The Twentieth-Century Performance Reader

452 Pages·1996·64.851 MB·English

by  Michael Huxley (editor), Noel Witts (editor)

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The Twentieth-Century Performance Reader
For the first time it is possible to compare major writings on all types of perform-
ance - dance, music, theatre, live art - in one volume. In this pioneering selection
of seminal texts, written by over forty international practitioners, the editors
encourage performance to be considered across and between disciplines, rather
than presenting merely an historical survey.
Sections are organised not chronologically or according to art form, but
alphabetically, therefore allowing the reader freedom to cross-refer and compare
without restraint. The contributors - not only performers, composers, choreog-
raphers, directors and playwrights, but also key critics and theorists - all seek
to affirm performance as a discipline in its own right. The writing is fully supple-
mented with contextual summaries, cross-references and suggested further
reading, and features a definitive new bibliography. Artaud, Bausch, Brecht, Cage,
Cunningham, Duncan, Glass, Hijikata, Kantor, Marinetti, Rainer, Schechner and
Soyinka are just some of the writers included in this volume.
This reader will be an essential sourcebook for researchers, practitioners
and all students of dance, music, theatre, drama and performance studies. It will
also be of interest to anyone who enjoys innovative live performance.
Michael Huxley teaches and researches dance and performance history at De
Montfort University. Noel Witts is Professor of Performing Arts at De Montfort
University and also writes and broadcasts for the BBC.

The
Twentieth-Century
Performance
Reader
Edited, with an introduction and
contextual summaries, by
Michael Huxley
and
Noel Witts
First published 1996 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE fArocmatatlhoeguBeritrieschorLdibfroarrythisbook is available
Simultaneously published in the USA
and Canada by Routledge Library ofCongress Cataloguing in Publication Data
29 West 35th Street, New York,
NY 10001 A catalogue record for this book is available
from the Library ofCongress
Reprinted 1997
© 1996 Michael Huxley and Noel Witts ISBN 0-415-11627-9 (hbk)
ISBN 0-A15-11628-7 (pbk)
Typeset in Bell Gothicand Perpetua by
Florencetype Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Biddies Ltd. Guildford and King's Lynn
All rights reserved. No part ofthis book may
be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any
form orby any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, orin
any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the
publishers.
To our students — past, present and future

Contents
Preface XIII
Acknowledgements xvii
Michael Huxley and Noel Witts
INTRODUCTION
TWENTIETH-CENTURY PERFORMANCE
THE CASE FOR A NEW APPROACH
1 Laurie Anderson
THE SPEED OF CHANGE 15
2 Adolph Appia
ACTOR, SPACE, LIGHT, PAINTING 21
3 Antonin Artaud
THEATRE AND CRUELTY 25
4 Sally Banes
TERPSICHORE IN SNEAKERS: POST-MODERN
DANCE 30
CONTENTS
5 Eugenlo Barba
WORDS OR PRESENCE 36
6 Roland Barthes
THE GRAIN OF THE VOICE 44
^^
7 Pina Bausch
NOT HOW PEOPLE MOVE BUT WHAT MOVES THEM 53
8 Julian Beck
ACTING EXERCISES
9 Walter Benjamin
WHAT IS EPIC THEATER?
10 Rustom Bharucha
NOTES ON THE INVENTION OF TRADITION
11 Augusto Boal
THE THEATRE AS DISCOURSE 85
12 Bertolt Brecht v^_
SHORT DESCRIPTION OF A NEW TECHNIQUE OF
ACTING WHICH PRODUCES AN ALIENATION EFFECT
13 Peter Brook
THE DEADLY THEATRE n;
14 Trisha Brown
TRISHA BROWN: AN INTERVIEW 119
15 John Cage
FOUR STATEMENTS ON THE DANCE 129
VI II