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The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Studies
 Ort: Cambridge
Verlag: Cambridge University Press
Jahr: 2008
Autor(en): Christopher B. Balme
Autor der Rezension: Katharina Natalia Piechocki
ISBN: 9780521672238
Umfang / Preis: 246 Seiten / PND 14.99
 Christopher Balme’s Introduction to Theatre Studies is designed for “students embarking on the discipline of theatre studies at the beginning of the twenty-first century” (Preface, xi). The book, divided into three parts – Elements of Theatre, Subjects and Methods, and Theatre Studies between Disciplines – and eleven chapters (each chapter ends with an annotated bibliography), offers – as Balme announces in his introduction – an interdisciplinary overview over a series of theatrical forms, such as dramatic theatre, music theatre, dance theatre, and puppet and mask theatre. Part one of the book investigates the “dynamic triadic relationship” between “performer, spectator, space” (p. 13), the main focus of part two is “performance analysis” (p. 13), and part three explores how “theatre studies intersects with other disciplines” (p. 14). Introduction to Theatre Studies contains a number of tables, plates, and boxes that further emphasize the didactic focus of the book and concludes with a thematically organized bibliography as well as an author and topic centered index.
Part I: Elements of theatre
Chapter 1, Performers and actors, offers a historical overview over ways of performing and acting tracing the theory of acting from Greco-Roman Antiquity to French 17th and 18th-century conceptualizations of “passions” (Le Brun, Diderot) to 20th-century models of acting. As to the latter, Balme is careful in investigating famous (Stanislavsky, Brecht, Grotowski) and lesser known models of acting (Cieslak, Kirby). Chapter 2, Spectators and audiences, investigates and, at the same time, questions the classical distinction between spectator (individual) and audience (collective), and then moves to the question of “reception and response” (p. 38) from a sociological (Goffman), art historical (Gombrich), literary (Jauss) and theatrological (Pavis) perspective. Balme includes also recent theories of reception, such as Marvin Carlson’s idea of “ghosting” that links reception theory to memory and experience. In chapter 3, Spaces and places, Balme discusses at length Max Herrmann’s phenomenological approach to theatrical art as spatial art, Carlson’s conception of the theatrical space as a “lucid space” (p. 49) that allows “flexible performer-spectator relations” (p. 50) as well as Richard Schechner’s notion of “environmental theatre” that focuses on theatrical interaction “outside fixed architectural structures” (p. 50). However, the distinction that Balme makes between “space” and “place” is not entirely clear: he differentiates between both, but then discusses “space” in the subchapter on theatrical “place.”
Part II: Subjects and methods
Chapter 4, Theories of theatre 1: historical paradigms, is framed by poetological questions as raised by Aristotle’s Poetics and, recently, by Carlson’s Theories of the Theatre. It discusses the central notions of “mimesis,” “poiesis,” and “catharsis,” and concludes with Brecht’s “critical (epic) theatre” (p. 76) as a major challenge to traditional cathartic theater. The subsequent chapter, Theories of theatre 2: systematic and critical approaches, starts with a discussion of the semiotic aspect of theatre studies (Saussure, Peirce, Kowzan), and then moves to poststructuralist (Derrida), psychoanalytical (Lacan), phenomenological (Bert O. States) and cultural materialist (Raymond Williams) theories of the theatre. Balme investigates, in more detail, the “protean quality” (p. 90) of the notion of “theatricality” while problematizing, at the same time, the term “authenticity.” He concludes this chapter with a discussion of the notion “performative” and “performativity” (Butler, Jon McKenzie) (p. 93). In chapter 6, Theatre historiography, Balme focuses on Max Herrmann’s “theoretical and systematic approach to theatre history” (p. 97) and puts an emphasis on “theatre iconography” (p. 102) as a subdiscipline of theatre historical research. He also discusses number of contemporary, “post-positivist,” approaches to theater periodization without, however, incorporating them in his “periodization in European theatre historiography” (pp. 108-9) that remains rather schematic and traditional. In chapter 7, Text and performance, Balme discusses the status of a “theatrical text” (p. 119) and then focuses on the relationship between text, production (=“staging”), and performance. Performance analysis is discussed at length in the subsequent chapter, Performance analysis. Balme lists video recordings and personal notes as crucial tools of performance analysis. The chapter concludes with the presentation of two main methods and models of performance analysis, the transformational (text to performance) and structural (signifying systems; Pavis and Fischer-Lichte as main representatives of this method) analysis. The last two chapters of this part, Music theatre and Dance theatre, extend the field of theatre studies to opera and dance theater. Balme offers concrete examples of opera (La Bohème, Ariodante) and dance (Petrushka, Enter Achilles) analysis. However, the author does not include a discussion of puppet and mask theatre, as his introduction might suggest.
Part III: Theatre studies between disciplines
Part III is the shortest part of the book. Chapter 11, Applied theatre, provides different examples of how theatre practice can “engage directly in social praxis” (p. 181) and have “transformational effects” (p. 179) on the performers themselves. Balme identifies six types of applied theatre, among which he lists “dramatherapy,” “theatre in education,” and “theatre for development” (p. 182). The concluding chapter, Theatre and media, engages with the question of “theatre as a medium” (p. 196) and asks how theatre connects to other media, such as radio, cinema, television, and computer. This chapter addresses crucial questions, such as the “virtuality” (pp. 202-203) of the stage and of the human body itself (“posthuman,” “cyborg,” “postorganic” performance). While this last – and conclusive – chapter opens up new and innovative perspectives on framing and analyzing theater studies, it also constitutes the very definition of theater understood as a medium. Therefore, it might have been more helpful for students to include this chapter in the opening part of the book and not to offer it as a conclusion.
Christopher B. Balme’s Introduction to Theatre Studies constitutes a semiotically oriented, comprehensive introduction to theatre studies understood in its broad sense of “performance studies.” The book is designed for students at university level and, therefore, gives helpful, practical advices, for instance how to best take notes during performances. However, in its effort to be didactic, it tends, at times, to be too repetitive. Balme carefully explores, on the one hand, contemporary theories and methodologies of interdisciplinary theatre studies, but is, on the other hand, often reluctant in incorporating them in the overall layout and framework of the book. Balme operates with a rather traditional terminology – he keeps, for instance, to the dichotomy monument vs. document and claims that performances are “monuments in their own right” (p. 139) – while embracing, at the same time, new forms of performance, such as the “virtual stage” and questions of the “posthuman.” All in all, it is a highly recommendable introduction for incoming university students who want to become familiar not only with the history and the traditional methodology of theatre, but who also seek to explore diverse contemporary manifestations of theatrical and performative arts.
Diese Nachricht wurde redaktionell betreut von Holger Suedkamp.
URL zur Zitation: http://www.theaterforschung.de/rezension.php4?ID=742
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