Performance Theory: (Routledge Classics)

Few have had quite as much impact in both the academy and in the world of theatre production as Richard Schechner. For more than four decades his work has challenged conventional definitions of theatre, ritual and performance. When this seminal collection first appeared, Schechner's approach was not only novel, it was revolutionary: drama is not just something that occurs on stage, but something that happens in everyday life, full of meaning, and on many different levels. Within these pages he examines the connections between Western and non-Western cultures, theatre and dance, anthropology, ritual, performance in everyday life, rites of passage, play, psychotherapy and shamanism.

Table of Contents:
Author's Note; Acknowledgements; Introduction: The fan and the web; 1. Approaches; 2. Actuals; 3. Drama, script, theater, and performance; 4. From ritual to theater and back: the efficacy-entertainment braid; 5. Towards a poetics of performance; 6.Selective inattention; 7. Ethology and theater; 8. Magnitudes of performance; References; Index

About the Author :
One of contemporary theatre's most celebrated directors, he is also a world-renowned artist and scholar.

Review :
'Reading Performance Theory by Richard Schechner again, three decades after its first edition, is like meeting an old friend and finding out how much of him/her has been with you all along this way.' – Augusto Boal 'Richard Schechner has defined the parameters of contemporary performance with an originality and insight that make him indispensable to contemporary theatrical thought. For many years, both scholars and artists have been inspired by his unique and powerful perspective.' - Richard Foreman 'Schechner's views are usually provocative, his incidental comments are often acute, and he has a commendable gift for making unexpected connections.' - British Journal of Aesthetics 'Reading Performance Theory by Richard Schechner again, three decades after its first edition, is like meeting an old friend and finding out how much of him/her has been with you all along this way.' - Augusto Boal 'It is an indispensable text in all aspects of the new discipline of Performance Studies. It is in many ways an eye-opener particularly in its linkage of theater to other performance genres.' - Ngugi wa Thiong'o, University of California 'Performance Theory is Richard Schechner's classic contribution to the performing arts and critical theory. This is a work of erudite elegance which blazes across disciplines, cultures, and histories, illuminating some of the most fundamental symbols and rituals through which we make sense of the world in which we live.' - Homi K. Bhabha, Harvard University "Richard Schechner is the master teacher and the master conversant on the transformative power of performance to both performer and spectator, at its deepest level. Performance Theory is the essential book which brilliantly illuminates the world as a performance space on stage and off." - Anna Deavere Smith Anna Deavere Smith Anna Deavere Smith