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Richard Schechner's Introduction to Performance Studies

Approx. 25 hours to complete

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Course Summary

Richard Schechner's Introduction to Performance Studies is an online course designed for students who want to learn about the history, theory, and practice of performance. This course covers a wide range of topics, from ritual and theater to dance and performance art.

Key Learning Points

Learn about the history, theory, and practice of performance
Explore different forms of performance, including ritual, theater, dance, and performance art
Understand the role of performance in contemporary culture

Job Positions & Salaries of people who have taken this course might have

Theater Director
- USA: $60,000 - $100,000
- India: INR 3,00,000 - INR 6,00,000
- Spain: €30,000 - €45,000
Performance Artist
- USA: $25,000 - $75,000
- India: INR 1,50,000 - INR 5,00,000
- Spain: €20,000 - €35,000
Theater Critic
- USA: $40,000 - $70,000
- India: INR 2,50,000 - INR 4,50,000
- Spain: €25,000 - €40,000

Learning Outcomes

Understand the basic concepts and theories of performance studies
Develop critical thinking skills when analyzing different forms of performance
Apply knowledge gained to real-world situations in the performing arts industry

Prerequisites or good to have knowledge before taking this course

No prior knowledge or experience in performance studies required
Access to a computer and internet connection

Course Difficulty Level

Intermediate

Course Format

Online
Self-paced

Similar Courses

Introduction to Theatre and Drama Arts
The Art of Poetry

Related Education Paths

Notable People in This Field

Judith Butler
Peggy Phelan

Related Books

Description

Performance Studies: An Introduction explores the wide world of performance--from theatre, dance, and music to ritual, play, political campaigns, social media, and the performances of everyday life. Performance studies also ranges across cultures--Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, the Americas. And it spans historical periods from the art of the paleolithic caves to YouTube and the avantgarde. This course is devised by Richard Schechner, one of the pioneers of performance studies, in dialogue with more than a dozen expert scholars and artists. Performance Studies: An Introduction puts students in dialogue with the most important ideas, approaches, theories, and questions of this dynamic, new academic field.

Learning Objectives By the end of this course, you should be able to: Articulate and analyze the major concepts of performance studies Identify and analyze performances within the “broad spectrum of performance”--from everyday life and social media to performance art and global spectacles such as the Olympics Comprehend key terms of performance studies, including is/as performance, restored behavior, ritual, play, make-belief/make-believe, performance in everyday life, the performative, and intercultural performance Produce collaborative work that demonstrates teamwork in applying ideas learned in the course Compare, analyze, and interpret performances of their own and other cultures Articulate how the major concepts of the course relate to their own experiences and worldviews Analyze and criticize in a constructive way the work of classmates The lessons present Schechner’s concept of performance studies along with online assignments. In the assignments, students apply what they are learning by composing short responses to materials, writing in their NYU Classes Forums, and by reviewing other students’ forum posts each week. Students choose either to work in groups of 3 to 5 on a term-long project maintaining a project portfolio in NYU Classes or to write a research paper. During the term, each group will lead an in-class 25-minute discussion of their project-in-progress. During the last face-to-face class, each group will present their project. The weekly content is: What is Performance? What is Performance Studies? Performance Processes From Not Performing to Performing Ritual Play Performing in the Paleolithic Ramlila of Ramnagar The Performing Brain Performativity Constructing Social Roles Social Media Intercultural, Transcultural, Global Group Projects & Wrap Up Course Requirements Each student is required to complete the week’s online lesson prior to the class session, attend and participate in the class sessions, complete the weekly assignments, participate and present the group project or submit a final paper. Required Readings See weekly online lessons. Required Viewings (Videos) See weekly online lessons. Written work Each student will either participate in a group project or write a research paper due at the end of the term, submitted electronically. Your professor will confer online and/or face-to-face during office hours to help students develop their writing and their projects. If you do a group project your professor may ask you to do some writing in relationship to your project. Academic Integrity The policy on plagiarism and academic honesty is posted on Classes. Read this document carefully, and be guided by it. Copyright Keep in mind the material you find in the online lessons is subject to copyright. You may not reproduce, reuse, or distribute it without permission outside of your work in this course. For more information on copyright and how it applies to course materials, see the Copyright Basics research guide.

Outline

Introducing the Course
Performance Studies: An Introduction
Over All Course Learning Objectives

What Is Performance? What Is Performance Studies?
The Fan and the Web
EXCERPT FROM THE WAR ROOM1993, October Films
IS/AS PERFORMANCE
WILLIAM SUN AND FAYE C. FEI: PERFORMANCE STUDIES IN CHINA
RICHARD SHERWIN: SHOULD LAW STUDENTS STUDY PERFORMANCE STUDIES?
FAYE C. FEI AND WILLIAM SUN: IMPROVING SOCIAL PERFORMANCE
ANNE BOGART: HOW HAS PERFORMANCE STUDIES INFLUENCED YOU?
Defining Performance
The Nine Kinds of Performance
The Seven Functions of Performance
Is/As Performance
The Basic Parameters of Performance
Restoration of Behavior
Make Believe/Make Belief
What Is Performance Studies?
Performance Studies at NYU and at Northwestern University
Performance Studies in China
A Place for Performance Studies
Summary

Performance Processes
RYSZARD CIESLAK TRAINING TWO ACTORS OF THE DANISH ODIN THEATRET From Training in the theatre-laboratory in Wroclaw (1972, Odin Teatret Film)
RICHARD SCHECHNER'S 2009 WORKSHOP AT NYU
Dionysus in 69 virtual environment
MARIANNE WEEMS: THE ROLE OF AUDIENCE
The Time-Space Sequence of Performance
The Time-Space Sequence of Performance: Training
The Time-Space Sequence Of Performance: Workshop
The Time-Space Sequence of Performance: Rehearsal
The Time-Space Sequence of Performance: From Rehearsal to Performance
The Time-Space Sequence of Performance: Warm-Up, Performance, Cool-Down
The Time-Space Sequence Of Performance: Aftermath
THE PERFORMANCE QUADRILOGUE
Montage, Audience Participation, and Virtual Reality
THE PERFORMANCE QUADRILOGUE

From Not-Performing to Performing
EXCERPTS FROM THE DICK CAVETT SHOW WITH MARLON BRANDO From The Dick Cavett Show: Hollywood Greats Collection
ANNE BOGART AND MARIANNE WEEMS: KINDS OF ACTING
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
RICHARD SHERWIN: COURTROOM THEATER
Introduction
Types of Performing
Kinds of Onstage Performing
Realistic Performing
Brechtian Performing
Codified Performing
Courtroom Trials as Performance
Codified Expressions of Emotion in the Human Face
Summary

Ritual
RONALD GRIMES: WHAT IS RITUAL?
PANEL: DEFINING RITUAL
RONALD GRIMES: TURNER'S DEFINITION OF RITUAL
RONALD GRIMES: ANIMAL AND HUMAN RITUALS
RICHARD SCHECHNER: TURNER AND SOCIAL DRAMA
RICHARD SHERWIN: LAW AS SOCIAL DRAMA
EXCERPT FROM THE WAR ROOM1993, October Films
RONALD GRIMES: ARE RITUALS DRAMATIC?
RICHARD SCHECHNER: LIMINAL AND COMMUNITAS
RONALD GRIMES: A CRITIQUE OF TURNER
PANEL: CAN RITUALS CHANGE?
RONALD GRIMES: INVENTING RITUALS
Introduction
Ritual as Performance
The Evolution of Ritual from Animals to Humans
The Secular and the Sacred
THE RITUAL PROCESS AND COMMUNITAS
Social Drama
Liminal and Liminoid
Changing, Inventing, and Recontextualizing Rituals
Summary

Play
BRUCE MCCONACHIE: PLAY
GORDON BURGHARDT: WHAT IS PLAY?
EXCERPT FROM ANIMALS LIKE US
GORDON BURGHARDT: FIVE CRITERIA FOR IDENTIFYING PLAY
BRUCE MCCONACHIE: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANIMAL AND HUMAN PLAY
BRUCE MCCONACHIE: KINDS OF PLAY
PANEL: PLAY AND RULES
What is Maya-lia
EXCERPT FROM THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLDFrom The Yes Men
The Yes Men on BBC Bhopal Disaster
The Yes Men on RT Going Underground
EXCERPTS FROM MAS MAN Courtesy of Nalton Narine
Tony Hall & Felix Edinborough: PLAYING MAS
FELIX EDINBOROUGH AS PIERROT GRENADE
Gordon Burghardt: THE PRIMEVAL ROOTS OF PLAY
Introduction
What Is Play? What Is Playing?
Animal and Human Play
Play and Games
Flow and Metacommunication
Maya-Lila
Dark Play
Playing in Public: New York’s Halloween Parade and Trinidad's Carnival
Summary

Performing in the Paleolithic
EXCERPT FROM CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS
EXCERPT FROM CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS
EXCERPTS FROM HOW ART MADE THE WORLD
Introduction
What Is the Paleolithic?
Where is the Art and How Old is It?
What Were the Functions of Cave Art?
Vulvas, “Venuses,” Women Artists, Hybrids
Performance as a Key to Understanding the Cave Art
Trance and Hallucination as Ways of Creating Cave Art
Initiation Rites in Paleolithic Caves
Transportation/Transformation
Summary

Ramlila of Ramnagar, India
A DAY AT THE RAMLILA: THE PEOPLE, THE PREPARATION, AND THE DAILY DEPARTURE
RAMAYANIS
Make Believe, Make Belief, and Maya-Lila in Ramlila MAKE-BELIEVE AND MAKE-BELIEF IN RAMLILA
RAMLILA OF RAMNAGAR: LAKSHMAN CUTS OFF SURPANAKHA'S NOSE AND EARS
BECOMING THE GODS
Ramlila as a Social Drama and as a Carnival
THE STORY OF RAMLILA TOLD THROUGH THE EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS OF RICHARD SCHECHNER
Introduction
Where is Ramnagar?
What Is the Story?
Kot Vidai: At Ramnagar Ramlila Only
How Ramlila Is Staged: On the Move
The Seven Types of Roles in the Ramlila
Make Believe, Make Belief, and Maya-Lila in Ramlila
Ramlila as a Social Drama and as a Carnival
Ramlila's Spectator Experience as Communitas
Participant Observation
Summary

Performativity
Panel: Performance, the Performative, and Performativity
CAROL MARTIN: THEATRE OF THE REAL
SPALDING GRAY: EXCERPT FROM SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA
Introduction
What Is a Performative? What Is Performativity?
Modern, Postmodern, and Poststructural
Speech Acts
The Real and the Imaginary
Simulations
Lifelike Art Versus Artlike Art
Performativity and Performance Art
Summary

Constructing Social Roles
Guillermo Gómez-Peña Speaks about Multiple Identities
EXCERPTS FROM PARIS IS BURNING
EXCERPT FROM FIRES IN THE MIRROR
Introduction
What Are Social Roles?
Playing Social Roles
Emotional Labor
Constructions of Gender
Constructions of Race
Summary
Constructions of Gender

Social Media
PANEL: THE PERFORMER-AUDIENCE ROLE
DANAH BOYD: GOFFMAN'S DEFINITION OF PERFORMANCE
CLAY SHIRKY: THE ARGUMENT AGAINST DIGITAL DUALISM
DANAH BOYD: THE ONLINE VERSUS THE OFFLINE SELF
DANAH BOYD: ONLINE BEHAVIOR AND IDENTITY
danah boyd: Demographics and Online Identity
danah boyd: Public and Private Audiences
Clay Shirky: Audience/Device Relationship
DANAH BOYD: THE NATURE OF TRUTH ONLINE
Clay Shirky/danah boyd: Social Media, Social Equality, and Social Change
Clay Shirky: Social Media and Political Action
Clay Shirky: Can Online Protests Replace Physical Protests
Introduction
Changing the Ways People Communicate
Performing Yourself Using Social Media
Online and Offline Performances
History and Theory of Social Media/Social Networks
Constructions of Identities on Social Media
The Importance of Interests
Ways of Performing Online
Truth and Lies in Social Media
Social Media, Equality, and Change
Media's Influence on the Arts
Summary

Intercultural, Transcultural, Global
RICHARD SCHECHNER: TRANSCULTURAL PERFORMANCES
COCO FUSCO AND PAULA HEREDIA, THE COUPLE IN THE CAGE: A GUATINAUI ODYSSEY
WILLIAM SUN AND FAYE C. FEI: INTERCULTURAL PERFORMANCES
PANEL: TRANSCULTURATION
GUILLERMO GÓMEZ-PEÑA INTERVIEW
Introduction
WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION?
Intercultural, Multicultural, and Transcultural Performances?
Intercultural Performances
Transcultural Performances
Terrorism as Performance
The Olympics as Global Performance
Summary

Looking Back, Looking Forward
COURSE SUMMARY BY RICHARD SCHECHNER

Summary of User Reviews

Discover the world of performance studies with Richard Schechner's Introduction to Performance Studies on Coursera. This course has received positive feedback from users who have found it informative and engaging. Many users appreciate the course's comprehensive coverage of performance studies and its practical applications in various fields.