Performance Theories

Performance “All of us create and project images that suit our purposes in various moments. We know how to appear self-confident in job interviews, contrite when we have offended others, and interested even if we are bored” (116).

Performance “…performances are a means to knowing about experiences, and they are also ways in which we define our personal, social, and cultural identities” (116).

Dramaturgy & Performance Ethnography Dramaturgy = The examination of the performances we put on for others in our everyday lives Performance Ethnography = A qualitative research method that “explores how social communities are sustained and their values expressed and sometimes changed through performative practices such as rituals, ceremonies, rites of cultural practice, and oral history” (117).

Erving Goffman Goffman, Erving (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.

Erving Goffman Goffman was a Symbolic Interactionist who extended the work of G. H. Mead. “For Goffman, our efforts to manage the impressions we create are not fakery or attempts to manipulate others unethically. Instead, he viewed them as normal, perhaps unavoidable, because humans are social and therefore must coordinate their identities and actions with those of others” (118).

The Dramaturgical Model The dramaturgical model adopts the roles, principles and terminology of theatrical performance in order to explain human communication. Setting/Context = Stage/Mise-en-Scene Active Agent = Actor Passive Agent = Audience Objects = Props

The Dramaturgical Model Scripts (or frames) are guidelines for interaction based on cultural conventions. They reduce uncertainty about how to behave and define situations. What are some situations that you know of where scripts apply?

The Dramaturgical Model Scripts (or frames) are guidelines for interaction based on cultural conventions. They reduce uncertainty about how to behave and define situations. What are some situations that you know of where scripts apply? Funerals

The Dramaturgical Model Scripts (or frames) are guidelines for interaction based on cultural conventions. They reduce uncertainty about how to behave and define situations. What are some situations that you know of where scripts apply? Funerals Job Interviews

The Dramaturgical Model Scripts (or frames) are guidelines for interaction based on cultural conventions. They reduce uncertainty about how to behave and define situations. What are some situations that you know of where scripts apply? Funerals Job Interviews Mardi Gras (Shrum & Kilburn, 1996)

The Dramaturgical Model What are some situations for which there are no scripts?

The Dramaturgical Model What are some situations for which there are no scripts? What are the consequences to not having an available script?

The Dramaturgical Model What are some situations for which there are no scripts? What are the consequences to not having an available script? Is it true, as Wood (2004) claims, that “Social life would be impossible without the ordinary courtesy and politeness that most of us extend to others by engaging in impression management” (120).

Impression Management “Using his dramaturgical model, Goffman studied how people present themselves and their activities to others. His theory describes how people shape others’ impressions of them as well as how people convince others to adopt certain, and not other, definitions of a situation. What can a person do and not do to sustain a particular image?” (119)

Impression Management Impression Management = “The process of managing setting, words, nonverbal communication, and dress in an effort to create a particular image of individuals and situations” (120). “As we interact with others, we adopt roles and present ourselves as specific characters” (120).

Front Stage / Back Stage Front Stage = The part of the performance that is visible to the audience. Back Stage = Aspects of performance preparation that are invisible to the audience.

Front Stage / Back Stage “The backstage is where actors can act in ways that might undermine their frontstage performances” (121) “Backstage behaviors may also enhance solidarity among members of a group and allow them to plan effective frontstage presentation” (121)

Front Stage / Back Stage “Backstage behavior allows people to vent feelings safely so that they don’t interfere with front stage performances” (121). “…knowing there is a back stage where we can let our hair down and relax helps us tolerate the sometimes stressful frontstage work we do” (122).