"Navigating the Inland Sea" is exploring innovative new methodologies of dramaturgy and performance through an exciting fusion of aspects of Michael Chekhov's work with the "Imaginary Body" and Edward Bond's concept of "Drama and the Ontological". Peter Billingham (Reader in Drama and Performance at the University of Portsmouth) has been working with a cast of young undergraduate student actors on an exploration and ultimately three public performances of Edward Bond's play for young people "At The Inland Sea" Tuesday 23 to Thursday 25 May 2006 (Wiltshire Drama Studio University of Portsmouth at 7.30pm - play runs for about an hour). Peter Billingham is hoping to establish a permanent website to help disseminate his research findings as well as (in due course) calling for papers for a proposed conference on "Navigating the Inland Sea" - Politics and Aesthetics in Contemporary Performance.
In relation to this work Peter Billingham also conducted an interview with Edward Bond in which they discussed Bond's most contemporary work and his current critical and philosophical thinking about drama and the human condition. The interview was published in the Performing Arts Journal Vol 29 No. 3 1-14.
