Some artists often struggle to find the truth of a character when performing. They want the audience to observe an authentic, open perspective of a human experience. Ethnography allows one to dive completely into another culture to illumnate the hearts of its beliefs. Providing material for the five senses heighten the audience's connection. When reading the article by Joni Jones, I vividly could imagine how each area may have been set up. Providing food, dance, colors, pictures , clothes sparks an interest and curiousity to those who had no prior knowledge,
While I believe artist who choose to perform these pieces may have a desire to present the information in its purest form, how often is it percieved that way? When interviewing my subject for my project in class, I asked her if she would like to come and be active in the presentation. She agreed to it and I thought it would be great for her to come so people could ask questions. I then remembered that a portion of the project had to be ELP work. I quickly changed the idea due to the fear she would not percieve my interpretation of her voice, mannerism and dialect as flattering. I was uneasy about the possibility of creating a caricature or painting a picture of her home that was undesirable, despite the fact that I was only using information that I had researched and recieved from her. This fear creates a whole new level of performance anxiety that does not have to be considered negative. On one hand it makes the artist do the homework to ensure the work is free from bias and is pure to the art of the culture. It leaves little room for one's own interpretation. You become a voice for a region of people who some of the audience members will never get to meet. This may be their first glimpse of life into this culture. It must be represented in a manner that is clear and respectful to its native inhabitants. I appreciate projects like this because it challenges me to step outside my own comfort zone. It makes you dig deep to truly embody the essence of someone who you may think you have no connection to. In that process, we find that we are all connected by something in one way or another.
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Our training and probably the vast majority of our experience in theatre to this point is based in psychological realism. We are expected to embody the emotional state and truth a character even when that character stretches realism like Miss Pat or the Soldier in Colored Museum. We are actors not anthropologists or sociologists (though their approached to understanding human nature can inform what we put on our stages).
The performers in Jones’ article are artists themselves but their approach and technique are, perhaps, more scientific than artistic. I’ve never seen such a performance and I would love to experience the feeling of being transported through my senses to another culture. But it seems like a zoo as much as a piece of theatre. Don’t get me wrong, zoos are invaluable. You can’t know the feeling of being dwarfed by a giraffe until you’re five feet from one. And the physical recreations of the daily life of people from these lands beyond our borders is, I’m sure, just as visceral and just as impacting and just as valuable.
We, as actors portraying stories on stage as opposed to a cultural environment, also need to “do the homework” and remove as much prejudice and bias as possible and to strive for the art of our portrayal be as pure and honest and truthful as possible. Maybe there is more in common between stage actors and cultural portrayers than I thought.
What I like about the concept of performance ethnography is it pushes the bounds of what is typical theatre. With Dr. Jones' presentation the performance ethnography was like a live art exhibit.
My only question is can the audience experience this piece and not be overwhelmed. With these types of installation there is no throughline story. The performance is a presentation of what life is like.
I think what makes the installation more structured is that the performance asks a basic question.
I think performance ethnography is one of those things that sounds good in theory. It also has the potential to be a big mess if done incorrectly.
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