What is "Durational Performance"?

Durational Performance is a variation of mobile visual art; demonstrating how time appears in its natural beauty, whilst designating the importance of time to audience experience. Producers create durational performances, so that time physically (and mentally) affects the performer, thus transforming audiences, the space and performers altogether.

Challenging the audience and their "habitual patterns that fully consume cultural products", durational performances exceed the duration of standard "performing arts and film events", averaging to two hours. This variant of performance defies the laws of consumerism, the act of protecting and promoting customer interests; relating to the duration, tempo, frequency of silence, perception, examining/observing mental and emotional processes, irrelevance and boredom.

However, durational performance also offers time reclamation, or the restoration of time to its original state. This characterises western urban daily life, which organises itself into "intense work, relaxing leisure, and hurried neutral space in-between." Such a performance relates to the dissolving of sugar cubes in water, or the sun melting a block of ice.

This video shows the concept of Durational Performance, through a video known as "S.H.I.T." The performance lasted twelve hours, and this performer did not eat, drink, look away from the drawing or leave within that time. He constantly writes the word "shit" on a piece of paper, which remains on a blank wall.

"The craftsmanship, the finish, the reliance on Greek ideals, all that is dead. Tension, density, the unknown, and mystery reign and win in every painting. For the first time in history, painting has become a performance, and you can watch its creation as you might a jam session." (Georges Mathieu, 1964)

This quotes reveals that the formation of an art-piece, regardless of its format, does not need a professional artist, nor does it require a finish or "reliance on the Greek ideals." It suggests that tension, alongside how far the art-piece fascinates an audience, are the ideals of every "painting". The quote also states that the unknown and mystery are other features. The final result is a creation, containing similar aspects to a jam session.

What is "Immersive Theatre"?

"Immersive theatre" is a theatrical type that draws in its audiences, by placing the viewers in the performance. Traditional theatre provides the audience with a "snow-globe" effect, which effectively separates the performers and relative scenery from those watching. However, immersive theatre breaks this boundary by removing the fourth wall, thus making a fantasy world come to life.

'Shunt and Punchdrunk have been particularly successful with respect to their ability to attract large audiences over long runs; their garnering of critical attention; and their use of large-scale, maze-like found spaces as locations for extensive environmental performances. The attractions of these spaces are obvious: they provide ready-made exploratory landscapes, redolent of other histories, into which performances can be scattered, and in which engagement with the environment can be an important part of the audience experience. Both Shunt and Punchdrunk have made repeated use of disused industrial spaces for their environments.' (White, 2002, 223)

This video shows the potential features of immersive theatre.

It has a slight resemblance to the "Theatre of Cruelty", consisting of lighting effects and breaking the fourth wall.

This is an omnidirectional type of performance, as wherever the audience looks something different happens (and they appear in the scene). Traditional theatre, on the other hand, is a unidirectional performance, since audiences only see material by looking at the stage.

 "The scene revealed plot-related information, inflected by the scenic environment and its corporeal effect on me, but my inclusion in the fictional world at this level did not, of course, give me a genuinely privileged insight." (Gareth White, 2002, pg. 231)

This shows that performances use the scenic background to intrigue audiences, which is a common feature of immersive theatre and the stereotypical performance. However, this performance type eliminates the opportunity to gain a deep and meaningful understanding of the story.

Directors and their Relevance to Performance

Directors are key figures to theatres and their production, especially in the creation of devised performances. Companies need to plan devised performances, but directors take the lead on what needs to happen throughout a creative process. This post focuses on the devising process, through point of views introduced by the director.

Performances need to contain a clear story, which has a logical and consistent appearance. As a result, this gives the audience an option to see and hear productions. Stimulation and entertainment play a compulsory role in creating new performances, as boredom of the audience is a big foe. In other words, performances have vital tasks that need setting and completing; alongside the posing and answering of numerous questions.

If the director invents an idea for their production, they need to convince themselves that this idea is a useful concept, as excellent thoughts "contain the seeds" to create phenomenal performances. These performances have moments that "surprise, delight and shock" the viewers.

Cast members look up to their directors for guidance, including a "crucial lead" when these people side-track from the rehearsing process. Directors have the job of ensuring that their performers "find the nut of a project"; in turn encouraging these subjects to pursue main ideas, which enables the continuation of a project. The final result is everyone doing their designated job.

Surprisingly enough, the director lies central in a rehearsal fulcrum; making sure that everyone co-operates with each other, creating a "consistent and elegant" concept and project. On the other hand, they have no ability to solve complicated problems, which secretly hide themselves and "reveal at the correct moment."

"The Director's Role: You are the obstetrician. You are the not the parent of this child we call play. You are present at its birth for clinical reasons, like a doctor or midwife. Your job most of the time is simply to do no harm. When something does go wrong, however, your awareness that something is awry--and your clinical invention is to correct it--can determine whether the child will thrive or suffer, live or die." (Frank Hauser, 2003)

This quote indicates that a play has no definite way of unfolding, similar to how a parent disciplines their child. Directors exist in plays due to "clinic reasons", to see how successful (healthy) a performance appears, and see the necessities for improvement. It also mentions that directors have the role to let a play continue, with or without errors, or simply throw the play away and start again. This process correlates with what performance is too, using the same steps.

Who am I? - That is the Question

I am still quite new to the subject of Performing Arts, since I have only studied the subject for three years. As I was growing up, I took little interest in performing due to confidence issues. This, however, changed during my two years of college. Performing Arts was something that could help with my confidence issues, with the desired course at Regent College doing that. The Performing Arts course, alongside other relevant courses, taught me a range of different skills; including physical theatre, team work and independent research. During these years, my interest in Performing Arts grew intensely, which led me to join the 'Little Theatre'; a theatre company in Leicester aimed at encouraging children and adults to perform on stage. So far, I have taken part in several shows, which include 'The Birthday Party' (Pinter, 1991), 'God of Carnage' (Reza, 2008) and 'Treasure Island.' (Stevenson, 1883). I would like to continue on my Performing Arts journey and learn new skills of the craft.

Frantic Assembly - A Physical Theatre Group

Frantic Assembly is a London-based theatre company founded in Swansea. Their work promotes feelings of "terror and fearlessness", with them having a desire to perform things differently. It started with something "a little more than work ethic." As the name suggests, the company produces work that consists of frantic elements, where performers join together to form an energy. The performers learn from each other, leading to all of their performances containing this energy.


This theatre company seeks to locate performances in unusual places, providing untold and unheard voices for stories. It sustains commitment for  "brave and bold theatre", by continuing to learn and produce performances with dynamic physicality and brutality. However, they also have fragile and tender pieces.

This video shows the techniques that Frantic Assembly uses to construct a performance. Some of these techniques are physical contact; where one performer lifts another in a controlled manner, and movements that appear natural, where performers produce their actions without constantly thinking. However, the timing and fluidity remains consistent. As a result, the video highlights dynamic physicality and brutality as mentioned above.

Effects of a Performance on its Audience and Participants

Performance provides the participants with several effects. One of these is evidence for a skills portfolio, which appears attractive to relative employers in the world of work. It has its use for presentations, where the presenter examines a certain topic and educates. Not only that, but the skills portfolio also shows elements of teamwork and represents a shared goal. This relates to what performing arts is, as the performance requires its performers to highlight specific topics and portray them correctly. This is a must, because the audience need to see something of interest; as that is what they paid money for.

Performing arts was a life-changer for me, supplying a confidence boost and access to new experiences due to my disability. This confidence-booster challenged the expectations of other people - especially my father. He saw my future in an IT-based career, as past talents lied in mathematics and computers. The thought of becoming someone else was an interesting concept, because it distorted the mind and mentally transformed me into another entity. My ability to socialise gradually increased over the years; since the oncoming performances required discussions with directors, teachers and other performers. These discussions are a necessity for the play to work, otherwise the play appears disjointed and its message disappears.

On the other hand, performance induces its performers with anxiety, causing the portrayal of various characters to appear stiff or uncontrolled. In some cases, anxiety has the chance to overwhelm its onstage victims; leading to the loss of compulsory lines, which then damages the performance and structural representation.

Performance shares the "U-theory" with sport and its theoretical practices. This theory resembles a Bell-curve, thus showing the relationship between different anxiety levels and effects on performance. An optimal level of anxiety lies within the middle (at the highest point), which corresponds to performance being at its best. If participants have too much or little anxiety in and before their performance, this causes the overall quality to decline. Numerous audience members see the decrease in quality; resulting in the belief that they paid money for a lower quality performance, or that the performers have an inadequate ability to perform.

When an audience member sees something of interest, it has the power to keep them entertained. A performance places the viewers in different atmospheres, which all relate to the specific play and its storyline. We call this process "escapism"; welcoming the audience to new experiences, whilst allowing them to feel involved with the performance. It encourages the watchers to discover performing arts and reveals industry-based careers. This represents the power of performing arts on its audience.

Spectators receive emotional and educational effects from a performance. This occurs through professional performance skills; namely acting, singing and dance. Performances have the ability to provoke various emotions; such as happiness, sadness and fear into the audience. As a result, this enables an audience member to form personal bonds with the character, thus producing a relationship between viewers and characters. They challenge the misconceptions given about performances, offering the opportunity to learn history and culture via its presented materials.   

Performers also receive their own effects. The performance provides sufficient evidence for a skills portfolio; which appears valuable to employees, as it represents the ability to present information clearly, whilst indicating other vital skills relative to the specific career. A skills portfolio helps with the employment process too, stating that the subject understands and respects views from another perspective. Harmonisation between workers is the result of this.

An Introduction to Myself

My name is Jamie Creasey and I am a Performing Arts student at De Montfort University. Through a mixture of experience, videos and music, this blog seeks to find the answer to "What is Performance?"