Working theatrically with technology
Systemic Dramaturgy offers an invigorating, practical look at the
daunting cultural problems of the digital age as they relate to
performance. Authors Michael Mark Chemers and Mike Sell reject the
incompatibility of theatre with robots, digital media, or video games.
Instead, they argue that technology is the original problem of theatre:
How can we tell this story and move this audience with these tools? And
if we have different tools, how can that change the stories we tell?
This volume attunes readers to "systemic dramaturgy"--the recursive
elements of signification, innovation, and history that underlie all
performance--arguing that theatre must be understood as a system of
systems, a concatenation of people, places, things, politics, feelings,
and interpretations, ideally working together to entertain and edify an
audience. The authors discuss in-depth the application of time-tested
dramaturgical skills to extra-theatrical endeavors, including
multi-platform performance, installations, and videogames. And they
identify the unique interventions that dramaturgs can and must make into
these art forms.
More than any other book that has been published in the field, Systemic
Dramaturgy places historical dramaturgy in conversation with
technologies as old as the deus ex machina and as new as artificial
intelligence. Spirited and playful in its approach, this volume collates
histories, transcripts, and case studies and applies the concepts of
systemic dramaturgy to works both old and avant-garde. Between chapters,
Chemers and Sell talk with with some of the most forward-thinking,
innovative, and creative people working in live media as they share
their diverse approaches to the challenges of making performances,
games, and digital media that move both heart and mind. This volume is
nothing less than a guide for thinking about the future evolution of
performance.
