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ORCID
https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2783-7991
Access Type
Open Access Thesis
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Theater
Degree Type
Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)
Year Degree Awarded
2023
Month Degree Awarded
September
Abstract
Proceeding from a framing of theater as collaborative storytelling, I argue for defining role-playing games as a kind of performance and for their value in structuring experiential and participatory theater. Building on the impulse at the heart of experiential and immersive theater to place the audience within the world of the performance and center their experience, I explore what it means for theater artists to cede control over how audiences make meaning of their work in favor of letting narrative emerge from the participation of the audience during the performance event. I propose a framework called pervasive performance that merges theatrical frames and methods with pervasive gaming, which expands the magic circle of play and blurs the distinction between the game and everyday life. This union of ideas puts audience members in contact with one another and allows them to be playful and co-author the overall performance experience. Further, the blurring of the performance and everyday life transforms audience members’ relationship to the real world and gives them space to imagine and experiment with other worlds and ways of being in them. I devised an alternate reality game (ARG) at UMass Amherst in May 2023, and in my thesis I analyze this project and the process of creating it as a case study in pervasive performance.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/35673106.0
First Advisor
Harley Erdman
Second Advisor
Christopher Baker
Third Advisor
Cameron Awkward-Rich
Fourth Advisor
Priscilla Page
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Hornak, Percival, "Collaborative Storytelling in The Parable Task: The Dramaturg as Game Designer in Pervasive Performance" (2023). Masters Theses. 1382.
https://doi.org/10.7275/35673106.0
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/1382
Included in
Digital Humanities Commons, Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, Game Design Commons, Interactive Arts Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Performance Studies Commons