Performance Artist

Quoting Wikipedia: "Performance art is a performance presented to an audience within a fine art context, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or via media; the performer can be present or absent. It can be any situation that involves four basic elements: time, space, the performer's body, or presence in a medium, and a relationship between performer and audience. Performance art can happen anywhere, in any type of venue or setting and for any length of time. The actions of an individual or a group at a particular place and in a particular time constitute the work."

To clarify, in the fine art context, and within this wiki, performance artists are not actors. Actors are expected to follow a role within the context of a pre-scripted work, and their abilities are supposed to work into expressing the text they are representing - even if they improv, it's in function of being the bridges between the original text and the audience. Performance artists are not constricted to script and have more freedom, since for them, the very act of performance itself is the important thing, and their relation with the audience is supposed to be closer, if not in presence, in impact and directness of the message.

Wikipedia also has a list of performance artists in Real Life.

If you're looking for the trope that used to be here - the one that has nothing to do with actual performance artists - see Into Musical Theatre.


 * Björk
 * Blue Man Group
 * Improv Everywhere
 * Andy Kaufman
 * Yoko Ono
 * Lindsey Stirling