Talent and Technique in Theatre: A Semiotics of Performing

Abstract

The ability to perform in theatre depends upon a certain vitality or movement as well as the distinct articulation or delimiting of that movement. The way movement is limited in theatre is a question of a pattern or style that correlates the limits of movement according to a precise logic. In this paper, I consider both an analog and a digital logic of performing. First, I describe the analog logic of performing as talent, where talent defines a bodily capability for performing that everyone shares, though not all to the same degree. Second, I describe the digital logic of performing as technique that defines a bodily ability which can be developed as a craft which an individual either possesses or not. In a final section, I interpret the relation of bodily capability and ability in the embodiment of a meaningful gesture. Talent and technique suggest a semiotics of performing that patterns bodily capability and ability in the living gesture of theatre.