Performance | Process | Politics

For this short provocation, I share some of the threads and questions that I am currently exploring in a book project with the working title Politics of Process in Performance. In the context of this roundtable provocation, I wonder whether and how the wider field of performance – as a field of practice, its related discourses and research agendas in the academic context – might be thought of and approached as a form of collective resistance, in the sense of challenging existing hierarchies and inequalities that permeate societal structures, as well as academic conventions. What role and relevance does performance hold today, when we are confronted with a multiplicity of complex and pressing challenges that concern the wellbeing and survival of many due to the climate emergency, unfolding conflicts and wars, amidst rising inequalities? What can performance do in all this, and how might we harness its potential to contribute to enacting constructive change, in the sense of working towards more equitable and sustainable futures?

This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Studies in Theatre and Performance. Sachsenmaier, S. G. (2024). Performance | Process | Politics. Studies in Theatre and Performance, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1080/14682761.2024.2338968. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited