Performance

Definition

Cambridge Dictionary defines performance as “how well a person, machine, etc. does a piece of work or an activity” or “the action of entertaining other people by dancing, singing, acting, or playing music”.¹ For this project, we will be situating performance within the field of performance studies using the work of scholars Richard Schechner and Diana Taylor. Schechner, credited as one of the founders of performance studies, defines performance as the culmination of “twice-behaved behaviors”. Moreover, Taylor’s The Archive and the Repertoire provides an addendum to Schechner’s definition, as she explains what it means to say something is a performance rather than analyzing something as a performance.² Drawing on Schechner, we have chosen to define performance as a vessel for cultural identity and a tool that can promote visibility for marginalized groups. In our analyses, we will be employing this definition and considering how different categories function “as” performance.

“Twice-Behaved Behaviors”

To start, we would like to clarify that Schechner’s study of performance is primarily being utilized in this essay as groundwork for performance as an academic discipline rather than the sole authority on the subject. His definition situates us in the field of performance studies but does not encapsulate the many different ways the definition has been contested and theorized.

Schechner’s main argument in chapter 2 of his book Performance Theory introduces the concept of “restored behaviors” and “twice-behaved behaviors” when considering performance, both iterations with which he uses interchangeably. According to Schechner, a restored behavior is “physical, verbal, or virtual actions that are not-for-the-first-time; that are prepared or rehearsed. A person may not be aware that they are performing a strip of restored behavior”. He then goes on to explain how referring to performance in this way means that “every action from the smallest to the most encompassing is made of twice-behaved behaviors,”³ thereby suggesting that every action can be considered a performance. Schechner’s nuanced definition of the term is useful in understanding the commonalities between different types of performance outside of traditional perspectives. One example he includes is how being an adult can be considered a performance, being that humans spend their entire lives essentially rehearsing and training for adulthood.

Schechner also emphasizes the role of performance in everyday life. He writes, “Even actions that are apparently ‘once-behaved’…are constructed from behaviors previously behaved…the everydayness of everyday life is precisely its familiarity, its being built from known bits of behavior rearranged and shaped in order to fit certain circumstances”. Although many occurrences can technically be considered one-time events, Schechner suggests that, if broken down, these events are “revealed” as restored behaviors. He continues on to say that “Performances are made from bits of restored behavior, but every performance is different from every other”.⁴

Overall, Schechner provides a very useful framework for thinking about performance. Although behaviors are never replicated in a literal way, executing any action implies some sort of recall to a past event or circumstance. For instance, a graduation can be considered a twice-behaved behavior because of how students have spent the prior years in school preparing for it and in their graduating, they reference each year in the classroom. We can also see how normative categories have been enforced through repeated behaviors with gender, for example. Using Schechner’s framework as a tool of analysis, behavior that can be considered “feminine,” like how women are expected to sit in public or wear their hair a certain way, are examples of mannerisms that are constantly reproduced and reinforce how gender roles have been imposed on society historically.

Is/As Performance

It is also important to make the distinction between “is” and “as” performance. According to Schechner, “There are limits to what ‘is’ performance. But just about anything can be studied ‘as’ performance”.⁵ Taylor emphasizes this separation, writing that “to say something is a performance amounts to an ontological affirmation, though a thoroughly localized one” while scholars who analyze events as performance “suggest that performance also functions as an epistemology”.⁶ The “as” perspective allows us to examine performance based on knowledge rather than what can be considered “true” or “real.” To say something is a performance is restrictive because performance in everyday life varies depending on the community and environment and “is” implies a sense of certainty. On the other hand, using “as” allows room for interpretation and acknowledges performance studies as a perspective that events can be analyzed from rather than something that has one definitive answer. Like Schechner’s theory, Taylor’s is/as device helps us use performance as a way to critique and understand society.

We will be examining this term alongside real world examples that can be found in everyday life: entertainment, protest, and race.

Entertainment as Performance

Performance and entertainment have always been a way for people to express their identity, interests, and talents to the world. Entertainment is an essential part of our daily life and in recent history it has been an impactful tool used towards cultural expression rather than towards leisure alone. Many engage in entertainment for artistic valuations and admiration of talent, but the importance of the performances through expression are often overlooked. Performances meant to be entertaining and engaging give the performer an opportunity to reach the audience in a manner more impactful than by artistic value alone. This is seen in “Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé”.⁷

Beyoncé’s Homecoming portrays how performance can be defined through entertainment as used to express cultural identity. The documentary covers a live concert of a festival where Beyonce was the first African American woman to headline at. She used this opportunity to express and tribute the importance of black culture, HBCUs, and black feminism. She represented this by the way she dressed her backup dancers which symbolized different parts of HBCUs. This performance gave some insight to a massive audience into the cultural importance of HBCUs and unity within the African American community. The performance won a Grammy and was nominated for 6 Emmys as well as other notable awards portraying a meaningful combination of artistic talent, coordination, and symbolism. The success and recognition of this entertainment allowed for Beyonce’s message and expression to reach a massive audience, and the later production of the movie solidified an impact that continues even today. Beyoncé’s unforgettable performance allowed her to express the importance of her identity through her passion and success in entertainment.

Protest as Performance

Performance can also be defined through the expressions of protest and how embodied actions influence societal viewpoints and identity. While performance is usually understood through artistic examples, the importance of performance through protest has been recently impactful to essential parts of our society. Protests are meant to be notable and call for attention to a cause, so performing as a form of protest shows how performance can be defined through impactfulness and meaning. Protests as performance has become a powerful tool for marginalized groups to assert cultural identity and influence recognition throughout the world.

In 2024, Maori representatives interrupted the voting of a bill in New Zealand’s parliament by performing their traditional Haka. The performance expresses the indigenous groups discontent with the decisions of parliament and how the disagreement stems from their communities viewpoint. The use of an ancestral and historic ritual also shows how the Maori disagree with parliament due to reasons that may dishonor their ancestors and suppress a history of 200 years. This use of performance to affect government decisions has brought more attention to political causes because it stands out, gains people’s attention, and rivals other traditional democratic expressions. The performance ultimately concluded with some members of parliament suspended, but the Bill would not be passed which shows the protest did have a lasting impact on the cause. This performance of the Haka not only serves as a political statement of protest, but also allowed for the Maori to assert their cultural identity within a system they felt disrespected. This protest through performance had cultural and political impacts on the indigenous group due to their expression of identity and discontent.

In 2024, Vanessa Hernandez, also known as Nezza, used her opportunity of performing the national anthem to protest against the immigration raids of Los Angeles. Ahead of the MLB game, Nezza discussed performing the national anthem in Spanish to bring attention to the immigration raids in the city. While the team’s employees and likely her supporting staff tried to convince her not to, Nezza sang the full national anthem in Spanish prior to a Dodger’s game. Her parents are immigrants from the Dominican Republic and Columbia so she has felt inclined to support many that may feel alone or uncertain about the well-being of their immigrant families. The performance was broadcasted and published on various news sites and the unexpected and impactful nature of her approach reached many. It was not assumed that the performance of the United States National Anthem would be used to touch on problems that, Nezza believes, the United States is causing. While many saw this as disrespectful to the United States and the national anthem which was written to be played in English, it was an efficient and meaningful performance that expressed how the United States is truly multicultural and multilingual. The nature of this protest as performance is truly symbolic and represents how many marginalized groups in this nation are overlooked. Nezza’s expression of her own cultural identity and support over all immigrant groups of this country through her performance utilized a successful platform that reached many. This performance is another example of how performance can be defined through protest but more importantly the opportunity it brings for change through identity and impactfulness.

Race as Performance

Through the lens of performance, ideas of race are substantiated through repeated behaviors and societal scripts. Since race is not biological but societally constructed, anything considered a “racial behavior” is completely reliant on public perceptions of racial groups instead of real evidence, which becomes a major issue when these perceptions are being utilized to create and enforce stereotypes.

At the same time, considering this aspect of identity as a performance allows artists to challenge static ideas of race by interrupting these historical scripts. In winter of 2023, Broadway welcomed the play Appropriate to its catalogue, written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. The play tells a fictional story about two sisters and one brother who reunite at their childhood home as adults a few years after their father passes away. The house rests on a former plantation in the South, and the play takes place right before the house is sold. As they are looking through what their father left in the home, the siblings find horrifying photographs of the enslaved people who used to live on the property, and the family bickers over what to do with them. In this process, they also question what they truly knew about their father in light of the discovery of the album.¹²

In one scene, the eldest sister Toni and her sister-in-law Rachael are arguing about Toni’s father’s involvement in the home’s plantation history after Rachael’s daughter views the photographs without her mother’s permission. When Rachael mentions the father’s “prejudice,” Toni is appalled at her word choice and continues to deny his complicitness in the photographs. But even as she is trying to call out the father’s past, Rachael expresses, “I’m not saying he was involved in any of these lynchings…I don’t know and frankly I don’t care. I am just saying he was a slave to his upbringing just like everyone else and, like everyone else, he had his issues”.

“I wanted to write a self-consciously ‘American family drama’…With Appropriate, I had this impulse to see what would happen if I made blackness present but essentially invisible.”

– Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Bomb Magazine¹⁴

Appropriate serves as an example of race as performance because of the way Jacobs-Jenkins chose his cast. The play is centered around Black people without having a single Black cast member. When taking into consideration the race of the all-white cast, it is evident how they are contributing to Schechner’s definition of performance. Although the actors and actresses may not demonstrate the exact behaviors of their characters in real life, their Whiteness makes their acting a twice-behaved behavior. Moreover, this scene in particular is one of many demonstrations of the satirical nature of the play and how the characters are performing Whiteness without mentioning race by speaking so inconsiderably about the photographs in an almost comical way. In satirizing their behavior towards Black people, Jacobs-Jenkins interrupts historical racial scripts by portraying their racism so absurdly that it becomes humorous. The play first makes the audience laugh and then has them wonder whether or not they should be laughing.

Going back to our definition of performance, Appropriate serves as a vessel for cultural identity because of how Jacobs-Jenkins acknowledges the question of what happens to former sites of slavery. As this family quarrels over their father’s past and what to do with the remnants of his death, they are tied to the Black experience not as participants, but as antagonists. This play also promotes visibility for marginalized groups by emphasizing how race can be felt even in its physical absence. Appropriate is unique in that Black voices may not be technically visible during the performance, but they are still unmistakably present. Moreover, Jacobs-Jenkins casting decisions parallel how Black voices are often not given little to no authority on how their history is handled or told, further demonstrating how the uplifts the Black community, albeit untraditionally.

Footnotes

1. Cambridge Dictionary. “Performance.” Cambridge Dictionary, Accessed December 5, 2025. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/performance. ↩︎
2. Diana Taylor, “ACTS OF TRANSFER” in The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003), 1-52. ↩︎
3. Richard Schechner, Performance Theory (London: Routledge, 1988), 62-97. ↩︎
4. IbId. ↩︎
5. IbId. ↩︎
6. Taylor, “ACTS OF TRANSFER,” 1-52. ↩︎
7. Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé, directed by Beyoncé (USA: Parkwood Entertainment, 2023), Netflix. ↩︎
8. Beythequeenn, “Beyoncé HOMECOMING Formation part 1 (HQ)”. June 9, 2019, YouTube, https://youtu.be/i31agc9Oeqk?si=GZ6McD926dngyUzB. ↩︎
9. Guardian News, “Māori MPs perform haka and disrupt NZ parliament debate on treaty rights changes”. Nov 14, 2024, YouTube, https://youtu.be/N__OF41CqoY?si=_wtdNvajcz6A8dPJ. ↩︎
10. CNN, “Singer performs National Anthem in Spanish to protest ICE raids in LA”. June 18, 2025, CNN,
    https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/18/sport/video/nezza-national-anthem-spanish-dodgers-game-digvid ↩︎
11. Promotional poster for the play Appropriate, Photograph. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriate_(play). ↩︎
12. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Appropriate/An Octaroon: Plays (New York City: Theatre Communications Group, 2019). ↩︎
13. Curious Theatre Company, “Appropriate Rachel and Toni”. Sep 12, 2017, YouTube, https://youtu.be/rTPht6Zd3e0?si=LGe_qc-dzsBlrcgv. ↩︎
14. Hilton Al, “Branden Jacobs-Jenkins by Hilton Als”. January 5, 2018, Bomb, https://bombmagazine.org/articles/2018/01/05/branden-jacobs-jenkins/. ↩︎
15. Joan Marcus, Michael Esper, Corey Stoll and Sarah Paulson in Appropriate, Dec 19, 2025, Photograph. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/dec/19/branden-jacobs-jenkins-interview-playwright-appropriate ↩︎

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Bibliography

Al, Hilton. “Branden Jacobs-Jenkins by Hilton Als.” Bomb, January 5, 2018. https://bombmagazine.org/articles/2018/01/05/branden-jacobs-jenkins/.

“Appropriate Rachel and Toni.” YouTube, September 12, 2017. https://youtu.be/rTPht6Zd3e0?si=LGe_qc-dzsBlrcgv.

“Beyoncé HOMECOMING Formation part 1 (HQ)”. YouTube, June 9, 2019. https://youtu.be/i31agc9Oeqk?si=GZ6McD926dngyUzB.

Dean, Jodi. Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies: Communicative Capitalism and
Left Politics. Durham: Duke University Press, 2009.

Knowles, Beyoncé, dir. Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé. USA: Netflix, 2019.

Jacobs-Jenkins, Branden. Appropriate/An Octaroon: Plays. New York City: Theatre Communications Group, 2019.

“Māori MPs perform haka and disrupt NZ parliament debate on treaty rights changes”. YouTube, November 14, 2024. https://youtu.be/N__OF41CqoY?si=_wtdNvajcz6A8dPJ.

Marcus, Joan. Michael Esper, Corey Stoll and Sarah Paulson in Appropriate, Dec 19, 2025, Photograph. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/dec/19/branden-jacobs-jenkins-interview-playwright-appropriate.

“Performance.” Cambridge Dictionary. Accessed December 5, 2025. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/performance.

Promotional poster for the play Appropriate, Photograph. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriate_(play).

Schechner, Richard. Performance Theory, 62-97. London: Routledge, 1988.

Taylor, Diana. “ACTS OF TRANSFER” in The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas, 1-52. Durham: Duke University Press, 2003.

Contributors

Meg Santos

Sean Sheehan