Interpretation: To Impose or Explain

Wesker, Arnold

doi:10.2307/3245644

Cited by 1 publication

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“…Arguing for a theatre practice more in sympathy with playwrights' intentions, Arnold Wesker notes that such performances are fed by what he calls the 'Fiihrer complex'. 2 Whether or not one wishes to make the case as strongly as Wesker does, it seems clear that such productions appropriate playwrights and their characters for their director's own interests. The 'other' becomes a vehicle for the director's expression.…”

Section: Empathy As Imperialist Venturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The conclusion to be drawn will by now seem obvious: performers are entitled to speak when they operate from an empathic stance of dialogic embodiment. As implied above, this stance calls upon performers (1) to adopt an attitude of a witness, (2) to engage in a process of open dialogue with others, and (3) to place their voices within a community of voices. Viewed as ethical principles, these three overlapping ideas may guide performance practice.…”

Section: The Ethics Of Entitlementmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Empathy and the Ethics of Entitlement

Pelias¹

1991

Theatre Research International

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With the increasing familiarity of reception theory, deconstruction, collective creation and performance art, it seems as if performers have assumed they should pursue their craft unencumbered by textual dictates. Actors appear to be privileging their own interests over the interests of characters or literary personae. Even when actors turn from fictive characters to real life personalities in their presentations of one-person shows, oral histories and performance ethnographies, it seems less fashionable to discuss the people that serve as a basis for such performances than to focus upon the actors' personal preferences and individual visions. The question is no longer how performers might put flesh on the textual and human ‘skeletons’ they encounter but how they might pull a bone from here and another one from there in order to create their own figures. In short, ‘the other’ serves performers.

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Section: Empathy As Imperialist Venturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Ethics Of Entitlementmentioning

confidence: 99%