TALK ABOUT – Chapter 1
1. Clifford Geertz wrote, “Cultural analysis is intrinsically incomplete. And, worse than that,
the more deeply it goes the less complete it is” (Interpretation of Cultures, p. 29). Is this
true of your own department in relation to performance studies? What is the “place” of
performance studies in your department?
2. How might performance studies help to deal with some of the problems facing the
world, such as threats to the environment, the oppression and exploitation of people,
overpopulation, and war?
3. At the beginning of Chapter 1, the author details his own subjectivity in relationship to
this book. How would you describe your own subjectivity? In what context have you
come to learn about performance studies? What values do you have and what values
exist in your surroundings?
4. What are the differences between analyzing text and analyzing performance? What
different tools must one use?
TALK ABOUT – Chapter 2
1. Pick an action not usually thought to be a performance – for example, waiting on line at
a supermarket checkout counter, crossing the street at a busy intersection, visiting a sick
friend. In what ways can each of these be analyzed “as” a performance?
2. Select a sports match, a religious ritual, an everyday life occurrence, and a performing
art. Discuss their similarities and differences “as” performances with regard to venue,
function, audience involvement, event structure, and historical-cultural context.
3. Definitions of “performance” change over time. For example, although now we think of
Ancient Greek theatre competitions as “theatre,” they were considered more “ritual”
than “theatre” at the time. What are examples of contemporary performances that have
or may shift categories? In what category, for example, does reality television belong?
True? Fiction? What about television news? Purely functional? Or aesthetic
entertainment?
4. What does it mean to say that “all behavior is restored behavior”? When are we aware
of our behavior being “twice-behaved” and when do we just “live life”?
5. How do performances function? In a group, create a list of performances and talk about
the different functions of performances on your list. When do functions overlap?
TALK ABOUT – Chapter 3
1. Consider your day. Describe some ordinary rituals you do. Do you also take part in, or
witness, any sacred or official rituals? What are the similarities/differences between
these two kinds of rituals? Do you consider both kinds to be “performances”? Why or
why not?
2. Have you experienced communitas during an event that was not a ritual – for example, a
concert, sports event, or party? Would analyzing the event that led to your experiencing
communitas “as” a ritual add to your understanding of what you experienced?
3. Victor Turner defined the term “liminoid” to account for symbolic actions or leisure
activities in modern or postmodern societies that compared to, but were very different
from, the concept of the “liminal,” which he reserved for discussion of traditional or
premodern societies. Discuss what distinguishes the liminoid from the liminal and try to
come up with a list of examples of liminoid actions.
4. What use of ritual in theatre, dance, and/or music have you experienced, seen, been
involved with, etc.? What types of rituals were used and how were they used? In what
ways did they change, add to, or create meaning in the performance? Compare your
own experiences to others.
5. Rituals change and sometimes new rituals are invented. What makes rituals change?
What forces create the circumstances for new rituals to be created?
TALK ABOUT – Chapter 4
1. Anonymously write out your dark-play experiences. Put the papers in the middle of a
table and select several at random to read out loud. How do these examples fit the
theories of Geertz and Bateson? What happens when the metamessage “this is play” is
subverted?
2. What is the relationship between flow, discussed in this chapter, and communitas,
discussed in Chapter 2?
3. Why is tragedy playful? Why are violent videogames playful? Can players keep the frame
of play intact? Or does violent play somehow make violence? What about military
training that uses videogame technology? Why is war sometimes compared to a game?
4. Discuss the differences between deep play and dark play. Create a list of examples of
each.
5. Have a discussion about the bias against play. Is the bias warranted in some cases? Does
“work” have to be separate from “play”? Is play a distraction?
TALK ABOUT – Chapter 5
1. The “performative” began as a theory about utterances. It has developed into
something much broader than that. Do you think that this expansion of the term makes
it “unusable” or “useless”? Or do you feel that indeed much of postmodern life is lived
“performatively”?
2. What are some of the political and social implications of conceiving race, gender, and
other identity formations as “performatives”?
3. Have a discussion about reality television. Which programs are most “real”? Why?
Which are most “fake”? How do you know the difference?
4. How does the concept of the “wiki” – that is, a public, self-editing website – relate to the
idea of poststructuralism? How does the larger concept of the internet relate to
poststructuralism? Is the internet, in the end, ineffectual?
5. Protest and poststructuralism: How can protest be discussed, analyzed, and evaluated
after poststructuralism? Is it fair to say that protest used to have the potential to make
change and now it no longer does? Or is it the opposite? Why?
TALK ABOUT – Chapter 6
1. What is meant by saying that the “performances of everyday life are as codified as
ballet”? Is such an assertion useful? Does it help you grasp more effectively what’s going
on in “real life”? How helpful in this regard is the concept of “restoration of behavior”?
2. What are the most salient differences between the performing of a shaman in trance,
the acting of a realistic movie actor such as Meryl Streep, and a mother chiding her
daughter for really bad behavior?
3. Is all acting in popular culture “realistic”? Where do you find examples of other kinds of
acting? Think about television, film, YouTube, etc.
4. What does it mean to “perform yourself”? What roles do you play? Do you have some
roles you play more or less often? Do you have roles that are more formal than others?
What changes in your physical appearance (clothes, demeanor)? In your voice? Actions?
5. What does it mean to “perform yourself” when someone is watching? What if there is a
camera watching?
TALK ABOUT – Chapter 7
1. Recall a performance in which you were a producer or performer. Explain what you did
or saw in terms of proto-performance, performance, and aftermath. If you have enough
information, discuss the performance process in terms of training, workshop, rehearsal,
warm-up, public performance, context, cooldown, critical response, archiving, and
memories.
2. How might expanding the idea of the performance process to include the whole
sequence discussed in this chapter enhance your understanding of social and political
events? Discuss this in relation to a campaign for political office, a courtroom trial, and a
medical procedure.
3. What kinds of training have you participated in? Discuss your experiences with a group.
Can training for very different performances (i.e., ice skating vs. karate) still share
similarities?
4. Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of internet performance. How does the experience
change for performer and spectator? How does the relationship between performer and
spectator change?
5. Which version of the performance quadrilogue do you think works the most effectively?
Why?
TALK ABOUT – Chapter 8
1. Has globalization affected you personally? If so, are these effects good or bad?
2. From the point of view of the majority of the world’s peoples, do you believe
globalization is good or bad? Whatever your answer, what can you do performatively
either to advance or to stop globalization?
3. Have you ever had an “intercultural moment,” when you have miscommunicated or
been misunderstood because of a difference in cultures? What did you do in that
situation? What should be done in such circumstances?
4. What does it mean to talk about globalization “as” performance? Discuss what it means
to talk about “scenarios” of globalization.
5. Tourist performance: have you ever traveled to a place where cultural performances
were offered? How were such performances “packaged” for the tourist audience?
Compare your experiences to those of others.