What is Performance?: Ritual, Play, Theatre

Reading Responses and More Materials

Today's reading introduce us on the one hand to questions about theatre's future beside questions about prehistoric activities of art making/performing.  We are also introduced to ways of thinking about performance.  What is it? Why does it happen?

How do we parse "performance" from ... something else? What and why do we label some acts performance, others theatre, others ritual, others play, others dance, others fashion or everyday life?




Images. Top left: Deer Dancer with Yaqui Indian headpiece. Top right: Actress as Antelope in American Celebrity Cruise Lines Lion King. Center below:  Malian Bambara antelope "headdresses." Why is one "ritual," another "theatre," another "art"?  Any problems with this?




Reading response -- pick one of the following questions to craft a short "think piece" about:

1. What does Schechner mean by saying that  "Theatres everywhere are scenographic models of sociometric process"?

2. What struck you as most surprising or impressive about the material covered in Cave of Forgotten Dreams? Can you relate the film to either of the Schechner readings in any way? Or, can you find anything in common with what the Cave of Forgotten Dreams suggests and the article about immersive theatre?

3. Deciding what's what between ritual, play, and theatre or dance is not always easy. The cheerleaders in the "Indians" photo on this page may be involved in ... play, theatre, dance,  ritual, sport ?...  but perhaps it is not ritual? Or not theatre? not sport? What do you think? What is at stake in deciding which category to assign to an activity such as this?? Another way to address this is: What does it mean to "perform" under the sign they hold over their heads (a very complex question!). Draw on the reading where it might support your ideas, or disagree with the reading if you have your own opinion.


5. This clip  of Buster Keaton is from a film, though it is clearly "theatrical." What makes something theatrical versus documentary or "real"?  Is theatricality always an element of theatre in your experience, or is theatricality sometimes something that theatre itself tries to hide in order to appear "as if" real? Draw on the reading where it might support your ideas, or disagree with the reading if you have your own opinion.














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