In the master's thesis, we examine the relationship between memory and performance practices in a way that they play a key role in provoking a bodily experience during the viewing of a performance. In the first part of the thesis, we draw on theory from psychology, theatre studies, and film theory in order to establish the terminology we will rely on throughout the remainder of the work. The premise we describe concerns the unrestrained associations of the audience member's collective memory, which realize their potential for unification through the directorial procedure, in which scenic movement plays a key role, and which results in a bodily perception of what is seen. The premise of the bodily experience is that it is an intuitive bodily reaction that holds primacy over the cognitive, and consequently leaves a stronger impression on the audience member, who retroactively arrives at a cognitive understanding of the described experience — an understanding that creates the potential for new insights and encounters. In the central part of the thesis, we draw on examples from photography, film, and performance practices in order to illuminate the described idea through practical works. In the final part of the thesis, we rely on a practical example of an authored performance, in which we describe the flowchart of directorial decisions that led toward an attempt to establish what has been described. We conclude with the performance example of the play The End of the World in Three Acts by Selma Spahić, which provokes a strong emotional reaction in the audience member because the directorial procedure summons into presence both individual and collective experiences, and the performance is, in one part, of dominant scenic movement. Finally, the thought follows that bodily perception in performance practices can rely on memory, which becomes the driving force for the experience and understanding of the performance.
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