At the heart of the dramatic arts lies a single phenomenon: human social interaction. The crux of the practitioner’s work involves knowing how interaction works: knowing what a pause does, or why a particular intonation contour changes a line from interrogative to accusative, or what goes into inferring something about a character. Social Interaction and Dramatic Performance uses case studies from dramatic performances and data from real-world interaction to present findings from interaction analytic research. Over ten chapters, Spencer Hazel illuminates the nuances that shape our everyday interactions, demonstrating how practitioners of the dramatic arts seek to develop and construct authentic representations of interaction. This book also explores the processes by which these representations of interaction are produced through interaction: between actors, between actor and director and between others in the creative team.

The dramatic arts explore the social world through representations of people interacting with one another. This new coursebook offers insights into the intricate ways people have been shown to organise their interactions, their social affairs and their institutions, providing a toolkit for students and practitioners of the performing arts to follow, allowing them to understand and construct more authentic interactions in performance.