Performance Studies: An Introduction

Richard Schechner's pioneering textbook is a lively, accessible overview of the full range of performance, with primary extracts, student activities, key biographies, and over 200 images of global performance.

The publication of Performance Studies: An Introduction was a defining moment for the field. This fourth edition has been revised with two new chapters, up-to-date coverage of global and intercultural performances, and an in-depth exploration of the growing international importance of performance studies. Among the book's topics are the performing arts and popular entertainments, rituals, play and games, social media, the performances of the paleolithic period, and the performances of everyday life. Supporting examples and ideas are drawn from the social sciences, performing arts, poststructuralism, ritual theory, ethology, philosophy, and aesthetics. Performance Studies: An Introduction features the broadest and most in-depth analysis possible.

Performance Studies: An Introduction is the definitive overview for undergraduates at all levels and beginning graduate students in performance studies, the performing arts, and cultural studies.

This new edition is also supported by a fully updated companion website, offering a variety of interactive resources, teaching tools, and research links.

Richard Schechner is a pioneer of performance studies. A scholar, theatre director, editor, and playwright, he is University Professor of Performance Studies Emeritus at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University and Editor of TDR: The Journal ofPerformance Studies. Among his many books are Environmental Theater (1973), The End of Humanism (1982), Performance Theory (2003, Routledge), Between Theater and Anthropology (1985), The Futureof Ritual (1993, Routledge), Over, Under, and Around: Essays on Performance and Culture (2004), and Performed Imaginaries (2015, Routledge). His books and essays have been translated into more than 20 languages. He is the general editor of the Worlds of Performance series published by Routledge and the Enactments series published by Seagull Books. He founded The Performance Group, East Coast Artists, and East End Players and was a co-producing director of the Free Southern Theater and the New Orleans Group. He has directed theatre, led performance workshops, and lectured in the USA, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

Sarah Lucie is a Ph.D. candidate in Theater and Performance at the CUNY Graduate Center with an MA in Performance Studies from New York University. Her writing appears in The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Politics, PAJ, Puppetry International, and e-misférica. She also works as Assistant Editor for TDR and General Manager of East Coast Artists.