ABSTRACT
Institutions of higher education are, for the most part, characterized by a lack of clear, agreed objectives and purposes. Institutions of higher education are peculiarly open to a shifting improvisation of order; since all may have a hand in the formulation of the roles all – ultimately and theoretically – may have a hand in rewriting the scripts. The chapter deals with the utilization of the metaphor in literature, social science and everyday life and outlines the major features of the metaphor as it is currently used and application of it as a way of seeing behaviour in universities. In England's great flowering of the theatre – the Elizabethan period – the use of the metaphor also burgeons. The chapter concludes with some comments upon the improvisation of order within institutions of higher education and upon the endemic tendency towards rehearsal they display, some comments upon the performers may be appropriate.
