The rise of performance studies

The essays in this anthology are situated within the larger context of a critical engagement with Richard Schechner's work as a theatre practitioner, teacher, scholar, activist, and visionary. Through a wide variety of approaches, the contributors acknowledge the profound impact that Schechner's work has had on our understanding of performance as a mode of cultural practice and on the emergence of Performance Studies as a discipline. Some essays are embedded in intensely personal reflections on Schechner's work as a practitioner and teacher, while others take stock of critical concepts that are central to Schechner's work as a theorist and scholar. Yet it is not enough to say that the essays offer a critical survey of the broad spectrum of Schechner's cultural and intellectual endeavours. The essays all converge in an acknowledgement that few individuals within the theatre and performance communities have positioned their work so consistently or so consequentially as Schechner has within the key debates that have defined Performance Studies as a discipline.