Twenty-first century casting: Katie Mitchell, cognitive science and ‘painting with people’

Abstract

Kelly argues for a redefinition of the terms of theatre casting and offers a new methodology for the analysis of casting through an exploration of the work of Katie Mitchell. Combining conventional theoretical approaches to performance analysis along with theories from cognitive science, Kelly’s chapter asserts that Mitchell’s theatre work moves beyond traditional forms of casting, which rely upon representations of humans built upon psychology and social type. Mitchell’s naturalistic and symbolist works operate at the limits of traditional and non-traditional casting approaches (and assumptions), which Kelly expands on and renames as Cartesian Casting and Anti-Cartesian Casting. As Kelly finally argues, however, Mitchell’s multimedia work proposes an entirely new form (Radical Anti-Cartesian Casting), which leads to a new way of thinking about casting in the twenty-first century.