Liminal Richard: Approaches to Performance Studies

Abstract

Richard Schechner was teacher, mentor, neighbor, and friend to me while I studied at Tulane from 1964 to 1967. This makes me one of his first students and -- since I procrastinated in writing my dissertation -- I believe it also makes me the last of his charges to get a Tulane PhD in Theatre (or Dramatic Literature and Criticism as it was then significantly called). Richard has had a profound effect on the American Theatre, on the discourses of performance studies, and on many of those who contribute to these discourses. He also -- both in ways I know and in ways to which I am no doubt oblivious -- has had a profound effect upon my own life. This chapter is an attempt to resist a further slide into oblivion: to acknowledge debts, own love, and trace ideas. The hope is that in the process some light will be cast on the beginnings of performance studies -- or at least on some of Richard's early and seminal contributions to that still somewhat inchoate field.