Performance vs Literature

      There are many similarities and differences between performances and literature, and plays and novels. A performance directly correlates with a play as literature directly correlates with a novel. First,  start with literature and performance. A performance is "an act of staging or presenting a play, concert or other form of entertainment." Literature is "written works, especially those considered superior or lasting artistic merit." A key difference between a performance and literature is that literature is read while the performance is acted out. This means that literature is read through words rather then a performance which saying the words out loud and adding meaning to them. Literature is also open to a broader interpretation of what is happening in the novel. For example, while reading the novel you can picture your own scene, set, voices, characters, etc. In a performance everything is already sorted out, the background is picked by the directors, actors are chosen, and everything is left up to the director rather then your own imagination. Things stay the same throughout a novel, while you can see the same performance twice and something might change. In my own experience, I saw "Wicked" the play twice with the same actors. When seeing the play for the second time, several things were changed including some of the lines and the songs. As opposed to literature that always remains constant and never changes.
     The similarities between a performance in literature is that it is read or seen a certain way depending on the audience. Back to the example about the play, the first time I saw the play was extremely different then the second. The actors were saying the same lines, but the way they read them came out different and their emotions were different. Therefore, causing a different experience for me. This could be directly related to the audiences reaction. The way an audience reacts to a performance determines the emotions an actor might have. The first night I went to the the performance the audience was more upbeat rather then the second where they were mellow. A novel is read a different way depending on the person reading it, they can have different opinions on what the book is trying to explain and talking about. Both the performance and literature depends on the audiences emotions because depending on the mood your in determines how you perceive what you are seeing.
     There are similar similarities and differences between a play and a novel. A play is a part that makes up the performance. It is the basic set up of the performance, and includes stage directions, actors. It isn't as complete as a performance. Similarly a novel is a type of literature, and it falls underneath that category. The difference is that a novel tells a story with words and descriptions while a play tells a story through stage directions and emotions through the actors voices. They are both similar to a performance and literature because they are also both affected by the audience.
      The novel and play have similar similarities and differences as the performance and literature because they fall under there categories. The play helps create the performance, and dictates it as "instructions." However that's not the same as the novel because a novel is just a type of literature. In the end, a novel and literature use words instead of actions like performance and plays. The plays and performance come to life in front of your eyes instead of the imagination. As you can see, there are many similarities and differences between the two.
   


Sources:
Www.oxforddictionaries.com