Voice and performance at the Day of the Dead Festival

Abstract

This paper aims to give an account of the process of construction of an artistic performance carried out at the Feast of the day of the dead in 2017, as a result of the thesis of specialization in Performance Studies. The main goal of the research was to put the voice in a central place in the performance and then, we wondered what devices should be put into play to achieve that goal. We developed a methodology taking a work by Samuel Beckett, Rockaby, in which the voice has a special treatment, from which we made a performatic rewrite. Then, we perform a tentative design of action by configuring the elements in such a way that the voice has a privileged place. Finally, in line with the theoretical guidelines from which we start, we come to the conclusion that performance does not necessarily have fixed limits and is always susceptible to be modified according to its context of action, from which new meanings can emerge. Finally, we raise new questions about the use of voice in performance.