Solomon Henry Clark's 1895 address entitled "The New Elocution," focused on the denigration of elocution as an academic discipline, its fall from favor with universities, and the worn, tired, and reductive methods of teaching which he saw around him. Clark's vision--as he stated in his 1915 address and book entitled "Interpretation of the Printed Page"--was to transform elocution into a method of teaching literature. Nearly 100 years later the field of interpretation has undergone transformations as radical as had elocution at the turn of the century. "Interpretation" is text-centered and has other legitimate definitions which enjoy a greater currency in other disciplines. "Performance Studies" breaks the old, arbitrary, limiting, useless, boundaries between theatre, communications, and interpretation. "Performance Studies" is an umbrella term and embraces all dimensions of theoretical and production work. "Performance Studies"--the new interpretation--capitalizes, promotes, and celebrates the new directions of the field instead of thwarting them. (RAE)