“What is Performance” Summary

“Is” and “as” performance.

 What “is” theatre now is not the same as what it used to mean in the past.

 It used to be more about the ritual of drama and festival it was a part of.

 However, in the medieval period this changed and many different activities

took part on the street – it was no longer a ritual. (Commedia dell’ arte)

 By the nineteenth century, theatre was more considered an art form.

 “Avant-garde” – groups going against the norm for theatre.

 Some performance theorists argue that every day is a performance

 Anything can be studied “as” performance

 Make-belief and make-believe

 Functions of performance; to entertain, to create beauty, to mark or

change identity, to make or build up the community, to heal, to teach or

persuade, to deal with the good and the evil

 Jiang Qing created ‘model operas’ in order to carve a new sort of

community based on Chinese Communism’s values.

 However by the beginning of the twenty-first century, it returned to being

enjoyed artistically and as entertainment, rather than more politically as

afrorementioned.