A Study Of Richard Schechner’s Performance Theory

Richard Schechner is proponent of the experimental theater in the United States since the 1960s. Whether in theory or in practice, Schechner’s experimental thought of performance widely influenced postmodern theater. It is important to note that Schechner studied from theater to performance studies in the 1980s. During the 30 years, Performance studies have been spread over the world, owing to Schechner. This dissertation discusses Schechner’s performance theory, and reveals his unique value from three academic fields, which are Environment Theater, Performance Study and intercultural performance. Besides that, the thesis focuses on that Schechner’s body view, which is the core element of his theory. My dissertation is to promote and deepen the study of Richard Schechner’s.This article is divided into three chapters. The first chapter combs Schechner’s development of the performance theory and analysis main characteristics in different periods.The second chapter summarizes the main ideas and thinking modes of Schechner’s performance theory, and grapes the inner relationship of these thinkings. The third chapter comments Schechner’s body view of performance, establishing his unique values in performance theory.In the first chapter, Schechner’s performance theory is divided into three parts, which are environmental theater, performance study and intercultural performance. The performance theory of environmental theater presents three characteristics, including multiplicity of performing environment, mixture of theater elements and expansion of drama concept. Then, reasons that Schedchner studied shifting from environmental theater to performance study, has been explored in two perspectives. From the outside perspective, trends of theater development tended to be interdisciplinary in the early 1980s; from the inside perspective, Richard’s thinking has been influenced by anthropology and sociology. Then, this paper introduces the basic concepts of Schechner’s performance study, including doing, restored behavior, liminoid. From the angle of behavior, to understand the Schechner’s change can be reckoned as its extension in areas of performance research; Restored behavior is a new and important cornerstone to study the performance study; The concept of liminoid as a bridge of anthropology and performance, is one of the important conditions of studying transformation state of performers. Finally, based on the emergence of cross-cultural drama, it is briefly described that Schechner’s intercultural theatre in three periods.For Schechner’s extensive and complex performance theory, the second chapter attempts to extract and sum up them. Transformation is the core vocabulary in Schechner’s all performance theory. It controls other three important concepts:the thought of "not...not not", the contact angle of bidirectional interaction, the value of process. The thought of "not...not not" directly proposed by Schechner, is firstly described of the translation and formation process of the concept. Then the thesis digs the concept’s roots of philosophy and pragmatic philosophy, what’s more, interdisciplinary trends has been considered as another factor; finally, this chapter briefly describes that the thought of "not...not not" which embodied in the theory of performance. The contact angle of bidirectional interaction is one of the important characteristics of Schechner’s performance theory. Using the dichotomy, he divides theater factors into many of counter terms, and searches interrelationship in between these seemingly opposing things. This section describes that Schechner studied for the bidirectional interaction, including performance and life, performance and ritual, performance of eastern and western, performance and anthropology. That process more important than results is the third section, which is measured performance by Schechner. The evidence is searched from Schechner’s theory and practice to reveal a characteristic about Schechner’s thinking performance theory that is process is more important than results. and then the causes of the characteristic is given.The third chapter chooses body as the breakthrough point to explore Schechner’s performance view. First of all, this article combed the body displayed in different times of theater performance. In view of basically describing the evolution to body view, it is summarized and compared that the contents of Schechner’s one. Then, next section explores the cause of Schechner’s body view. Finally, a concrete presentation of his body view has been show through his works.