Editing Performance studies (section)

===Elocution===
The oldest roots of performance studies are in [[elocution]], sometimes referred to as [[declamation]].  This early approach to public speech delivery focused on verbal diction, physical gestures, stance, tone, and even dress.  A revival of its practices during the eighteenth century, also known as [[Elocution|The Elocution Movement]], contributed to the emergence of Elocution as an academic discipline in its own right. One of the major figures of the Elocution Movement was actor and scholar [[Thomas Sheridan (actor)|Thomas Sheridan]]. Sheridan's lectures on elocution, collected in Lectures on Elocution (1762) and his Lectures on Reading (1775), provided directions for marking and reading aloud passages from literature. Another actor, John Walker, published his two-volume Elements of Elocution in 1781, which provided detailed instruction on voice control, gestures, pronunciation, and emphasis.

The elocution movement took hold in the West; schools and departments of elocution and oratory cropped up across England and the United States throughout much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Most significant of these to performance studies today is the [[Northwestern University]] School of Oratory, established in 1894 by Robert McLean Cumnock<ref>{{cite web |title=Northwestern University Archives |url=https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/agents/people/1060}}</ref> to teach speech education on the principles of elocution.<ref>{{cite book |last1=REIN |first1=Lynn |title=Northwestern University School of Speech: A History. |url=https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED209705 |website=ERIC|year=1981 |publisher=Northwestern University Press, P }}</ref> The School of Oratory housed their Department of Interpretation which focused on literature and on the art of interpretation as a means of understanding literature and bringing it to life through oral reading. In 1984, the Department of Interpretation was named the Department of Performance Studies to incorporate a broader definition of texts.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.communication.northwestern.edu/academic-programs/major-in-performance-studies/#:~:text=The%20History%20of%20the%20Department&text=The%20department%27s%20name%20was%20changed,range%20of%20experiences%20and%20events. |website=Performance Studies Department History|title=Major in Performance Studies &#124; Northwestern School of Communication |date=4 May 2020 }}</ref>