What’s the Difference Between Theater and Performance?

I literally just got back from a party and am writing this post. While there, a woman admitted to me that she preferred doing performance over theater even thought she makes her living as a theater professional. I am someone who does not identify with the theater community, so I began to ask others at the party if they see a difference between Performance and Theater. After talking with several people the distinctions between the two became a bit more clear.

Theater, it was said, is codified. It has a history and expectation. Theater expects its participants to understand and carry on a tradition. In theater there’s a particular way to approach the production, direction, writing, lighting, costuming, etc. There’s a language that should be employed when critiquing theater. An audience who “understands theater” will most likely have a different opinion about a play as opposed to a person who doesn’t go to see theater often. Someone at the party went as far as to say that theater was something people (he said “we” as in the theater community) do but weren’t necessarily happy doing. He also said that theater should die, and he’s a theater professional! 

Performance, on the other hand, was described as something that unifies an audience. Performance can include theater but is more free and encompasses dance, music, and even include attention-getting outbursts in public. Sound is a huge part of performance. So are words and language. Performance has something to say beyond simply entertaining an audience. It’s less concerned with linear or structured narrative than theater. I got the impression that performance is more spontaneous and free both in how people described it and how they felt about doing it. Performance does not need to be scripted. It’s more alive. 

Theater and performance can come together as one and everyone agreed that when the two marry a very special and powerful experience happens. The word “ritual” came up when people spoke about performance. It would seem to me that ritual in theater happens in the production of a play and includes the production workers while ritual in performance happens during the performance itself ad includes the audience.

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