Performance Perspectives
A Critical Introduction
Published on 18. October 2011
Book
Hardback
264 pages
978-0-230-24345-3 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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.
Reviews / Votes
'As a tool to facilitate the orientation, critical grounding, analysis, and evaluation of performance work, this should be a set text for every theatre and performance course.' - New Theatre Quarterly 'This book is a guide and a map to key concepts that inspire the making and theorizing of performance. Re-imagining the borders that separate academics and practitioners, Performance Perspectives gives voice to multiple ways of thinking, observing, interconnecting, bridling, and creating.' - Lin Hixson, Professor and Chair, Performance Department, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA 'Pitches and Popat have constructed an invaluable resource for students and scholars of contemporary performance anywhere. Performance Perspectives provides new angles on the field and is ideally suited for use in the tertiary classroom.' Edward Scheer, Associate Professor of Theatre Studies, University of New South Wales, Australia.More details
Edition
2011
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
570 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-230-24345-3 (9780230243453)
DOI
10.1007/978-0-230-35680-1
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
10/2011
Red Globe Press
€44.40
Shipment within 15-20 days
E-Book
10/2011
Methuen Drama
€62.99
Available for download
Persons
JONATHAN PITCHES is Professor of Theatre and Performance in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds, UK. He is the author of Vsevolod Meyerhold and Science and the Stanislavsky Tradition of Acting, and founding co-editor of Theatre Dance and Performance Training.
SITA POPAT is Head of the School of Performance and Cultural Industries and Senior Lecturer in Dance at the University of Leeds, UK. She is the author of Invisible Connections: Dance, Choreography and Internet Communities, and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media.
SITA POPAT is Head of the School of Performance and Cultural Industries and Senior Lecturer in Dance at the University of Leeds, UK. She is the author of Invisible Connections: Dance, Choreography and Internet Communities, and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media.
Content
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.