Ritual & Play

One definition of performance is ritualized behavior conditioned by play.

Rituals: collective memories encoded into actions

Religious Rituals

Secular & Public

Private

as performance
is performance

Ritual as liminal or liminoid performance.
Betwixt and between.

Untitled Slide

liminal vs. liminoid

Communitas is possible in these liminal & liminoid spaces.

communitas:

Normative communitas

Spontaneous communitas

Play

Duck Duck Goose

Play is orderly and/or unpredictable.

The power in play:
is everyone who participates playing?

Flow: the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter.

Do adults play?

Deep Play:

Dark Play:

Course Description

Hearts & Ears, Inc. is a non-profit organization for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Questioning individuals with mental health issues and concerns.

Course Objectives

• Apply performance ethnographic methodology and interview techniques to gather personal narratives
• Articulate the ethics of performing others’ personal stories for an audience
• Interpret, script, and perform biographical stories in ways that engage your audience
• Recognize the relationship between theory and lived experience
• Develop a commitment to community involvement and social justice

Storytelling

Baltimore Narratives is designed to provide students with a space to trace the formation of personal, shared, and cultural identity through the art of storytelling. Grounded in communication as performance theory and research, students and their professor will use an ethnographic interview methodology and critical performance processes to collaboratively create a 30-45 minute production based on Hearts and Ears member stories. Students’ written work will also reflect on the process of creating a show from the ground up in pursuit of social justice and equity within Baltimore City.

Student Responsibilities

• 25 volunteer hours
• Weekly reflexive video journal responses
• 2 long form ethnographic interviews
• Thematize and code interviews
• Develop collaborative performance ethnography script
• Community performance