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Time in Embodied Interaction: Synchronicity and sequentiality of multimodal resources
Edited by Arnulf Deppermann and Jürgen Streeck
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 293] 2018
► pp. 231–260

Chapter 7
Prefiguring the future

Projections and preparations within theatrical rehearsals

Theater rehearsals have a characteristic temporal organization: They rely on fleeting (talk/embodied conduct) and endurable resources (e.g. manipulation of objects) to accomplish a stage play which has a defined shape. In doing this, participants have to bridge time gaps and they are therefore dependent on practices which are able to prefigure the future in a more sustainable way. Based on video recordings from theater rehearsals I will show the basic operation of these practices: While projections-by-arrangements anticipate the play world verbally, preparations produce material parts of the play world (e.g. attaching props). Finally, I consider more general implications of the differences between “verbalizing” (projections) and “materializing” (preparations) for the temporalities of interactional organization.

Keywords: theater rehearsals, multimodal resources, temporality, projections, preparations
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Temporality and theater (rehearsals)
  • 3.Data and context
  • 4. Case: Play initiation
  • 5.Projections-by-arrangements
  • 6.Preparations
  • 7.Projection-Preparation-Sequences
  • 8.Conclusion: The temporalities of projections-by-arrangements and preparations
  • Acknowledgement
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 13 September 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.293.07sch
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