narrativeperformance

Narrative performance is a cross-disciplinary concept in which storytelling is produced through live or enacted form rather than solely through written text or static media. It covers a range of practices in theatre, performance art, oral storytelling, spoken word, documentary theatre, and digital or interactive formats where narrative emerges from embodied presentation, voice, gesture, and spatial design as much as from plot or narration.

Practically, it studies how narrative is shaped by performance choices: character embodiment, pacing, voice, audience engagement, and the use of stage space, lighting, or multimedia. The result is that meaning is produced through the interplay of story and performance, not by the narrative alone.

Scholars in performance studies and narrative theory treat narrative performance as an object of analysis that reveals how audiences interpret and co-create meaning. Methodologies include performance analysis, ethnography, discourse and reception studies, and the examination of dramaturgical devices such as montage, repetition, polyphony, and intertextual references.

Contexts range from traditional oral storytelling and ritual to contemporary theatre, stand-up, and interactive installations. Examples include solo performance pieces, documentary theatre that presents real-life narratives, and narrative-based performance that mixes documentary material with fiction.

See also: storytelling; performance studies; dramaturgy; narrative theory; theatre.