What is 'performance'? What are the boundaries of Performance Studies? How do we talk about contemporary performance practices today in simple but probing terms? What kinds of practices represent the field and how can we interpret them?
Combining the voices of academics, artists, cultural critics and teachers, Performance Perspectives answers these questions and provides a critical introduction to Performance Studies. Presenting an accessible way into key terminology and context, it offers a new model for analyzing contemporary performance based on six frames or perspectives:
- Body
- Space
- Time
- Technology
- Interactivity
- Organization
Drawing on examples from a wide range of practices across site specific performance, virtual reality, dance, applied theatre and everyday performance, Performance Perspectives addresses the binary of theory and practice and highlights the many meeting points between studio and seminar room. Each chapter takes the innovative form of a three-way conversation, bringing together theoretical introductions with artist interviews and practitioner statements. The book is supported by activities for discussion and practical devising work, as well as clear guidance for further reading and an extensive reference list across media
Performance Perspectives is essential reading for anyone studying, interpreting or making performance.
List of Illustrations and Figures
List of Tables
Notes on Contributors
Foreword; M.Wallis
Acknowledgements
Introduction; J.Pitches
PART I: BODY; Introduced and edited by A.Fenemore
Any Body? The Multiple Bodies of the Performer; V.Ramirez Ladron De Guevera
Some Body and No Body: The Body of a Performer; W.Houstoun
Every Body: Performance's Other Bodies; A.Fenemore
PART II: SPACE; Introduced and edited by S.Palmer
Event-Space: Performance Space and Spatial Performativity; D.Hannah
Scenographic Space and Place; L.A.Wilson
Audience Space/Scenographic Space; S.Palmer
PART III: TIME; Introduced and edited by T.Gardner
Theatre, Technology and Time; S.Dixon
Ghost Dance: Time and Duration in the Work of Lone Twin; G.Whelan
The Lives and Times of Performance; T.Gardner
PART IV: TECHNOLOGY; Introduced and edited by S.Popat
Gaming and Performance: Narrative and Identity; J.Wood
SwanQuake House 'Messing the System Up'; R.Gibson & B.Martelli
Performance and Technology: The Myth of Disembodiment; S.Popat
PART V: INTERACTIVITY; Introduced and edited by A.O'Grady
Boalian Perspectives on Interactivity in Theatre; J.Somers
Interactivity and the Work of Blast Theory; M.Adams
Interactivity: Functions and Risks; A.O'Grady
PART VI: ORGANISATION; Introduced and edited by C.Taylor
Performance, Culture and Industry; R.Brown
Organisational Agility and Improvisation; T.Greenstreet
Performance, Organisation, Theory; C.Taylor
Epilogue; J.Pitches
Bibliography.
