Post 1: Performance and/versus Theatre: Welcoming the Gray

Post 1: Performance and/versus Theatre: Welcoming the Gray

It seems to me, in some cases, that ignorance can benefit a conversation when trying to go beyond common constructs and known knowledge of any particular concept or discussion.

As I see it, to “create” is to bring together known ideas in a new way, thus presenting something new that is either audience accepted or audience unaccepted based on several present-day factors. I say “present-day” because present knowledge and experiences directly affect current perception on any topic. Tomorrow or yesterday may bring about a very different response, thus affecting the outcome and next choices like a ripple in water. One can take into account past, present, and possible future outcomes to any presentation or performance and gather data which informs future choices to stay the course or change direction entirely.

I’m curious if the purpose, and consequently the “choice,” is one of the more helpful factors to entertain in discerning between Performance and Theatre. If the choice is based on the value of a particular thing, and then the ultimate goal is determined based on the desired outcome and what value you expect to reap. These outcomes can be shaped by circumstance and expectation and the level of risk involved in attaining your said-outcome.  What is driving the production of more creations like or dislike what has already been produced? 

1)    Is it a company’s brand? (Audience numbers, reputation, hire ability, sustainability of a theatre company, repeatability, and location)

2)    Is it social change? (Awareness on a particular topic or behavior, re-awareness of a forgotten need, additional support of a currently under-supported initiative)

3)    Is it the search for genuine human interaction/reaction/action? (Opportunity to escape from the daily grind, shared similar experience, connection, reflection)

The amount of weight or value we put into an audience’s response has a direct correlation in the purpose of our next choice. But what if we say we do not care about the outcome, only that it be honest, genuine and unsolicited as much as possible? I’m not sure that is possible. There may be varying degrees, but it seems there will always be some pressure to perform, whether it be an athletic event, theatre event, or in a business or educational presentation. If we return to and clearly identify the purpose of our creation and performance, the discernment may be more possible, though there will always be overlap.

I offer that the factors of performance are infused into theatre, but that theatre is a more concentrated, messy, and polished subcategory of performance. Theatre’s particular desires and outcomes require audience engagement, beyond right and wrong, and a discernment of the gray between them. Theatre comes with a more specific list of expectations and desired outcomes, oftentimes regardless of genre.  That can be used to educate its audiences if the performers and medium so chooses or allows.  In a basketball game, the spectators are conditioned to cheer or boo, stand or sit, make the choice to root for a particular team, engage, and respond in particular ways. There may be discussion about specific strategies and how effective they were or were not executed and bets on how the next game will play out as a result. There is a continuation of the event to the next event. There is a standard accepted script that audiences are conditioned to follow over time. But if a spectator were to walk onto the floor in the middle of game play alerts would go off in everyone’s head because that is not “following the social script.” There is a level of safety in following what is expected.

All of this could be said of a theatrical performance. Though, it goes miles further. Perhaps the script is more repeatable and comes with an expected outcome, at least on stage? Theatre challenges what one would expect. Life challenges what one would expect. It is never an ordinary day. It is never what we expect, it is always an extension of reality for the sake of self, world study, or reflection. The audience may forget this and may be pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised, but nonetheless they are shifted in some way to experience something they probably didn’t expect. If they feel nothing or something, it is still something that they experienced in that time. The space between expectation and fruition is what theatre illuminates. It awakens places in us that are not easily expressible. But the shared experience is what has value (as each person, audience, technician, and actor experiences it differently but in the same moment). An encounter with their humanity is what is achieved. What makes each person innately different from the next person is examined for a split second. It is a suspension of and an elevation of reality. The excitement of not knowing what comes next is present in both sports and theatre, but the outcome is black and white with performance and more gray with theatre. Theatre represents that which is not easily expressible. To like or dislike a performance could open a myriad of reasons one is either willing or unwilling to discuss. To provide a name or description gives it a personal value but a different value for each particular person’s gauge. In basketball, a win is a win, and a loss a loss. A theatrical performance could be a million things between a win or a loss based on millions of choices that were made from the actor, producer, text, audience response, etc. It could be a small win in a non-conference game or the national championship, but it is still a win or loss. The ability to definitively discern large portions of the performance makes it less about heart and creativity (not devoid, mind you) and more about strategy. Though there is strategy that goes into any performance, the creativity and heart is what makes it more about the human condition. Perhaps determining what it is not, would help me determine what it is.

My struggle to quantify a distinction between Performance and Theatre lies in the very heart of my passion to want to discover a black and white answer knowing full well that there isn’t one. Consequently, the struggle I am having in the gray of this discussion is also the very reason for theatrical experiences at this point in my journey. To be constantly in movement through the process of coming to a better understanding, whatever that understanding forms into. It will be ever changing, as life.  A constructed distinction is necessary to those who are faced with the conundrum to solve it for a purpose. Perhaps a legal proving or theatre board producing a particular project would need more definition. My personal conflict is still in process. The level at which this struggle continues will depend on the pressure of my professor’s need and society’s needs to squeeze out a justified answer, as those conversations present themselves. Nonetheless, this is a beginning to a conversation with admittedly no end. To each individual it is differently deep, rich, and personal. It is not as much about coming up with the answer for me, but being aware of the gray as I development my voice as an artist.