Pavis Questionnaire

Pavis's Questionnaire
Elaborated during the 19805 through extensive contact with different productions
(essentially Western and Parisian), a first version of this questionnaire was published
in Voix et images de la scene? A final variant, which takes into account objections
raised and the evolution of theater production, is offered here.
i. General characteristics of the mise-en-scene

a. What holds the elements of the performance together (relationship between systems
of staging)
b. Coherence or incoherence of the mise-en-scene: on what is it based?

c. Place of the mise-en-scene in the cultural and aesthetic context
d. What is it that disturbs you in this production? Which moments are strong, weak,
or boring? How is it placed in the current production?
2. Scenography
a. Spatial forms: urban, architectural, scenic, gestural, etc.
b. Relationship between audience space and acting space
c. Principles of structuring/organizing space
1. Dramaturgical function of the stage space and its occupation
2. Relationship between onstage and offstage
3. Connections between the space utilized and the fiction of the staged dramatic text
4. Relationship between what is shown and what is concealed
5. How does the scenography evolve? To what do its transformations correspond?
d. Systems of colors, forms, materials: their connotations
3. Lighting system
Nature, connections to the fiction, performance, the actor. Effects on the reception of
the performance
4. Objects
Nature, function, material, relationship to the space and the body, system of their
usage
5. Costumes, makeup, masks
Function, system, relationship to the body
6. Actors' performances
a. Physical description of the actors (bodily movements, facial expression, makeup);
changes in their appearance
b. Assumed kinesthesia of actors, induced kinesthesia of observers
c. Construction of character: actor/role relationship
d. Relationship between the actor and the group: movements, ensemble relations,
trajectories
e. Relationship between text and body
f. Voice: qualities, effects produced, relations to diction and song
g. Status of the performer: past, professional situation, etc.
7. Function of music, noise, silence
a. Nature and characteristics: relationship to plot, diction
b. At what moments does it intervene? Repercussions for the rest of the performance
VIM'I "llls "I All.llV",!-.
Rhythm of the performance
a. Rhythm of various signifying systems (exchanges of dialogue, lighting, costumes,
systems of gesture). Connection between real duration and lived duration
b. The overall rhythm of the performance: continuous or discontinuous rhythm,
changes of system, connection with the 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 dramaturgical choices? Coherence or incoherence of reading?
c. What are the ambiguities in the text, and how are they clarified in the mise-en-
scene?
d. How is the plot structured?
e. How is the plot constructed by actors and staging?
f. What is the genre of dramatic text according to this mise-en-scene?
g. Other options for possible mise-en-scenes
10. The text in performance
a. Choice of version for staging: what are the modifications?
b. Characteristics of the translation (where appropriate). Translation, adaptation,
rewriting or original writing?
c. Role given to the dramatic text in the mise-en-scene?
d. Relationships between text and image, between ear and eye
11. The spectator
a. Within what theater institution does the production take place?
b. What expectations did you have of the performance (text, director, actors)?
c. What presuppositions are necessary to appreciate the performance?
d. How did the audience react?
e. Role of the spectator in the production of meaning. Does the performance
encourage a univocal or plural reading?
f. What images, scenes, themes caught your attention and remain with you?
g. How is the spectator's attention manipulated by the mise-en-scene?
12. How to record (photograph or film) the performance? How to retain memories of
it? What escapes notation?
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Analyzing Ftrjormanoi
13. What cannot be put into signs (semiotized)?
a. What didn't make sense in your reading of the mise-en-scene?
b. What was not reducible to signs and meaning (and why)?
14. Final assessment
a. Are there any particular problems that need examining?
b. Any comments, further categories required for this production and for the
questionnaire

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Pavis's Questionnaire

i. General characteristics of the mise-en-scene

b. Coherence or incoherence of the mise-en-scene: on what is it based?

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