In Carlson’s article, the term that
stuck out to me the most (that we did not discuss in class) was the idea of restored behavior. Schechner defines it
as a “quality of performance not involved with the display of skills, but
rather with a certain distance between ‘self’ and behavior” (4). So I take it
that when you are portraying a restored behavior, then you are not necessarily
showing off but you are just doing something unlike yourself. On the second day of class, we talked a
lot about how you must be conscious that you are performing in order for it to
be a performance. This separation of self and behavior kind of blurs that line
a bit as I’ll talk about soon.
I work in a restaurant. I don’t display any special talent or
skills, but I do feel like I’m performing when I talk to our
guests/customers. I have to act a
certain way and put on a front in order to make tips. I feel like a lot of the
stuff I have to say is scripted. I
sort of think this is a restored behavior. I’m not acting necessarily like my self but I have to behave
a certain way for my audience (the customers). However, I’m not displaying
skills. I work as a take-out server and all I do is bag their food, show them
that we didn’t forget anything, and do all of this with a smile praying on the
inside that they leave at least a couple bucks. This however, is not theatre,
but it is a performance.
I too talked about a few of these keys points as you have mentioned in your post. However I agree and wish I would have thought about the separation of self and behavior that blurs the lines. In my post I have added a link to an article I have found that describes our jobs as we do them as a performance depending on what we love to do. Displaying your great customer service is a wonderful performance skill. I also appreciate you pointing out Schechner's quote which makes me think about performance a little more.
ReplyDeleteI liked what you wrote about the restored per formative behavior associated with working in a restaurant. I too work in a restaurant as a server, and I have noticed that there have been cases where certain servers (myself included at times) have been criticized for being "fake" when interacting with customers. Fake in this context meaning that they are being overly polite in a way that borders phony. I would argue that this behavior is not fake necessarily but a requirement if this particular position. As a server it is your job to make customers feel that they are being taken care of and there is a certain expected behavior associated with that. That isn't to say that there aren't those that milk it for tips (I'd like to think that I don't at least) but generally speaking I think this is expected behavior. It also made me think of what we discussed in class about behaving in a way that isn't me but isn't 'not me.'
ReplyDeleteI like your thoughts on restored behavior not necessarily being a conscious act of performance but that the restored behavior itself can become a subconscious act. Your discussion brought up a question in my mind. If you perform a task that would be considered restored behavior often enough, i.e. every shift you work at the restaurant, is the act still considered restored behavior or does it become part of your natural behavior? Part of me thinks it's still up to the "audience", or the customer but I find it to be an interesting thought.
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