I’m giving a talk on May 1 at UC Irvine and I want discuss the links between immersive theater and larp (live action role-playing). I’ve done some reading in larp — particularly in Nordic larp, as it’s highly theorized — but I realized my background in theater and performance studies was woefully lacking.
What a glorious black hole to sink into.
Have I mentioned before how much I love research? I really love it. The sense of exploration and discovery is magnificent to me. I love libraries because of the browsability of shelves, the happy serendipities of finding fascinating books a few spines away from the one you’re looking for.
Anyway, here’s what I’m reading this April, and it’s nearly all research-focused:
Performance Studies: An Introduction, and Performance Theory, by Richard Schechner.
The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, by Victor Turner et al.
(Syn)aesthetics: Redefining Visceral Performance, by Josephine Machon.
Beyond Immersive Theatre : Aesthetics, Politics and Productive Participation by Adam Alston.
And lots of articles. My talk is called “Towards an Interactive Theater of Resistance: Creating a Space for Rebel Protagonists” and I’m nowhere near close to having written more than an abstract…