Between Theater and Anthropology

Acknowledgments

A book like this is written by one person but the ideas expressed are nurtured by a group: colleagues, artists, friends, research assistants, students; deans, foundation officials, government workers. Many whose names I will never know: the people who keep the railroads running in India, telephone operators , helpful strangers. Some people belong to several categories. I want to thank them all, even those I forget to thank. I want to thank my dear friend Victor Turner who died on f8 December 1983. Victor was a great, just, and generous man. During many hours of conversation, in seminars and workshops, at conferences and meetings, in his home and mine, we shared ideas and visions, jokes and songs, lore and theories. See you someday in Glasgow,Victor. Thanks to Carol Martin who read the essays in this book with a constructive , critical editorial eye. Michael Kirby is a close friend whose opposing viewpoints keep me alert, as I hope mine do him. Edith Turner, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara Myerhoff, Jerome Rothenberg, Jerzy Grotowski, Herbert Blau, and Brian Sutton-Smith have each enriched me with their work, friendship, and talk. Brooks McNamara, Marcia Siegel, and Kate Davy—colleagues in the Department of Performance Studies, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University—have helped me develop many of my theories in courses, seminars , and faculty discussions. David Oppenheim, dean of the Tisch School, has always been warmly supportive. Dan Sandford and Cathy J. Sharp made life easier by running an efficient, and pleasant, departmental office. Thanks also to the many students, performers, and other performance artists and scholars who have worked with me in workshops, rehearsals, A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S xiv productions, classes, seminars, and conferences: these people and these gatherings are the soil of my thinking. Sally Harrison not only typed the manuscript but, as a performance theorist, made many helpful suggestions. Lita Osmundsen and Willa Appel of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research supported my work and made possible a gathering of performing artists and scholars from around the world to consider some of the ideas discussed in this book. Grants and fellowships from Guggenheim, Fulbright, Smithsonian, and the Social Science Research Council have all made my research in America and overseaspossible. My son Samuel, who was born when work on this book began, has been a source of constant delight and inspiration. This page intentionally left blank ...