Analyzing Performance: Theater, Dance, and Film

by Patrice Pavis, A. David Williams (Translator)

Analyzing Performance provides conceptual tools for understanding a range of performance, including theater, dance, cinema, other audiovisual media, and mime. This richly illustrated book develops protocols for the analysis of performance at every level -- from the minute gestures and facial expressions of an actor to the social network in which theater is embedded -- and respects the importance of every aspect of performance, including actor, costume, space, time, music, and lighting. With a keen awareness of the roles of social context in the interpretation of performance, Patrice Pavis leads the reader from a purely formal analysis to a semiology and anthropology of performance, where spectator and actor are equally objects of study. Drawn from performance traditions and innovations all over the world, the book's many examples make critical techniques vivid and concrete. Analyzing Performance will be essential reading for critics, scholars, students, and practitioners of theater, who will find that David Williams's elegant translation brings Pavis's insights within reach of English-language readers.
Patrice Pavis, Professor of Theater at Paris-VIII University, has written extensively and influentially on performance.
David Williams is Professor of Theater, Dartington College of Arts, Devon, England.

Genres: Nonfiction

360 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Patrice Pavis (born 1947) was Professor for Theatre Studies at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England (UK), where he retired at the end of the academic year 2015/16. He has written extensively about performance, focusing his study and research mainly in semiology and interculturalism in theatre. He was awarded the Georges Jamati Prize in 1986.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

POR FIN lo acabo dios me llevan los demonios,,,,, me sirvió para tantas cosas es tan útil tan bueno pero su lectura me dio diez mil dolores de cabeza