Lecture-Performance and Meaning Formation

Lecture-performance is a hybrid form consisting of a lecture and a performance part that together act as a unity. In this form, although the lecture part is trying to give a specific meaning to shed light on a subject, the meaning is not solely produced by the lecturer, but through the cooperation of the lecturer and the performance using different theatrical signs, the presence of audience as meaning creators. The important point here is that this form tries to activate the audience participation in meaning-making and challenge them to question the surrounding world. To show how this meaning formation process works in this form, About Truth has been analysed. This lecture-performance is about the concept of truth and how it is perceived throughout history and among people from different groups. Rhetorical Criticism is the suitable method for analysis since it shows the relation among the lecturer/performer, the lecture/performance, and the audience, and aims at finding how meaning is produced in different texts to affect the audience. Rhetorical analysis in the lecture-performance is done in three steps, 1) finding the aim of the text, 2) how that aim is fulfilled, and 3) the aesthetic analysis of the lecture-performance. This is the first academic study on the subject of lecture-performance with a focus on rhetorical criticism and the results are as follow: the aim of the work was to highlight the concept of ‘truth’ and challenge it. It was done using different tools, such as stage prompts, colour coding, genders, dancing, acting, irony, and of course, lecturing. Without understanding the relation of different parts of the performance to the topic, the meaning would not be clear. Audience needs to decode the visual and vocal signs to make meaning for themselves. This artistic force renders meaning in different levels which helps audience to challenge themselves and have a critical view. It is opposite of the passive role of audience in conventional lectures in which they just receive the fixed information. Aesthetically speaking, this production is appealing as it has used artistic mediators and through them, has put the meaning in subtext and made an atmosphere in which its audience creates meaning using whatever they can hear and see.