Site specific is a performance that relates to a place. ‘This term refers to a staging and performance conceived on the basis of a place in the real world.’ (Pavis, 1998, pp. 337-8) Once a place is chosen as the location for a site specific piece the first step is to do a large amount of research about the place to discover its history, events that took places there or the atmosphere that surrounds it. When the research is completed and an idea has developed, text can be used to create a performance. Pavis said ‘The insertion of a classical or modern text in this “found space” throws new light on it, gives it unsuspected power’ (1998, pp. 337-8) By doing this the audience will create a new idea of the place and create a different purpose for being there, ‘This new concept provides a new situation or enunciation … and gives the performance an unusual setting of great charm and power.’ (Pavis, 1998, pp. 337-8)
Even though it seems site specific performance is used to occupy a space, it is used to hold ‘Possibilities for responding to and interrogating a range of current spatial concerns, and for investigating the spatial dimensions of contemporary identities’. (Pearson, 2010, p. 9) The audience can use the space to respond to the performance being shown. ‘Site-specific performance can be especially powerful as a vehicle for remembering’ (Pearson, 2010, P.9) Often people forget about a place and the history about it or even ignore the places they pass every day. By having a site-specific performance at these places not only does it create a new meaning about the place in a persons mind but can also jog their memory about the place and the history behind it.
Site specific performance can be very interesting and is very different to a performance happening in an auditorium. For example an audience in an auditorium will be fixed and located to one space whereas in a site specific performance the audience can be free to wander and respond in their own way. When an audience responds to a piece it adds more power to the performance and they can take away their own experiences and can carry on with them if they wanted to.
Work Cited
Pavis, P. (1998) Dictionary of the Theatre: Terms, Concepts, and Analysis (Toronto: University of Toronto Press)
Pearson, M. (2010) Site-Specific performance (Palgrave Macmillan)