Dr. Holzman,

i am certainly impressed with the choice of topic for the forthcoming conference in september, 2010. The topic on performance, has a lot of promise in understanding the nature of man and society. for whatever reason, it seems that this concept has been strictly used in the humanities as in the case of performing art. from concerts, theatres, dance, among others; Ttheir evalautions have been the domain of art crtics. it is not often the case that a social scientist is involved in their evaluation.
The current interest in activity theory has not given much weight on veiwing activity as performance. i think there is a need to look more closely to the work of E. Goffman since he is one who confronted this issue directly. The same can be said of E. Burke.
I personally thinlk that applied theory must look closely into the nature and dynamics of performance. To me, the performance of subjects in therapuetic encounters is most fascinating. The performance of senators, congressmen and in particular lawyers should be looked into.
in short, the way i see it, the conference could be focused, in part, to the formulation of a new theory and method specifically applied to therapy. my thematic suggestion is: Therapuetic Encounter: Assessing Human Performance for Self-Renewal.

Happy New Year!