Relocating to Depict: Managing the Interactional Agenda at Opera Rehearsals

Abstract

A performer in an opera has to portray the character they are playing not only through the music but also in their visuospatial behaviors on stage. This article is about how performers and directors negotiate such portrayals through depictions that make proposed actions available for the other participants. The focus is on how depictions are initiated, through relocations in space, and how these initiations are responded to. We see how performer and director collaboratively manage the complex visuospatial requirements of a successful rehearsal. Data are in Swedish and English.