Richard Schechner: An Interview

Richard Schechner is Professor of Performance Studies at New York University, author of numerous books including Performance Theory (1988) and The Future of Ritual (1993), and editor of The Drama Review. This interview with Nancy Forest Brown was conducted during an event at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

“Performers are very shrewd... The closer you get to them, the more you realize that as soon as you have a spectator situation, artifice is involved. Because, if you’re skilled at it, you become aware that there’s a manipulative struggle going on between the eye looking, and the creative self trying to control the eye that’s trying to contain you.”

A historical interview originally recorded in 1990.