The script became the first institution to realize a play performance. This means that the entire performance crew, especially the actors and directors, must start from the agreed interpretation of the script as the main source of inspiration. With so many titles and themes such as Nat Turner reflects on his past, Harriet Tubman or even Shakespeare agreed interpretation is vital in a play. Of course, the director’s interpretation in a hierarchical position is higher than that of the other actors or crew. When an actor or crew has a different interpretation from the director, if the atmosphere is democratic, then he will be the subject of discussion to be used as an input or even change the director’s interpretation of the text.
The intrinsic approach approaches art without being connected to things outside the work of art itself, such as the author’s biography, zeitgeist, psychological conditions, and so on. While the extrinsic approach understands art as a phenomenon that does not stand alone, but it is related to things that are outside the work of art, such as the sociological, economic, or political conditions in which the artwork was born. Understanding is only limited to the interests of the show, such as an understanding of the elements of conventional scripts that are Aristotelian: plot, dramatic structure, characterization, thought (theme), and so on. The intrinsic understanding of the basic elements of the text seems important, especially for consideration in making play performances a form that has non-monotonous principles of rhythmic regularity.
One important thing in understanding the extrinsic text is understanding the spirit of the age (zeitgeist) which gave rise to, in Foucault’s language, the episteme or dominant theme that was the source of inspiration for the text. As an artwork from an artist, the artist is not an ‘exclusive being’ outside of social space and time; Like other members of the community, artists cannot be separated from the influence of the community, from the presumptions, sentiments, or gossip that grow and develop in that society. Therefore, it would be better if a play performance that departs from another script’s work also genetically understands the space and time in which the script was born. Our understanding of the script may not be the same as what the author intended, or it may even be very different. Similar results do not mean wrong or incorrect.