Processional Performance: An Introduction What is processional performanze? There are countless variations, of course, but basi- cally it is performance in motion through space. Perhaps nothing can be said to be universally ‘rue of all processions, but certain characteristics are often associated with the form, Some of these are: 1. The procession is not simply a means of getting from Place X to Place Y, but a means of getting there in ways that have ceremonial and sym- balic importance. 2, Because it has ceremonial significance, the procession employs distinc- five elements to distinguish if from everyday movement through space. These elements include special scenography, costume, music and sometimes elaborate movement patterns. They are used to present symbols which are basic to the procession's meaning. The symbols are generally presented in ways that are comprehensible to spectetors. Usually they are familiar, simply stated and easily visible in an environ- ment that was not designed as a “theatre” for processional perfor- mance and which may contain other activities that could draw focus away from the performance. The procession, however, is designed fo compete with the existing environment around it, becoming for a time the dominant element 3. Through its symbols, the procession formalizes and dramatizes some event of importance to the community. The event may be religous, olit- ical or social, and it may be either functional or referential That is, it may have the direct function of getting participants from one place to another, as in the case of a wedding or funeral procession, or it may allude to past events—a victory, a sacrifice, a miracle. The event to which the procession refers may be recent—as a ticker-tape parade in honor of a national hero—or it may refer to an event from the distant past which remains of importance fo the community, as n the case of @ procession n honor of a saint or martyr. 4. The procession itself may be formally structured, with units organized in @ particular order, with a clear-cut route and with little physical exchange between parade periormers and spectators along the route of march. Or it may be relatively informaly organized, with a hazily ‘The Drama Roviow is published qvarterly by The MIT Prose, Cambridge, and London, forthe Tisch Schoo! of the Arta, ‘New York Univeraty, Edtorial correspondence The Drama Review, 200 Se. Bldg, NVU, 61 Woe! Fourth Stroot, Waeh ington Square. NY 10003. Subscription and business correspondence: The Drema Review. Journals Dept.. The MIT Press. 28 Carleton Stroet. Cambridge. MA 02142. Subscriotions: $20.00 per year for indviduals; $4200 per year for inatiutions. Subscribers outside the U.S. and Canada addi $4.00 for surface mail. Current single copies, $6.00: back ‘copies, $7.00. Back volume rates aveilable. Copyright © 1985 New York University and the Massachusetts Insitute Technology. Second cless postage paid at Boston, MA and adatlional maling oftices. Postmaster. Send adaress changes to The Drama Review, 29 Carleton Sireet, Cambridge, MA 02142. ISSN 0012 5662. TWa publication is made ‘poset, in part, with public forde from the New York State Council on the ArtePROCESSIONAL PERFORMANCE 3 defined route and a constant interchange between performers and spectators, which makes all of them equally “players” in the event. At its most basic, the procession may be litle more than sightly Grected wandering, perhaps in costume. At its most complex and detaied, it may be highly choreographed, with all of the elements tightly krit into the theme of the procession 5 The focus may be an the procession itself or on a combination of “pro- cession and station" —that is, on both the procession and on certain locations at which the procession stops for important related events. 6. A variation of the procession and station concept is the pilgrimage, in which a special location is the object of a journey which may begin inck- vidualy, but which becomes communal and eventually processional. Considerable lengths of t me may be involved here, and the pilgrim may in fact see a kind of processional reference even {0 his independent travel prior to linking up with other pilgrims. At the other end of the scale, 2s with some African groups, procession as such may not even exist as ‘2 concept, although certain kinds of group movements in effect amount to fundamental processianal actuity. This issue of The Drama Review contains articles on a dozen or more variations of the concept of processional performance, Each author approaches the subject in his or her own distinctive way, but every article iluminates some aspect of the fundamental idea of “pertor- mance in motion through space.” eee The liriting case may wol be the Mbuti of Central Africa, whose spherical concepts of space and time do not resut in processional performances like those just described, Colin M. Turnoul’s examination of movement within Mbuti ritual, however, suggests possibilities for a sort of minimal processional activity not raised in any other article in this issue. Peter Chelkowski presents the historical unfolding of Shia processional forms from the early period of Islam to the present. The earliest processions consisted simply of Shia mourn- ers commemorating the death of Hussein by circing the city. In time, the procession came to invoke specific moments from the passion of Hussein by means of costumes and living tableaux on floats. in later periods, the tableaux were arranged in chronological order. Eventu- aly, single scenes were dramatized in various outdoor locations, and later stil in theatres, where performances were preceded by processions that moved indoors and circled the stage. In the next development, a group of actors, moving independently of the procession, stopped at intervals to enact successive scenes from the story of Hussein. Finally, proces sions emerged in which the participants came to follow a formal order of precedence. Paralleing Chelkowski's history of Shia processional performance around the world, F.E. Peters traces the history of the Stations of the Cross processions in Europe and Jerusalem This processional form developed in Europe, although it derived from the “guided tour" taken by pilgrims to Jerusalem. This “guided tour" did not particularly follow the chronology of the passion or take on a specifically lturaical or dramatic character. Yet, by the late 16th century, part ofthis perambulation had become a cistinct path with 14 stations commemorating events in Christ's passion. When they returned home, pilgrims recreated the Stations of the Cross. A restrained version of this European tradition, however, was eventually introduced to Jeru- salem, First set up outdoors and only later in the church, the Stations of the Cross were sub-4 THE DRAMA REVIEW/T 107 ject to richer iconographic, liturgical, and dramatic elaboration in Europe than could be alowed in Musim Jerusalem. David Payne-Certer describes the processional organization of daily life in Benedictine monasteries. The spiritual discipline of the monastic Ife entails a careful sequencing of activty in tme and space and along principles of hierarchy and contrast. Casual routine becomes more explicitly processional, and movement from one place or activity (prayers, meals, work) to another acquires a performative quality Within pigrimage—itself movement through space on a large scale—are many smallor processional forms. Linda Lehthaunt points out thet Irish pilgrimages achieve their dstinctive- ross through the predominance of some types of procession over others within the larger movement of the pilgrimage itself. In the case of Croagh Patrick, pilgrims climb a mountain, thereby traversing sacred ground and tracing the footsteps of the saint. The Marian pilgrim: age to Knock Shrine features @ sacrad environment built at the site where the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, and St. John the Evangelist are said to have appeared and where therr presence is reaffrmed by the miracles that occur at the site. Devotional processions organized around five stations honor the Virgin ary, and circuits may be performed at a particular station. The enitential pilgrimage to Lough Derg, for example, a site associated with St. Patrick, is a demanding dscipline involving fasting, lack of sleep and elaborate ritual devotion organized processionally—at Lough Derg, stations, circuits and perambulations are embedded within ‘one another. Joseph Sciorra explores the wide variety of processional forms utiized by an Italian com- munity in Brooklyn. The local church sponsors a procession marking the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday. The 14 stations that encapsulate the last days of Christ's Ife are presented in lve tableaux. The path of the Passion is overlaid on the busy Brooklyn neighborhood, thereby identifying Christ's passion with the lite of the community. In contrast are the various feasts honoring patton saints of the italian towns from which the Brooklyn residents hail. Although a story about a saint, usually associated with a miracle, provides the focus for each of these events, the processions which are part of them do not reenact the narrative. Elements of the slory, however, are represented symbolically by the objects that are carried by members of the community. The parlicipants move slowly through the neighborhood, which is “festival- ized” by the booths constructed along the streets to accommodate food, games, raffles and gambling. Through procession. the sacred power of the saint is ciffused throughout the com= munity Civic processions have existed from classical antiquity to the present day. The history of one European example is described by Alessandro Fatassi in his essay on the Palio of Siena, an annual pageant that cuminates in a 90-second horserace in the town square (Falassi nas served as an official judge for the race since 1976). Even though the Palio climaxes in the evanescent horserace, most of the activity during the two-day event takes a processional form. The Palio is simultaneously a citywide event celebrating cooperation and soldarty and an arena for factions within the city to play out their shifting alliances and conficts When itis informed by a miltary tracition, Jane Gladden Kelton writes, a parade is partio- Ularly wall suited to civic display and poitical goals. The St Patrick's Day Parade in New York City takes place in the most prestigious part of the city, rather than in the neighborhoods where the marchers live, Thus the parade makes claim to public space and allows the partici pants to assert their soldarity and power, even in the face of internal dissention. The curabilty and flexibility of this processional form are evidenced by its persistence for more than two centuries in a city and a community that have undergone radical change. Each year, however, there is variation in the organization of the parade, the route chosen, the position of viewing stands, the inclusion and order of precedence af participating groups, details of dress and