WELCOME TO BALL HIGH'S PERFORMANCE/SCHOOL!


Here you will find information on P/S important to you. GET INVOLVED! P/S is only successful with the cooperation of Ball High School, the Galveston Independent School District, and the Galveston community.

Performance/School is Ball High Schools new foray into the young academic field of Performance Studies. Post-secondary theatre education has taken a decisive step away from focusing on canonized Western theatre traditions to incorporate a more holistic, multi-cultural approach to theatre studies. This step reflects not only post-colonial and post-modern influences within academia but also new research uncovering the extent to which performance produces meaning.



Performance Studies uses aspects of theatre, cultural studies, critical and literary theories, and the social sciences to look at culture through the optic of performance. It is difficult to define Performance Studies because one of its goals is to remain multi-disciplinary and open. Its openness, though creating a goldmine for future intellectual inquiry, creates a few problems. One major problem is the difficulty secondary school students have when moving from a hyper-structured learning environment to this more creative, erudite, and dynamic field of inquiry. Developing a productive coexistence between the former and the latter at the secondary school level to help students tap into the growing significance of Performance Studies is my main goal.



Performance/School, like Performance Studies, is new, dynamic, and looking for space to grow. The slash in its name represents a couple of things. It represents a distinction from the kind of institutions people normally associate with the label performance school. Ball Highs Performance/School does not focus on one or only a few specific performance styles or traditions. Its list of performance practices is fluid. It constantly changes to reflect the variety of interests and influences of the groups student-participants, its school district, and its local community. The slash also represents the coming together of two worlds. If we combine the broadest definition of performance (as promulgated by Performance Studies) with the broadest definition of school, we see the essence of this group.



Performance and getting students to internalize its broadest definition is the main mission of this student group. I believe that fulfilling this mission will better prepare secondary school students for future work in Performance Studies. Performance/School will fulfill by allowing each student-participant to perform the roles of teacher and/or student of performance. Performance Studies promotes participation as a way to gain meaning from performance. As Performance/School members learn and/or share knowledge of a variety of performance traditions, they broaden all participants understanding of performance and its implications.