Kai Davis

Kai's paper

Prioritising the Performer:

Shifting Perspectives and Embracing Ego

This paper explores performance for the performer. Performance theory often prioritises the audience’s perspective, in this paper however, I will reveal what happens when the performers experience is at the forefront of the performance creation process. Using my own performance practice as a starting point, by examining the work I created with Gays in Space Theatre Collective – a company that spawned out of the brief “you can choose to do whatever you’d like” and subsequently lead to a beautifully messy, chaotic and hedonistic collaborative performance piece. I will then delve into other types of performance that one could consider as being for the performer, such as community performance from Theatre of the Oppressed, biographical performance, drag and cabaret performance, and performance art. I will also look at examples where the dynamic between audience and performer is deliberately positioned against normative expectations, such as the work of Forced Entertainment, where the performer isn’t just prioritised, but the work actively seeks to bore, annoy or bring discomfort to audiences. By placing affect theory in conversation with theories of narrative, I will investigate what happens when we change our perspective on who performance is for. There is of course some element of self-interest in all performance, including ego, stardom seeking and at its most basic simple enjoyment – I will argue however, that the process actively embracing this, allows for unique and interesting pathways in audience/performer interaction.

Trigger warnings:

Suitable for ages 15 and up