Shawyer dissertation May 2008 final version - The University of ...

Open to improvisation and without a clear end-point, the exorcism exemplifiesKershaw’s dramaturgy of protest. It was receptive to “abrupt eruptions of dramaticintensity, sudden shifts and changes in direction, tempo, or focus,” for even as it relied onthe crowd as audience, it was vulnerable to the crowd’s fickle attention (Kershaw 99).The drama peaked in waves of enthusiastic chanting of “Out demons out!” Yet there werealso moments of boring repetition: Mailer records Lowell complaining that the exorcismchanting “was all right for a while . . . but it’s so damn repetitious” (124). The exorcismalso demonstrated the multiplicity and discontinuity that marks the dramaturgy of protest.As just one of multiple protest actions occurring at the same time, it worked hand in handwith other demonstrators establishing the sit-in, crossing police lines to get arrested, orattempting to storm the Pentagon building. The exorcism performance itself had multipleentry points for audience and actors: through music, chanting, the use of noisemakers, orwitnessing the event.Live performance is inherently unpredictable. Anything might happen whenperformers present a scenario to a live audience. Someone might forget their lines. Anaudience member might heckle the performers. The music might not play. The energy ofthe crowd might inspire the performers to greater emotional heights. Anyone who hasever performed live knows the visceral thrill of the uncertainty that live performancebrings. Will any audience come? Will they like it? How will they respond? And anyonewho has ever been an audience member for live performance also knows theunpredictability of live performance, from the simple uncertainty about how the scenariowill end, to the collective shock if a performer obviously makes a mistake, or a piece of88