ABSTRACT
Performance is a protean notion, elusive in meaning and with a wide range of applications. Indeed, if one were to ask any two scholars to define what perform - ance is, one would probably receive three different answers. While some theorists still tend to restrict it to theatre, performance scholars argue that performance can exist independently of theatre.1 Schechner, who, together with Turner, is con - sidered to be one of the two fathers of Performance Studies is surely right to argue for the divisibility of performance from theatre. He is also right to argue for the wide application of performance, which
must be construed as a ‘broad spectrum’ or ‘continuum’ of actions ranging from ritual, play, sports, popular entertainments, the performing arts, to the enactment of social, professional, gender, race, and class roles, and to vari - ous representations and constructions of actions in the media and in the Internet.2
