Performance and Rehearsal: Social Order and Organizational Life

Two perspectives on social order have been influential among interactionists—negotiated order and the dramaturgical. We explore the resources offered by the latter when thetheateris taken more seriously as a source of theoretic invention. In particular we survey some of the more important elements in theatrical performance and rehearsal. The major part of the paper then takes social order as analternationbetween performing and rehearsing in which social actors may be treated as “possessed” by their roles and the limits on performance located. We illustrate the analytic possibilities of this view in some organizational conversations.