This important new introductory textbook by a prime mover in the emergent field of Performance Studies is a defining moment for the discipline. It provides a lively and accessible overview of the full range of performance for undergraduates at all levels and beginning graduate students in performance studies, theatre, performing arts and cultural studies. It includes discussion of the performing arts and popular entertainments, rituals, play and games as well as the performances of every day life. Supporting examples and ideas are drawn from the performing arts, anthropology, post-structuralism, ritual theory, ethology, philosophy and aesthetics. The text has been fully developed with input from leading teachers and trialled with students. User-friendly, with a special text design, it also includes the following features: Extracts from primary sources giving alternative voices and viewpoints Biographies of key thinkers 'Things to think about' and 'things to do' to stimulate fieldwork, classroom exercises and discussion Key reading lists for each chapter 20 line drawings and 173 b+w photographs drawn from private and public collections around the world.