Reading Contemporary Performance
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Reading Contemporary Performance As the nature of contemporary performance continues to expand into new forms, genres and media, it requires an increasingly diverse vocabulary. Reading Contemporary Performance provides students, critics and creators with a rich understanding of the key terms and ideas that are central to any discussion of this evolving theatricality. Specially commissioned entries from a wealth of contributors map out the many and varied ways of discussing performance in all of its forms – from theatrical and site-specic performances to live and New Media art. e book is divided into two sections: • Concepts – key terms and ideas arranged according to the ve characteristic elements of performance art: time, space, action, performer, and audience. • Methodologies and turning points – the seminal theories and ways of reading performance, such as postmodernism, epic theatre, feminisms, happenings, and animal studies. Entries in both sections are accompanied by short case studies of specic performances and events, demonstrating creative examples of the ideas and issues in question. ree dierent introductory essays provide multiple entry points into the discussion of contemporary performance, and cross-references for each entry encourage the ploing of one’s own pathway. Reading Contemporary Performance is an invaluable guide, providing not just a strong grounding, but an exploration and contextualization of this broad and vital eld. Meiling Cheng is Associate Professor of Dramatic Arts/Critical Studies and English at the University of Southern California and Director of Critical Studies at USC School of Dramatic Arts, USA. Gabrielle H. Cody is Professor of Drama on the Mary Riepma Ross Chair at Vassar College., USA. She concentrates her areas of teaching in performance studies, environmental studies, and performance. This page intentionally left blank Reading Contemporary Performance Theatricality Across Genres Edited by Meiling Cheng and Gabrielle H. Cody First published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 ird Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 Meiling Cheng and Gabrielle H. Cody for selection and editorial maer; individual essays, the contributors e right of the editors to be identied as the authors of the editorial material, and of the contributors for their individual essays, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereaer invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identication and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Reading contemporary performance : theatricality across genres / edited by Meiling Cheng and Gabrielle Cody. pages cm Includes bibliographical references. 1. Performing arts –Philosophy. 2. Performance art – Philosophy. 3. eater – Philosophy. I. Cheng, Meiling, 1960– editor. II. Cody, Gabrielle, 1956– editor. PN1584.R43 2015 791.01-dc23 2015012992 ISBN: 978-0-415-62497-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-62498-5 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-10383-8 (ebk) Typeset in Arno and Interstate by HWA Text and Data Management, London To Willa Jane Velasquez Sio-Cody, a.k.a. Mootchie Right up to the moon and back To Master Riro, the multicentric ear for my writing This page intentionally left blank Contents List of gures xiv List of contributors xvi How to use this book xxxi M C G H. C Acknowledgments xxxii PART I Introductions 1 Reading performance: a physiognomy 3 M C G H. C eatricality across genres 8 G H. C M C Performing the theatrical matrix 11 M C G H. C Introductory essays bibliography 16 PART II Concepts and paired case studies 19 Time 21 Communitas 21 D L Endurance performance 22 J K Marina Abramovic’s Durational Opus 24 C C Event 26 M A. F viii CONTENTS Liminality 27 D L Post-linearity 29 S B-C Precariousness 30 E F Wang Wei’s Temporary Space 31 P T Remains 33 E M Reproduction 34 S B-C Space 36 Environmental Theatre 36 G A Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s red, black, and GREEN: a blues 37 A T Hierarchy 39 S L Installation art 40 R H The Internet 41 P A Landscape theatre 43 A S H Mise-en-scène 44 K J Prison culture 46 K R Proxemics 47 G H. C Fifteen principles of Black Market International 48 M L C Scenography 50 M S Surveillance 51 E M Performing Surveillance Camera Art 53 P K. N Virtual reality 55 P A Action 57 Appropriation 57 W W Circus 59 P T Experimental music 60 A J. H CONTENTS ix Grace notes: Meredith Monk’s Songs of Ascension 61 B M Extreme performance 63 M C He Yunchang’s limit acts 65 M C Happenings 67 M S Historicity 68 J C Intervention 69 L O Sisters Of Survival Signal S.O.S. 71 C G Mediaturgy 74 B M Romeo Castellucci’s Hey Girl! 75 D S Mimicry 77 J A Montage 78 T. N C S New genre public art 79 S I Excerpts from Prostitution Notes (1974) 80 S L Paradox 83 E F Paratheatre 84 L O Feminist blogging as activism and pedagogy 86 J D Propaganda 87 M S Quotation 88 S-M G Reenactment 89 S B-C Heather Cassils’ indeterminate body 90 A J Scenario 93 D T Simulacrum 94 T. N C S War 96 M S x CONTENTS Performer 98 Active analysis 98 S C Actor 99 E M Animalworks 100 M C Body Art Still Image Action: OFFERING 101 M C, S D M C Archive and repertoire 104 D T 35 Years of Living Art (excerpts from Linda Mary Montano’s blog, Thursday, December 6, 2012) 105 L M M Camp 109 A P Celebrity 110 P K. N Cultural production 111 J C Drag 113 S E Ethnic drag 114 B H Memoirs of Björk-Geisha 115 T T Explicit body performance 117 P M G Gestus 118 H B Glossolalia 119 C A Identity politics 120 C A Weights—an excerpt 121 L M Identification/dis-identification 124 J E M Masochism 125 K O’D Performing body modifications 127 A J. H Media 129 J C New Media Art 130 E B C Performance in the digital age 132 P A Performativity 133 T P CONTENTS xi Pornography 134 M S Audience 136 Audience 136 G H. C Global censorship 138 M S Ai Weiwei’s transnational public spheres 140 B Z Double-coding 144 H B Dramaturgy 145 K J Emotions 146 P T Framing 147 M S Historiography 148 E F Through the Eyes of Rachel Marker 149 M R Invisible Theatre 152 G H. C Liveness 153 P A Prosthetic performance 154 A G Gyrl grip 156 L M L N Reception theory 158 E M Concept entries and paired case studies bibliography 161 PART III Methodologies/turning points and paired case studies 175 Aging 177 C P The ecodramaturgy of Anna Halprin, Eeo Stubblefield, and Rachel Rosenthal 179 A T Animal Studies 181 U C Knowing animals now: The Unreliable Bestiary, a multi-part, ongoing performance project by Deke Weaver 183 U C Anti-art 185 K S Broad-spectrum approach 186 R S Choreography 187 A L xii CONTENTS Dance or we are lost: The Tanztheater of Pina Bausch 189 J B Cybernetics 194 P A The d/Deaf Performative 195 T P Destruction art 197 K S Disciplines in performance 198 E M Ecodramaturgy 200 A T Expanded cinema 201 S J Carolee Schneemann’s Cat Scan (New Nightmares/Ancient History) 203 E R Fluxus 205 K S Gaga Feminism 207 J H Boychild 209 J H Hybridity 212 E M Intercultural performance 213 G A Guillermo Gómez-Peña attempts to explain performance art to people who may have never heard of it 215 G G-P Intermediality 216 P A Elevator girls return: Miwa Yanagi’s border crossing between photography and theatre 218 M Y Mimesis 220 E D Minimalism 223 A L Modernism 224 D A , A P, K S Multicentricity 227 M C Performing the archive 229 T N’ Performance, postmodernism, and beyond 230 J C D Performance Studies 232 J J Photography and performance 234 P A CONTENTS xiii Cindy Sherman’s real fakery 236 R S Play 238 R S Reality Ends Here 240 J W Postcolonial performance inquiry 242 S C Postdramatic theater 243 E F The Wooster Group’s TO YOU, THE BIRDIE! (Phèdre) 245 G H. C Posthumanism 247 P K. N Becoming Kinocognophore 249 C B Y Z, M C Puppet and object performance 252 J B Racialization 254 M S Readymade 256 R H Rhetoric 257 E M Sampling 260 N H P Feminist hip-hop fusion 262 N H P Semiotics/semiology 264 T S Bodies in action 265 K S K O’D Terrorism and performance 268 J C Theatre of images 269 B M Transcontextuality 270 C R. G Y M. G Goat Island’s The Sea & Poison 272 C R. G Y M. G Transnationalism 275 H Y Whiteness 278 A J The Muslim performative 280 D B Methodologies/turning points and paired case studies bibliography 282 Index of essays 294 Index 298 Figures 1 Marina Abramovic.