PERFORMANCE STUDIES

HUAS 6340-001
FALL 2005
Thomas Riccio, Professor
Office #972.883.2016 (voice mail)
Thomas.riccio@utdallas.edu
www.thomas-riccio.net

Class times: T 3:30-6:15

Office hours: TR 1-3 and by Arrangement
Office location: JO 4.920
Class location: AS 1.106 Media Room

Course objectives
Designed to be an introduction to performance studies, this course will
present an overview of the field and its connections to other
disciplines such as anthropology, theatre, philosophy, dance, feminism,
folklore, and cultural studies. Themes examined will include
performance historiography, performance of everyday life, and
performance in relationship to race, gender, politics, and technology.
Special attention will be paid to the issues of “multiculturalism” and
the political, social, and economic context of performance. Theoretical
and historical information will be grounded in and relate to
performance manifestations in and around Dallas. Students will be
asked to consider a wide range of performances -- theatrical,
choreographic, spontaneous, religious, erotic, and political. Through
theoretical readings and close analyses of performances the class will
ask what makes for such a diverse performance culture and how does it
reveal the human geography of the region, nation, and time we live in.
A special emphasis will be applied to approaches to writing about
performance.

Course requirements and Evaluation Criteria

• Performance and event attendance.
• Students will be asked to attend various performance events and
write a series of performance response papers.
• In addition to performance response students will be asked to
write an occasional reading response and/or complete an exercise
related to class work. Total of 5 response/Exercise papers.
• A longer essay reporting and dealing with interpretative and
historical perspectives of a specific performance will also be
required as a final project. Minimum 6,000 words
• Students are expected to actively participate in seminar
discussions.

Grading
Papers: Responses, Exercises 60% (12 Pts each)
Final Project 30%
Participation 10%

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 Late or incomplete work is not acceptable
Incompletes will not be given in this class
Plagiarism and cheating is unacceptable
All dates and assignments are subject to change
Assignments will be made with ample time for completion given
please be alert to alterations or corrections in the schedule

Attendance Policy: Two (2) unexcused absences permitted;

however each subsequent unexcused absence will result in the
lowering of one full letter grade per absence. Two late
arrivals (20 minutes + after the hour unless lateness is pre-
arranged) will count as one absence. Note: No Gum Chewing or
Eating in Class. Soft Drinks, Coffee, and water permitted.

Required Reading
• Performance Studies: An Introduction, by Schechner, Richard
Routledge
• Performance Analysis, ed. Counsell & Wolf, Routledge
• The Performance Studies Reader ed. Henry Bial, Routledge
• Additional performance texts and articles will augment the
required reading list.

Weekly Assignments
August 23 Introductions
Outline of work and expectations
The Idea of Performance

August 30 What is Performance Studies?

“To Perform”
Restored behavior
“Is” and “as” Performance

Read: PS 1-44; Reader 1-76

September 6 Ritual
Ritual, Play and Performance
Varieties of Ritual
Sacred and secular

Read: PS 45-78
Performance Assignment #1 DUE

September 13 Ritual Structure, process, experiences

Human and animal performances
Liminal and liminality
Invention and re-creation of Ritual

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 Read: Reader 77-114 & “Message from Eagle Mother”

September 20 Play
What is Play?
Types of Play
Qualities of play
Deep Play, Dark play
Read: PS 79-109
Decoding Assignment #2 Due

September 27 TBA

Reader 115-144 & PA 1-56

October 4 Performtivity
Performatives and speech acts
Postmodernism

Read: PS 110-142; Reader 145-182

October 11 Simulation
Poststructualism/deconstruciton
Constructions of Gender
Constructions of race
Performance Art

Read: PA 57-154
Gender Assignment #3 Due

October 18 Performing
The spectrum of performing
Acting: Realistic, Brechtian, Codified,

Read: PS 143-187
Final Project Topics Identified

October 25 Trance acting and Shamanism

Masks objects & Performing everyday life

Read: Reader 183-214

Assignment #4 Due

November 1 Performance Process

Process as time-space sequence
Proto Performance “Text”

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 Process
Training
Workshop
Rehearsal
Warm-up
Public Performance
Contexts
Read: PS 188-225;Reader 215-262

November 8 TBA

Read:“Kenya’s Community Health Puppets”,

“Politics and Zulus on Tour”
Performing Ethnicity Assignment #5 Due

November 15 Global and Intercultural Performance

Globalization
Impositions and Appropriations
Globalization: Good or Bad?

Read: PS 226-273; Reader 263-322

November 22 Global & Intercultural performance pt. 2

Colonial mimicry?
The Olympics
Brook, Growtowski and Barba
Terrorism as performance

Read PA 155-228
“Tanzanian Theatre: From Marx to the Marketplace"

Dec. 1 FINAL PROJECT PAPER DUE

Seminar party at the instructor’s Home to be arranged

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