DOCSLIB.ORG

1 RICHARD SCHECHNER Richard Schechner Is University Professor

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
1 RICHARD SCHECHNER Richard Schechner Is University Professor RICHARD SCHECHNER Richard Schechner is University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. He also teaches regularly at NYU's Abu Dhabi global campus. Schechner is a founders of the field of performance studies and the author of the widely used textbook, Performance Studies—An Introduction . His BA is from Cornell University (1956), MA the University of Iowa (1958), and PhD Tulane University (1962). He was the founding artistic director of The Performance Group and is artistic director of East Coast Artists. He is editor of TDR: A Journal of Performance Studies (the leading journal in the field). He is the editor of the Enactments book series published by Seagull Books and the Worlds of Performance Series published by Routledge. Schechner is the author of scores of articles and many books including: Public Domain , Environmental Theatre , The End of Humanism , Performance Theory , Theatres, Spaces, and Environments (co-author), The Engleburt Stories (co-author), Between Theatre and Anthropology , The Future of Ritual , Over, Under, and Around , Performance Studies: An Introduction, and Performed Imaginaries. Books of his writings have appeared in Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, French, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Slovak, Portuguese, Dutch, German, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Parsi, Turkish, and Romanian. In 1967 in New York Schechner founded The Performance Group with whom he directed a number of productions, including Dionysus in 69 and Commune (both group devised) , Makbeth (devised by Schechner after Shakespeare), Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children , Seneca’s Oedipus , Sam Shepard’s The Tooth of Crime , Terry Curtis Fox’s Cops , David Gaard’s The Marilyn Project , and Jean Genet’s The Balcony . Schechner left TPG in 1980. In the 1980s, Schechner devised and directed The Prometheus Project , Richard’s Lear, Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard in New Delhi in Hindi, August Wilson’s Ma 1 Rainey’s Black Bottom in South Africa – the first African American play to be professionally staged in South Africa, and Sun Huizhou’s Tomorrow He’ll Be Out of the Mountains in Shanghai in Mandarin. In 1992, Schechner founded East Coast Artists. With ECA he directed Faust/gastronome , Chekhov’s Three Sisters , Hamlet , YokastaS Redux (co- authored with Saviana Stanescu), and Lian Amaris’s Swimming to Spalding . Also in the 1990s-2000s he directed The Oresteia in Taiwan (his own adaptation translated into Mandarin and Taiwanese), Beckett’s Waiting for Godot , and Hamlet in Shanghai, Wroclaw, Poland, and Craiova, Romania. In 2009 a restaging of Schechner’s/Performance Group’s Dionysus in 69 was staged by the Rude Mechanicals of Austin, Texas. This production came to New York in November 2012. In 2011, Schechner led the team devising Imagining O, at the University of Kent, UK and Kerala, India. A new version of Imagining O opened the 2014-15 season of the Peak Performance Festival, Montclair, New Jersey. Schechner has lectured and led many performance workshops in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Before founding TPG and ECA, Schechner was a producing director of the Free Southern Theatre (FST), one of the three founding directors of the New Orleans Group, and the founding artistic director of the East End Players of Provincetown, MA. The FST staged works in rural Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana as well as in New Orleans. The New Orleans Group was an association of performing and visual artists exploring environmental theatre and the then new genre of performance art. After completing his PhD, Schechner became an assistant professor and then associate professor at Tulane University where he also edited the Tulane Drama Review (TDR ). Schechner came to NYU as a full professor in September 1967. In 1992 he was promoted to NYU's highest rank, University Professor. When Schechner moved to NYU, he brought TDR with him. He edited 2 TDR until 1969; and resumed the editorship in 1985 -- and still edits it now. At NYU, Schechner was among the founders of the Performance Studies Department (so-named in 1980). The Performance Studies Department is a leading exponent of interdisciplinary thinking linking scholarship and artistic practice to anthropology, feminism, post-structuralism, queer theory, political and cultural studies, and the avantgarde. In 2010, the Performance Studies was ranked by the National Research Council as the number one PhD program in theatre and performance studies in the USA. Schechner is an advisory editor of the Asian Theatre Journal and the Journal of Ritual Studies . Schechner's honors include a Lifetime Achievement Award from Performance Studies international (PSi), a Career Achievement Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), a Guggenheim fellowship, two Fulbright fellowships, a Senior Research Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, an NEH Senior Research Fellow, and Erasmus Mundus Fellow of the European Union, the Mondello Prize, the Thalia Award of the International Association of Theatre Critics, two Asian Cultural Council grants, and an American Institute of Indian Studies Senior Research Fellowship, The Odznake Honorowa from the Polish Government for Supporting Polish Culture, a Humanities and Old Dominion Fellow at Princeton University, a Hoffman Eminent Scholar at Florida State University, an Emmens Visiting Professor at Ball State University, a Whitney Halstead Scholar at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College, Cline Centennial Visiting Professor in the Humanities at the University of Texas, and an Andrew H. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. In 2009, Schechner was the principal honoree at the 21 st Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre. He is an honorary professor of theatre at the Institute for the Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba and an honorary professor of the Shanghai Theatre Academy where in 2005 the Richard Schechner Center for Performance Studies was founded. The Schechner Center 3 sponsors research, hosts conferences, produces plays, and publishes TDR/China , a Chinese language edition of the journal Schechner edits. In the spring-summer of 2009, Schechner curated the Year of Grotowski (a UNESCO designation) in New York with events at Lincoln Center, New York University, Columbia University, the City University of New York, and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. In 2009, the "RS & PS Conference" concerning Schechner's work and its impact on performance studies was convened in Israel. Performance Studies in Motion , based on this conference, was published in 2014. In 2011, The Rise of Performance Studies: Rethinking Richard Schechner's Broad Spectrum was published. Also in 2011, Schechner was the focus of “Schechner Saturday” at the Barbicon Center, London. In 2015, "Richard Schechner Day," offering a view of Schechner's artistic, scholarly, and creative writing work happened at the Segal Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). Currently Schechner is working with Rishika Mehrishi on a book about the Ramlila of Ramnagar – a 31 day cycle play of north India. 4 .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Performance Theory
    Performance Theory “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 par- ticularly in its linkage of theater to other performance genres.” Ngu˜ gı˜ wa Thiong’o, University of California “Richard Schechner has defined the parameters of con- temporary 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 has a place in every theater history textbook for his ground-breaking work in environmental theater in the 1960s and 1970s and for his vision in helping to found the discipline of performance studies.” Rebecca Schneider “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. Perform- ance Theory is the essential book which brilliantly illuminates the world as a performance space on stage and off.” Anna Deveare Smith A highlands Papua New Guinea man takes a break from dancing (see chapter 4, “From ritual to theater and back: the efficacy– entertainment braid”). Richard Schechner Performance Theory Revised and expanded edition, with a new preface by the author London and New York Essays on Performance Theory published 1977 by Ralph Pine, for Drama School Specialists Second edition first published 1988 by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 First published in the United Kingdom 1988 by Routledge First published in Routledge Classics 2003 by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
    [Show full text]
  • Performance Studies
    PERFORMANCE STUDIES The publication of Performance Studies:An Introduction was a The book itself has also been revised, with 25 new defining moment for the field. Richard Schechner’s pioneer- extracts and biographies, up-to-date coverage of global and ing textbook provides a lively and accessible overview of the intercultural performances, and further exploration of the full range of performance for undergraduates at all levels and growing international presence of performance studies as a beginning graduate students in performance studies,theatre, discipline. performing arts, and cultural studies. Among the topics Performance Studies is the definitive overview for under- discussed are the performing arts and popular entertain- graduates, with primary extracts, student activities, key ments, rituals, play and games, and the performances of biographies and over 200 images of global performance. everyday life.Supporting examples and ideas are drawn from the social sciences,performing arts,poststructuralism,ritual Richard Schechner is a pioneer of performance studies. theory,ethology,philosophy,and aesthetics. A scholar, theatre director, editor, and playwright, he is This third edition is accompanied by an all-new companion University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies at website curated by Sara Brady. It features clips of Richard the Tisch School of the Arts,NewYork University.He is editor Schechner discussing his approach to performance studies and of TDR:The Journal of Performance Studies. Schechner is the explaining key ideas,
    [Show full text]
  • PERFORMANCE STUDIES: an Introduction
    PERFORMANCE STUDIES The publication of Performance Studies:An Introduction was a The book itself has also been revised, with 25 new defining moment for the field. Richard Schechner’s pioneer- extracts and biographies, up-to-date coverage of global and ing textbook provides a lively and accessible overview of the intercultural performances, and further exploration of the full range of performance for undergraduates at all levels and growing international presence of performance studies as a beginning graduate students in performance studies,theatre, discipline. performing arts, and cultural studies. Among the topics Performance Studies is the definitive overview for under- discussed are the performing arts and popular entertain- graduates, with primary extracts, student activities, key ments, rituals, play and games, and the performances of biographies and over 200 images of global performance. everyday life.Supporting examples and ideas are drawn from the social sciences,performing arts,poststructuralism,ritual Richard Schechner is a pioneer of performance studies. theory,ethology,philosophy,and aesthetics. A scholar, theatre director, editor, and playwright, he is This third edition is accompanied by an all-new companion University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies at website curated by Sara Brady. It features clips of Richard the Tisch School of the Arts,NewYork University.He is editor Schechner discussing his approach to performance studies and of TDR:The Journal of Performance Studies. Schechner is the explaining key ideas,
    [Show full text]
  • Vignettes from a Lifetime of Studying Performance Richard Schechner
    Vignettes From a Lifetime of Studying Performance Richard Schechner Abstract In this commentary, summarized from a recent interview, the author shares insights and memories from a career devoted to drama and performance studies. He enthusiastically recounts events, initiatives, and collaborations that have helped sustain his lifelong passion for performance. Prologue: New York City, April 27, 2020 There is no darkness that doesn’t have some light. It’s very nice to be in a city where there is 60 to 80% less air pollution; where the sky is clear; there is very little traffic, you can breathe. When you go out in the morning and take a walk, the streets are pretty empty, but you do this dance if somebody comes near you, you move away. The negative, of course, is that it’s a night without a clear dawn in the sense that when it gets dark tonight at 7:30 or 8:00 pm, I know that at 6:30 or 7:00 am the light will come up. I’m not sure when the light is going to come up with this pandemic. Developing a Critical Distance As I got into my late teenage years and decided to go college, I saw myself at that point as a writer and literary person. My undergraduate degree was in English and Philosophy with a lot of Psychology. I started to do lots of writing during that period. I was at Cornell University at the daily newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun, and I wrote for it intensively. When I was a senior, I probably could have stood to be editor-in-chief, but by that time I was more reflective, so I decided to become the editorial page editor, who oversees the opinions of the paper, and also I was a drama reviewer.
    [Show full text]
  • RICHARD SCHECHNER and the Perforl^IANCE GROUP: a STUDY
    RICHARD SCHECHNER AND THE PERFORl^IANCE GROUP: A STUDY OF ACTING TECHNIQUE AND METHODOLOGY by ESTHER SUNDELL LICHTI, B.A., A.M. A DISSERTATION IN THEATRE ARTS Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May, 1986 ego r3 copyright 1986 Esther Sundell Lichti T'3 C^^^» -^ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply indebted to Professor Richard A. Weaver and to the other members of my committee. Professors Clifford A. Ashby, Michael C. Gerlach, Daniel 0. Nathan, and Steven Paxton, for their encouragement and helpful criticism. I would also like to thank Richard Schechner for his time and generosity. This study was funded in part by the Paul Whitfield Horn Fellowship made possible by the Texas Tech University Women's Club and the University Quarterly Club. Finally, I am grateful for the love and support I have received from my fellow students, my friends, and my family. Ill ABSTRACT The social and cultural upheaval of the 1960s spawned a wide range of "alternative" theatre companies concerned with finding a solution to what they perceived as the imminent death of theatre in the United States. The Performance Group, under the direction of Richard Schechner, proved one of the most important. The study is presented in three sections. Section one sets forth the history of TPG, the theory of environmental theatre, and a study of influences upon the company's work. Section two examines the productions Dionysus in 69, Makbeth, and Commune with regard to their development from the inital idea through performance, including descriptions of the physical environments, acting problems, and performance methodology.
    [Show full text]
  • CURRICULUM VITAE JOSEPH ROACH November 2016 Department of English (203) 432-2233 (O) Yale University, PO Box 208302 (203
    CURRICULUM VITAE JOSEPH ROACH November 2016 Department of English (203) 432-2233 (o) Yale University, PO Box 208302 (203) 859-8170 New Haven, CT 06520-8302 FAX: (203) 432-7066 http://ipsy.commons.yale.edu/ [email protected] EDUCATION Ph.D. Cornell University, 1973 M.A. University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1970 B.A. University of Kansas, 1969 PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS 2008- Sterling Professor of Theater; Professor English and African-American Studies; 1997-08 Professor of Theater, English, and African-American Studies; 2001-08 Charles C. and Dorathea S. Dilley Professor, Yale University 1990-97 Professor of English, Tulane University 1993 Visiting Professor, Performance Studies, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU 1987-90 Professor of Theatre and English, Northwestern University 1982-87 Associate Professor, Performing Arts, Washington University in St. Louis 1975-82 Assistant-Associate Professor of Theatre Arts, Sweet Briar College, 1979-1982 1973-75 Assistant Professor, Department of Theatre, SUNY-Albany HONORS, FELLOWSHIPS, AND GRANTS Oscar Brockett Award for Outstanding Teaching, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, 2013 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2012- American Antiquarian Society, 2012- Interdisciplinary Performance Studies at Yale, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 2011- Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Warwick (UK), 2009 Fletcher Jones Foundation Distinguished Fellow, Huntington Library, 2008-09 William Clyde Devane Lectures, Yale University, 2007 Distinguished Achievement Award, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
    [Show full text]
  • Cutugno Carmela Tesi.Pdf
    Intercultural Performance and Dialogue From Richard Schechner Performance Studies Onwards Carmela Cutugno A Mamma e Papà Indice 0.0 Ground floor: Introduzione metodologica p. 5 0.1 Dichiarazione d’intenti: per una meta-metodologia 5 0.2 Embody the subject, walk on the field! 7 1.1 Performance Studies: impalcature generali 12 1.2 TDR: un copione gestativo per Performance Studies 17 1.3 Performance Studies: brevi cenni biografici 22 1.4 Tutta un’altra storia: Performance Studies alla NYU Vs Performance Studies alla NWU 38 1.5 Teatro ⊂ Performance Teatro Performance 42 2.1 PS: Segni Particolari. Performance come Oggetto, Performance come Lente 55 2.2 Performance come oggetto di studio 56 2.3 Archivio Vs Repertorio 66 2.4 Remains Vs Disappearing 71 2.5 Reenactment: da Marina Abramovic all’Intangible Cultural Heritage dell’UNESCO 74 2.6 Clifford Owens: from the Ontology of Performance to an Anthology of Performance 91 2.7 Non toccare l’intoccabile: una Convenzione UNESCO per salvaguardare il Patrimonio Culturale Immateriale 95 3.1 Performance Studies: “in pratica”? Praticanti della teoria, teorici di fatto 105 3.2 Intervallo immaginativo: Re-imagining “Imagining O” 110 3.3 Altri artisti della performance. Curating Performance 190 4.1 No Conclusion: “in between” works in progress 198 4.2 Lo stato liminale dei PS: gli “in betweenness” disciplinanti 199 4.3 Studi impegnati, performances schierate 201 Allegati I. Interviste Ia. Richard Schechner’s Performance Studies 210 Ib. “Rebecca Schneider’s Performance Studies Remains” 229 Ic. A “specific perspective” from a “Performance Studies International” voice. An Interview with Maaike Bleeker 241 Id.
    [Show full text]
  • In Conversation╦
    ITJ 1 (1) pp. 5–18 Intellect Limited 2017 Indian Theatre Journal Volume 1 Number 1 itj © 2017 Intellect Ltd Interview. English language. doi: 10.1386/itj.1.1.5_7 Indian Theatre Journal Intellect 10.1386/itj.1.1.5_7 1 INTERVIEW 1 5 RICHARD SCHECHNER New York University 18 SREENATH NAIR University of Lincoln © Intellect Ltd 2017 In conversation… Sreenath Nair: Richard, you have a long history of interaction with Indian theatre, people, performances and events. Richard Schechner: I’m familiar with the Ramlila. But, I’m not that familiar with Indian theatre. I have seen a good range of traditional Indian perfor- mances, seen few modern Indian theatre productions, directed a couple of productions in India and spoke in few conferences. When I go to India, I mostly go to Varanasi for Ramlila and visit my friends in Delhi. So, I don’t think of myself as much informed about Indian theatre. SN: Can I start this conversation with a basic question? Why do we need theatre and what functions do you think theatre perform in social and individual life? RS: Your question is part of a larger question of why do we need art and what function does art have in social life? We don’t need art to survive physically. But humans don’t live by bread alone. Isn’t it compelling that even the poor- est people, those who barely have food, shelter and clothes, still perform their religious rituals, sing songs and dance? They share what little they have with the gods. Performance activities in the service of religion, or in the service of art or in the service of pleasure – or all of these combined – continue regardless www.intellectbooks.com 5 ITJ_1.1.indb 5 4/13/2017 5:00:57 PM Sreenath Nair | Richard Schechner of who you are and how rich or poor you are.
    [Show full text]
  • “Environmental Theater” Richard Schechner
    OTHER TITlES FROM THE ApPLAUSE ACTING SERIES: THE ApPLAUSE ACTING SERIES ON SINGING ON STAGE David Craig THE END OF ACTlNG: A RADICAL VIEW Richad Homby ACTING IN FILM (book & videocassette) ENVIRONMENTAL Michael Caine DIRECTING THE ACTION Charles Morowitz MICHAEL CHEKHOV: ON THEATRE AND THE ART OF ACTING THEATER (autiotapes) THE MONOLOGUE WORKSHOP lack Poggi An Expanded New Edition RECYCLING SHAKESPEARE Charles Morowitz including "Six Axioms Fo! SHAKESCENES: SHAKESPEARE FOR Two lohn Russell Brown Environmental Theater" SPEAK WITH DISTlNCTlON Edith Skinner STANISLAVSKI REVEALED Sonia Moore THE STANISLAVSKY TECHNIQUE: RUSSIA MelGordon Richard Schechner THE CRAFTSMEN OF DIONYSUS Jerome Rockwood THE ACTOR AND THE TEXT Cicely Barry ONE ON ONE: BEST MONOLOGUES FOR THE NINITIES lack Temchin (ed.) SHAKESPEARE'S PuYS IN PERFORMANCE lohn Russell Brown ,I m ZHdK-MIZ (Zürich) IH>. A'3>0b An Applause Original -- ---""-~-~---- -------_./ Environmental Theater By Richard Schechner Copyright © 1973, 1994 Richard Schechner All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanicaI, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publishers, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper or broadcast. m Special emphasis is placed on photocopying of any part of this text for classroo use. The publish­ er hereby cautions that all breaches of copyright will be prosecuted. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Contents Schechner, Richard, 1934- Environmental theater I Richard Schechner.
    [Show full text]