Outdoor Stage Performances Have Adopted This Principle, With Many Touring

Outdoor stage performances have adopted this principle, with many touring theatre companies using castle ruins, woodland clearings and riversides to stage Shakespeare's Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Merchant of Venice. This use of transformed space is perhaps a more conservative application of Schechner's theory, as it retains many of the conventions of traditional theatre. The theatrical stage is simply substituted for its outdoor counterpart. Much of street theatre approaches adopt a radical use of space in the environment.
There are innumerable ways in which performance theory and new theatre are a useful alternative to traditional theatre. The application of other (visual) media has already been noted, as in the example of A-Gender. Schechner proposes others:
'I suggest other tools, other approaches. Mathematical and transactional game analysis, model building, comparisons between theatre and related performance activities all will prove fruitful.' (Schechner, 1988, P. 27-28) This demands a high level of intense physical and mental rigour from the practitioner, as Schechner sees theatre as alive, experiential, organic, rather than something that merely replicates or reconstructs reality. His theory offers many practical methods for both student and practitioner to follow, in the form of both things to think about and things to do.
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These are inter-disciplinary and encourage an expansionist outlook, which is cross-cultural, as well as making explorative use of the inner life of the performer. This dynamic and multi-faceted approach can be adopted by the full range of performing arts, which the theory so comprehensively reflects. For both actors and directors it creates new space and new possibilities, especially to the experimental and fringe theatre practitioner.

Bibliography
1. AUSTIN, J.L., How To Do Things With Words, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962.
2. KAPROW, A., Assemblage, Environments and Happenings, New York: H.N Abrams, 1966.
3. SCHECHNER, R., 'Negotiations with the Environment', in Essays in Performance Theory, London, New York: Routledge, 1977.
4. SCHECHNER, R., 'Chapter 1', in Performance Studies: The Interpretation of Aesthetic Texts, New York: Drama Book Specialists, 1995.
5. SCHECHNER, R.,Performance Theory, London, New York: Routledge, 1988. (New ed. 2003)
6. SCHECHNER, R., Performance Studies, London, New York: Routledge, 2002.
Theatrical Performance
7. HATELY, J., and TRANSACTION THEATRE COMPANY, A-Gender, Gateway Theatre, Chester (among other venues), Sept. 2003.
Additional footnotes
1. (P. 1) 'Restored behaviour': Those actions (physical or verbal) that have been prepared or rehearsed, often without the individual being aware of it. There is sometimes a ritualistic element to the action.
2. (P. 2) www.jennicam.org: A prime example noted by Schechner in Performance Studies. (2002, P.