Dharmik's THTR 7922 Blog

A definition for acting is: "living truthfully under imaginary circumstances." Of course there are caveats. If an actor is truly invested in his/her circumstances will they really kill their spouse for cheating on them? The answer is, hopefully, no! However, there are times when a performance can be too real. My definition of a too real performance would be one where the illusion of reality (reality created on stage) is too close to real life. I've heard many times when people describe someone's acting to be too real. During Meisner training, one of my classmates used sense memory to recreate an emotional scene and it felt a bit too voyeuristic. Had she used her imagination it would have been more engaging to watch. In the scene she was grieving her baby's death. She said (after the scene was stopped) that her emotional prep came from something that she went through when she was younger. We never found out what that "something" was, but it was so r...

I'm tempted to say that Colin Kaepernick kneeling at during the anthem is a performative act, but I guess it isn't. Then again I'm also tempted to say that Kaepernick kneeling is like Tim Tebow kneeling except it isn't because I'm just looking for an easy way out. Also, they both keeled and that's as far as I got with that. One word that that stand out to me when discussing gender performativity is semantics. Though, that might not be the right word; so, I'll just explain it. In class, we discussed how in ancient Greece a man was not gay if he he penetrated a male who is considered as a "non citizen." However, this was indicative of the times. If the same thing happened today - citizen or not - if two men have sex, regardless of who is penetrated, then they are normally considered to be gay or at least bisexual. The point here is that societal norms suggest certain roles and behavior which are considered "acceptable" or "unacce...

I’d say that performance is general and theatre is a particular type of performance. It can be argued that any time of demonstrative behavior is performance. So, in other words, any repeated behavior or skill done in front of an audience for the purpose of showing (either to teach or to entertain) is a performance. Theatre is a specific kind of performance. Theatre is often seen for the purpose of entertaining, but it can also be for teaching. The distinction would be that theatre aims to teach through entertainment. Theatre is also a learned set of skills/lines which are rehearsed to tell a certain story. Performance could be as simple as showing someone how to write in cursive or as elaborate or water skiing. Sports would be an example of performance but I’d argue that it’s not theatre. A play requires actors to perform in a certain way to reach an already agreed upon outcome. In sports, the outcome is unknown. The caveat is sports have two possible outcomes (three if you includ...