Performance Making: a pedagogy for precarious times

Surveying how Performance as a form has evolved as a distinct artistic sector to where it is today, Performance Making provides a comprehensive insight on the impact the artform has had across the wider arts and humanities. Drawing on over 40+ years’ worth of experience as artist and academic, Anna Furse interrogates the ways in which the practice of Performance is truly interdisciplinary, offering a specific creative practice approach. Chapters address the neo-liberal turn and its effect on culture; the history of the emergence of the genre within Performance Studies; the underlying political and cultural message of the Performance form as independent and necessary; wider philosophical and critical theoretical thinking that can support innovation within the field; and the key principles in the creation of live work such as space, site, scenography, the body, collaboration, and composition. Each chapter includes an essay, case studies and exercises, empowering students to apply critical thinking to their own work. Focusing on developing creative-critical skills in Performance Making at postgraduate level for international cohorts, this textbook will equip students, instructors, and practitioners to contextualise and enrich their Performance practice.