a day at the Tibetan opera: actualized performance and spectacular discourse

Recent studies of performance genres suggest that many rituals generate proposi‐tional force by manipulating ritual frames and so drawing the audience to reflect upon various levels of performance reality. This article focuses on the fusion of such levels during the performance of a Tibetan opera before an audience of refugee Tibetans living in India, a spectacle wherein the mimetic performance of a mock exorcism became an actual exorcism. The article analyzes this transformation from the combined perspective of theatrical semiosis and speech act theory. [ Tibet, performance theory, opera, ritual, theater ]