Transformation and Transportation of Spectators

Theatre and Performance Studies: Theory and Aesthetics

By Kiattipoom Nantanukul

This presentation I would loosely refer to Richard Schechner’s article “Performers

and Spectators Transported and Transformed” as a departure point and explore to

other perspectives in The Natyasastra in terms of the transformation and

transportation of spectators.

From Schechner’s point of view, the world of performances can be organized into Fan

and Web Model as He sees them as including much more than theatre, but along an

entire spectrum, which ranges from everyday life to rituals and art. The fan presents

performance as an organized spectrum of categories, and the web reveals the dynamic

influences and inter-connections. On the other hands, the web model is structured

around item, which is Schechner’s own background. This is not an indication of bias,

but rather perspective, as it is his vantage point. This idea of fan and web model has

been served as Schechner’s basis for the introduction of the performance studies.

Tracing back to Schechner’s point from the article, we realize that the way Schechner

systematizes and/or organizes his notion toward the world of performances are

through the process of transportation and transformation where the transportation

serves in the ordinary world and the transformations serves in the performative world.

(Here the term “performative” is not the same as that in Austin’s Speech act theory,

but he means the time when the actors have moved to another sphere beyond the

ordinary world.)

It is interesting that Schechner’s method in organizing the performances can be

applied to many types of theatre and performance as well as many textual evidences

in the history of theatre. For instance, his article mentions the theory of Rasa as an

example to explore and organize the state of rasa and how rasa can be emerged. For

Schechner, “Rasa happens where the experience of the preparers and the Partakers

meet. Each, using skills that have to be learned and that are not easy, moves towards

the other…” (P.110) Even Schechner states that rasa, for both performers and

spectators are only in the state of transportation as they are both in the ordinary world,

he concludes that rasa is the mutuality, the sharing, the co-creation of preparers and

partakers. (P.111) However, without these kinds of transportation and transformation,

the performances cannot be succeeded.

What I want to go further from Schechner here is the fact that when most of the

performance theorists discuss about the relationship between the appropriate actors

and suitable audience as mention in the ancient text, like the Natyasastra, they tend to

put the emphasis on the performers or performance elements more than the spectators.

We have many details about how the performers should act in the Natyasastra. But the

detail on spectators is often neglected.

In the Natyasastra, chapter VI on Rasa and Chapter VII on Bhava are mostly

discussed when talking about the aesthetic concept in Natyasastra. However, I would

like to raise the content in chapter XXVII “The success of the production” into my

argument. If we say that the performance can be successful only with appropriate

performers, in good performances, with suitable audience, we should look into the

text and see how the Natyasastra has mentioned about the success of production.

In Natyasastra, it used the word Siddhi which literally means “driving off, putting

aside from yājñavalkya.” In the Mahabharata, this word means “accomplish,

fulfillment, and success.” From kāmandakīya-nītisāra, this word means the hitting of

the mark. And the last example, it can mean healing of the disease or curing by

something. From this various meaning, we realize that this word “Siddhi” has

performative meaning in the performance. It is not only the success of the

performance, but the performance itself has done something to the spectators in order

to be called “success.” Here I would go back to Schechner’s notion of transformation

and transportation that the audience, according to the written textual interpretation,

has been passed through the process of both transportation and transformation by the

performance. Otherwise, that performance cannot be succeeded as I have mentioned

earlier.

In the Natyasastra, this Siddhi can be separated into two kinds, the human and the

divine. The success in human level can be identified by audience gentle smile, loud

laughter, saying “sadhu” (Good), “Wonderful” (aho) or having loud applause

(pravṛddha nada), etc. (Adya Rangacharya 213) There are also physical indications

such as hair standing, jumping the seat, throwing garlands and the ring on stage, etc.

These records of audience’s reactions support the assumption about the

transformation and transportation in the audience as well. These kinds of reactions

can be seen in various kind of performance as Schechner has been mentioned in his

fan and web model.

In the same chapter of the Natyasastra, line 50-62 also mentions the qualification of

spectators. The spectator needs to have good character, quiet behavior and learning.

They are expected to be experts in all six varieties of Natya and in the playing of four

kinds of musical instruments, etc. These expectations, if we leave the debate on who

is the audience in Natyasastra, reflect that the audience needs to be trained and

prepared for the performance as well. Therefore, when they attend the performance,

they will be appropriate transported and transformed partakers to make the successful

performance together with the performers.

This short presentation does not provide enough space to look into another interesting

way which is how this notion of transformed and transported audience can engage

with the ancient western text like the Poetics.

In this short argument, I just raise a way to explore the way we can open-mindedly

accept notion of Western theorists and look into the Asian text. What we should do is

not only judging how ridiculous each theory or observation is, but to look at its

methodology and put it forward to make a move in our performance studies

perspective.