140      The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Studies
products with special qualities not present in the theatre production (see De Marinis 1985 for the distinction between documents and monuments). Video recordings, depending on their type, always mediate the original performance, and the difference between recording and original must also be taken into consideration.
The rapid development of digital technology has created improved possibilities for recording performances. In comparison to the older VHS technology, digital video cameras provide an inexpensive way to capture performances and furthermore to edit the material on a computer. Independent theatre groups especially are required to produce demo DVDs for festivals and other venues as well as full-length documentations of productions. This material provides, of course, potential source documents for students and scholars. More recently, some groups have even begun to produce DVDs with the special features employed in Hollywood films such as directors' comments, multiple angle shots, extra material and so on.2
Questionnaires, otherwise known as systematic audience surveys, can also be used for performance analysis, especially when they are combined with more hermeneutic interpretations as discussed in Chap. 2 (see p. 45). In the late 1980s, scholars began to develop questionnaires to help students structure their impressions immediately after attending a performance. In his study of performance analysis, Patrice Pavis reviews three different questionnaires, including his own. The latter, first published in 1988, has been translated into several languages and is regularly revised by the author. A slightly abridged version is reproduced here.
Questionnaire for performance analysis (after Pavis 2003: 37-40)
(1) General characteristics of the mise-en-scene
(a) What holds the elements of the performance together (relationship between systems of staging)?
(b) What are the contradictions or coherencies between the text and m/se-en-scene?
(c) Can you identify general aesthetic principles?
(d) What disturbs you about this production? Which moments are strong, weak, boring?
(2) Scenography
(a) Relationship between audience space and acting space
(b) Systems of colours, forms, materials and their connotations
(c) Principles of structuring/organizing space
(i) Dramaturgical function of the stage space and its occupation
(ii) Relationship between on-stage and off-stage
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(iii) Connections between the space utilized and the fiction of the dramatic text
(iv) Relationship between what is shown and what is concealed
(v) How does the scenography evolve? To what do its transformations correspond?
(3) Lighting system: nature, connections to space and actors
(4) Objects: nature, function, relationship to space and body
(5) Costumes, makeup, masks: function, system, relationship to body
(6) Actors' performances
(a) Physical description of the actors (movements, facial expression, changes in appearance)
(b) Construction of character: actor/role relationship
(c) Voice: qualities, effects produced, diction
(d) Status of the performer: past, professional situation
(7) Function of music, noise, silence
(8) Rhythm of the performance
(a) rhythm of various signifying systems (dialogue, lighting, systems of gesture)
(b) Overall rhythm of the performance: continuous or discontinuous, connection with mise-en-scene
(9) Reading the plot through the mise-en-scene
(a) What story is being told? Summarize it. Does the mise-en-scene recount the same story as the text?
(b) What are the dramaturgical choices? Coherence or incoherence of reading?
(c) What are the ambiguities in the story and how are they clarified in the mise-en-scene?
(d) What is the genre of the dramatic text according to this mise-en-scene?
(10) The text in performance
(a) Choice of version for staging: what are the modifications? Translations?
(b) Role given to the dramatic text in the mise-en-scene?
(11) The spectator
(a) Within what theatre institution does the production take place?
(b) What expectations did you have of the performance (text, director, actors)?
(c) How did the audience react?
(12) How to record and remember the performance.
(a) What escapes notation?
(b) What images do you remember?
(13) What cannot be put into signs and meaning (semiotized)?
In comparison to sociologically oriented questionnaires that aim to gauge spectators' reactions and impressions or to gather demographic statistics, this one is intended to help students of theatre studies notate their reactions to a performance. The order of the questions corresponds broadly to the way