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Richard Schechner: The Performance Group

Environmental Theatre

Training Process

1. ‘It is necessary to accept a definition of theatre which is not based upon traditional distinctions between life and art’

2. ‘All the space is used for performance’ and ‘all the space is used for the audience’

3. ‘The theatrical event can take place either in a totally transformed space or in a found space.'’

4. 'Focus is flexible and variable.'

5. ‘One element is not submerged for the sake of others.'

6. ‘The text need be neither the starting point nor the goal of a production. There may be no text at all.”

  • The actor must train their entire instrument, body, voice, and mind
  • The actor is a creation in his own right and not merely an interpreter of someone else's work
  • Intense physical and mental discipline and concentration
  • Allowed spontaneity necessary to discover impulses and responses within himself

What's good?

Origins and Influences

Exercises

Richard Schechner founded and established The Performance Group in 1967, New York. This was a troupe of experimental theatre. He created this group to explore and experiment with environmental theatre, group processes, training techniques and the performer-audience relationship.

2. Getting in touch with yourself face-to-face with others

Double Mirror

1. Getting in touch with yourself

gut | spine | extremities | face

Hip roll

Pulling in, Stretching out

2

1

"We do not “do” the play; we “did with it.” We confronted it, searched among its words and themes, built around and through it. And we came out with our own thing."

1. Getting in touch with yourself

Pulling in, Stretching out (face)

Swallowing (gut)

3

4

3. Relating to others without narrative or highly formalised structure

4. Relating to others within narrative or other highly formalised structures

I

Surge

Trust

The Meal and the Eaters

Richard Schechner

  • Performance is a combination of theatre, play, ritual, dance, music, popular entertainment, sports, politics, and performance in everyday life.
  • All the space is used for performance and all the space is used for the audience.
  • Create environment that forces audience to choose form themselves what to watch - to become inovolved or leave entierely.
  • Focus is flexible and variable.

References

Dionysus in '69. Film. United States: Brian de Palma, 1970.

Farrar, Jennifer. “All the World Really is a Stage: Performance Studies.” Times Higher Education, 2003. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/all-the-world-really-is-a-stage/178840.article.

Lichti, Esther Sundell. “Richard Schechner and the Performance Group: A Study of Acting Technique and Methodology.” A Dissertation in Theatre Arts 1, no. 1 (1986): 1-204.

“Richard Schechner: Performance Studies.” ICOSILUNE, 2009. http://www.icosilune.com/2009/01/richard-schechner-performance-theory/.

“Richard Schechner: Professor.” TISCH, 2016. https://tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/performance-studies/3508301.

Shank, Thomas. Beyond the Boundaries: American Alternative Theatre. US: The University of Michigan Press, 2002.

Schechner, Richard. Essays on Performance Theory 1970-1976. Drama Book Specialisits: New York, 1977.

Schechner, Richard. "The Conservative Avant-Garde." New Litererary History 41, no. 4 (Autumn 2010): 895-913.

Schechner, Richard. "The End of Humanism." Peforming Arts Journal 4, no. 1/2 (May 1979): 9-22.

Schechner, Richard. "6 Axioms for Environmental Theatre." The Drama Review: TDR 12, no. 3 (Spring 1968): 41-64.

"Schechner imagines a painting on a wall. Rather than trying to "read" a painting, a performance studies scholar focuses on the "behaviour" of the painting, for example how it interacts with its viewers, the reactions and meanings it can evoke, and how its meaning changes over time and in different contexts."

"Performance studies takes everyday life as its stage and every form of human activity can come under its spotlight. From performance art to political rallies, to the law courts, religious ceremonies and sporting events, to simply dressing up for a night out on the town, the reach of performance studies is potentially limitless and can appear baffling or even a little daunting to the first-time student."

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