Theatrical Production

RECORDING/ARCHIVING
PERFORMANCES

INFLUENCE OF MEDIA ON
PERFORMANCE AND
PERFORMANCE PROCESSES
 RECORDING AND ARCHIVING
PERFORMANCE:

• EUGENIO BARBA suggests that theatre is the ‘art of

the present’, and describes directors and performers
as creators of ‘ephemeral works’. It is a desire
motivated by an awareness of the inevitable
disappearance of live performance,
– Witnessed in the comments of one Edinburgh
Festival Fringe theatre director: ‘In five weeks what
will be left of [my play]? A script, a press release, a
couple of photos and the reviews.’
• ‘Theatre, by its nature’: is an art of the present
moment, and the theatre artists focus their energies
on the present of the lived experience.

• While individuals may feel anguish at the lack of more

durable traces of these experiences, most theatre
artists are more interested in their next show than
documenting the one that has just closed.
Disappearance and documentation seem to go hand in
hand.

• Also audiences want to retain some part of it.

Something material, some tangible trace.’ It is certainly
here that the urge to document performance is
strongest.
• The performing arts archive represents the officially
sanctioned collecting, cataloguing, preserving, and
consecrating of traces of past performances.
– theatre programmes, brochures, leaflets,
photographs, video and sound recordings, set and
costume designs, stage and lighting plans,
production notes, annotated scripts, interviews with
directors or actors, actual costumes and examples of
stage properties, and so on are some examples of
archives.
• Anything that is remotely associated with the
performance can belong in an archive. The archive can
include material detailing the processes of creation, of
production, and of reception.
• Archival documentation must be conducted at the
centre of creation itself. As you perform you must
record, and as you create you must document.

• There is a clear moral dimension to this ambition,

evident in the language which is used in the context
of archiving: performance must be ‘saved’ or
‘rescued’, it is part of our ‘heritage’, our ‘legacy’, and
must not be ‘lost’.

• The value of the archive is in the action of archiving,

in halting disappearance and preserving for the
future.
• The ability to touch items and objects from the past one
of the key attractions of the archive.
• Carolyn Steedman, for example, describes this
constructed nature of the archive:
– “The Archive is made from the selected and
consciously chosen documentation from the past
and from the mad fragmentations that no one
intended to preserve . Far from being complete, or
authentic, or neutral or objective, the archive is the
reverse.”
– Steedman is surely correct to describe the archive as
empty, the researcher actively creating meaning,
rather than simply finding it in the archive: the
researcher is also constructing, selecting, editing,
and speaking for the archive.
INFLUENCE OF MEDIA ON PERFORMANCE
People are usually split regarding their opinions of
whether technology had negatively impacted audience
attention spans for live performance, but they
uniformly disagree that it has “diluted the arts” by
opening new pathways to arts participation and arts
criticism.
 NEGATIVE INFLUENCE
• People will have higher expectations for a live
event. For audiences to invest the time and effort
of going to a live performance, the work they see
will have to be more engaging and of higher quality.

• The internet and digital technologies are powerful

tools. The public expects content to be free. There
is a lack of awareness of the resources (funding and
staff) that it takes to manage and preserve digital
content.
• Live performance will be diminished. Younger people
don’t want to show up at a specific time, specific place
for live performance — they want to download music
at their own convenience.
• There is no distinction left between commercial
entertainment and non-commercial art, forcing arts
organizations to more directly compete with all other
forms of entertainment (example: Netflix, video games
etc.)
• There are concerns that the effort to meet audience
expectations will influence artistic choices, even entire
art forms:
– Some ideas cannot be condensed into 140
characters or less and made ready for the solely for a
Twitter generation.
 POSITIVE INFLUENCE
• Technology is also helping arts organizations
extend their impact, far beyond a one-time
performance or event.
• People who live outside of urban areas will be
able to experience performances that are
somewhat limited to large urban areas. Arts
organizations will need to reconsider the
level/type of interaction with their audience.
• There is ability to serve more people and at a lower
cost. The internet makes it possible to market more
effectively through online advertising, blog presences,
and social media exchanges.
• The greatest impact will be the ability to share
educational content and stimulating art and
performances worldwide. It will also spark
conversations between diverse communities and help
individuals develop a greater understanding.
• Not only has technology influenced theatrical
performance and processes, it has also helped to
emerge new forms of theatre in itself, like
– Technodrama:
• 3D projections, virtual-reality masks for actors,
stop-motion camerawork and computer
animation have all been put to use.
• Innovations like a computer-generated avatar
sword-fighting an actor live on stage
transporting the audience to the world of a
computer game.
• And as the hardware and software become ever
cheaper, the methods are trickling down to fringe
theatre too.
 PRESENTED BY:
RHYTHM GUPTA, 833