Depending upon whether you are thinking of the Borg from Star Trek or the Vogon from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the old saying goes ‘Resistance is futile/useless'. Sometimes it is best to adapt, revise, regroup, move, bend, or change rather than resist. To remain relevant, vital and strong resilience is important. Resilience enables us to hang in there, to recover quickly, to rebuild and thrive. Sometimes the focus of our art/research/educational practices/sector is building resilience in others. Sometimes it is important to focus on building resilience within ourselves as individuals or in our communities of practice. Resilience implies a source of compression, a passage of time, and a process (or an innate ability) to spring back to a (positive) “normal” state. The norm may now be at a point further along in our development or could be from times past when the trend cycle returns us to once-popular ideas, places, artworks and artists ready for restoration and/or reconnection. This theme complements that of ADSA's 2014 Conference: “Restoring Balance” offering those that wish to a chance to revive, restore, and reconnect with those conversations. It is also hoped that the Resilience theme provides new scope to be interpreted afresh and ADSA members are invited to respond to the theme in relation to theatre, drama and performance broadly.
