ABSTRACT
4E cognition is a basic feature of human existence – we operate by its principles all the time every day. This chapter uses some of the research in 4E cognition to study rehearsal and performance processes in the theatre, in order to better understand both theatrical practice and aspects of human cognition more generally; rehearsal processes and performances provide discrete models of cognitive ecologies that are broadly reflective of how we operate in life. Using two case studies, Thornton Wilder's Our Town and Caryl Churchill's Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, the chapter considers how to apply principles of 4E cognition to processes of making theatre, in negotiating the relationships among text, research and embodiment. Caryl Churchill wrote Light Shining in Buckinghamshire in 1976, when the UK was struggling out of a three-year recession involving stagflation (a deadly combination of high unemployment and major inflation), decline in the Gross domestic product (GDP) and labour strikes.
