ABSTRACT
Reflecting on a conference of theater as theory convened by the authors, this chapter considers the hermeneutics, material procedures, and stakes of putting performance at the center of theorization. Theorems, Proofs, Rebuttals and Propositions: A Conference of Theoretical Theatre, held in 2013 in New York, sought to authorize performance-making as an act of constructive theorizing and envisioning. Unlike traditional academic conferences (even ones dealing with Performance Studies) that de-emphasize the performance of texts and talk in favor of their “contents,’ here performance was the main theoretical mode through which conference participants would discourse. The essay interweaves documents of the organization process with reflections on the four plenary performances, and responses to these, presented at the conference: Plato’s Symposium, by Finnish performance group Reality Research Center; REVOLUTION, by Peruvian media artist Amapola Prada; Idea Machine, by US theater and media artist Mike Taylor; and Poultry Paradise and its Discontents: Nightshifts, by Japanese-American performance theorist Kikuko Tanaka.
