What Is Performance Theory

What Is Performance Theory
1.) Pair one phrase from List 1 to the correct corresponding example in List 2:
List 1
1) explaining showing doing
2) doing
3) showing doing
List 2
a) booking a ticket and flying to Ghana, West Africa
b) a West African dance piece depicting an ancestor-worship ritual in Ghana
c) a book about the importance of West African dance classes in the United States for Black women students who use dance to virtually travel to Africa and reimagine an ancestral community
2.) Short Answer
What are Richard Schechner’s definitions for the following:
1. doing
2. showing-doing
3. explaining-showing-doing
3.) According to Schechner, which of the following are examples of performance?
a) A theater play
b) A baptism at a church
c) A parent showing a baby how to eat, by lifting a spoon to their own mouth
d) All the above
4.) Short Answer
Writing in your own words, what is restored behavior? If you quote from the reading use citations AND explain the quote in your own words.
5.) Give an example of a restored behavior performed by:
a) you everyday
b) your family (biological or chosen) at home
c) other students, staff or teachers on campus or online/at school
Choose one of your three examples and consider how this performance is usually/habitually staged. If you change the stage, how does the performance change? Do specific behaviors change? Does the audience change? How does the change of stage affect the performance? For example–napping at home to napping at a bus stop. (3-4 sentences)
6. SHORT PARAGRAPH: Pick one of the following hegemonic idea-concepts to describe as-performance. “Hegemonic” refers to the ways the idea-concept has become a dominant (often expected and enforced) cultural construct within a specific society and/or across many societies. How have you experienced the idea-concept performed in everyday life?
Consider the following questions to guide your response:
• Who is the performer(s)?
• What specific restored behaviors are typical of the performance? What habitual actions/behaviors/gestures/movements go into the performance of the idea-concept? Be specific: Are specific parts of the body emphasized? How do those body parts move?
• Where does the “as-performance” usually take place? Are there specific stages or ways of staging the performance to make it very successful or least successful?
• How does the performer(s) use elements like costume, prop, script to make the performance most convincing? Describe the elements and how the performer(s) might use them in an everyday setting.
Use the underlined, highlighted performance vocabulary terms in your written response, to help you think and write as a performance theorist.
a) “girl” as performance
b) “masculinity” as performance
c) “diversity” as performance