performances.
Topic guide
When Audiences Vote: Reading the Duel Club Mechanism
Duel Club connects watching, voting and decisions within an event, offering a specific case of audience participation.
Topic guide
Reading Rehearsal Video: Time, People and Process in Fourth Log
Fourth Log preserves rehearsals and discussions across projects. Titles, recorded dates and participants provide a route into the process.
Topic guide
Performance Criticism and the Audience Archive | P4
Compare creator dialogue, Iceberg audience criticism and a response to The Last Rehearsal to understand performance reception in P4’s archive.
Topic guide
Dance Theatre through Cocoon: Bodies, Choreography and Making Together
Cocoon’s announcements and backstage conversations connect bodily practice, choreography and collective production through specific credits.
Topic guide
Workshops at P4: Expression, Improvisation and Making Together
P4’s workshop records show different starting points for expression and shared practice, each with its own invitation and collaborators.
Topic guide
From Play Reading to Rehearsal: Beifeng and the Theatre Hub
Beifeng readings and the Theatre Hub connect reading aloud, discussion, bodily work and improvisation as routes into theatre.
Topic guide
Reading and Screening Together: Invitations from 510
510’s reading and screening records connect choosing passages, watching and discussion through specific books, films and invitations.
Topic guide
Theatre in Everyday Life: 510, Gathering and Shared Writing
510’s records connect theatre, a café and shared writing, making everyday life material for ongoing participation.
Topic guide
From Theatre to Public Questions: Discussion, Residency and Joint Action
P4’s social practice can be read through specific discussions, a Hangzhou residency and a jointly initiated public-benefit call.
Topic guide
Theatre Public Toilet and P4: Reading the Support around Spiral Staircase
Spiral Staircase’s invitations and announcement distinguish creative work, production support and venue support within a collaboration.
Topic guide
Kousi Theatre’s Meat Grinder: Performers, Observers and Collaboration
Zhao Xuan initiated Kousi Theatre’s Meat Grinder. Calls and biographies connect performers, observers and participation across projects.
Existing record
P4 and Beijing independent theatre
Follow P4 from its Beijing theatre laboratory through changing spaces and forms of participation.
Existing record
Chinese experimental theatre through P4 projects
Explore Chinese experimental theatre through P4’s image experiments, collective work and rehearsal records.
Existing record
Real Image Theatre: photography in a live encounter
Read Real Image Theatre through its proposals, practical methods and participant accounts.
Existing record
Participation, boundaries and looking in Real Image
Follow participant accounts to consider looking, participation and boundaries in Real Image Theatre.
Existing record · Chinese source
GIF theatre and Shadow Counterpoint
Read Shadow Counterpoint alongside later GIF theatre documents to explore how images organise performance.
Existing record · Chinese source
From rehearsal to film: a collective process
Trace the movement from theatre to film through invitations, rehearsals and crew records.
Existing record · Chinese source
P4 spaces, distance and encounters
Explore the relation between P4’s practice and place through accounts of the theatre laboratory and 510.
Existing record
P4U and 3P: proposals, observation and shared work
Explore how participants propose projects and work together through P4U and the 3P documents.
Existing record
P4’s collaborative ecology: groups and later practice
Follow original credits and later projects to discover groups and participants connected with P4.
Existing record
Northwind, P4 and the Hangzhou residency
Read the Hangzhou practice through residency invitations, Northwind projects and public activity records.
Topic guide
Collective Dramaturgy in Beifeng’s Vortex
Explore collective dramaturgy in Beifeng Theatre’s Vortex through members’ stories, script revisions, improvisation workshops and production credits.
Topic guide
Networked Dramaturgy in Purples’ WeChat Theatre
Read Purples’ WeChat theatre through character creation, shared world-building, speaking permissions and changing roles in four 2022 source texts.
Topic guide
Life Narratives as Performance: P4’s Personal Chronicle
Explore life narrative performance in Personal Chronicle through its interview protocol, participant accounts, project proposals and public presentation.
Topic guide
The Glass Menagerie: Stage-to-Online Production Credits
Trace Glass Theatre’s The Glass Menagerie through its actor invitation, poster and online-edition credits, from personal material to camera and editing.