Theatre and the Virtual lays out a set of conceptual instruments for the articulation and engendering of the forces of theatrical potentiality. Creating a passage toward a reconstitution of the given, a theatre of the virtual opens bodies in motion to a region of an ongoing genesis of forces. The outcome: regimes of constraint are abandoned through a radical practice of ecological attunement. Violence is eschewed through an onto-ecology of touch. Closed systems are repotentialised to become co-constitutive of their environments. A logic of spectrality settles in—not so much entities as atmospheres, not so much a being as a style of being, not so much a body as multitudinous milieus of response. This is the task of a theatre of the virtual—to safeguard the possibility of the extra-epistemological and uphold one’s right to offer accounts of oneself from outside of being, all the while creating a fractured record of the wondrous mutations of a moving, gesturing body. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in theatre, philosophy, new materialisms, environmental humanities, gesture, and the ontology of response.

Giannachi offers an investigation of the interface between theatre performance & digital arts, investigating the aesthetic concerns of current computer arts practices & showing how they radically question our conventional uses & definitions of time, space, place, character, identity & realness.

Theatre and Performance in Digital Culture examines the recent history of advanced technologies, including new media, virtual environments, weapons systems and medical innovation, and considers how theatre, performance and culture at large have evolved within those systems. The book examines the two Iraq wars, 9/11 and the War on Terror through the lens of performance studies, and, drawing on the writings of Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou and Martin Heidegger, alongside the dramas of Beckett, Genet and Shakespeare, and the theatre of the Kantor, Foreman, Socíetas Raffaello Sanzio and the Wooster Group, the book positions theatre and performance in technoculture and articulates the processes of aesthetics, metaphysics and politics. This wide-ranging study reflects on how the theatre and performance have been challenged and extended within these new cultural phenomena.

Play Readings: A Complete Guide for Theatre Practitioners demystifies the standards and protocols of a play reading, demonstrating how to create effective and evocative readings for those new to or inexperienced with the genre. It examines all of the essential considerations involved in readings, including the use of the venue, pre-reading preparations, playwright/director communication, editing/adapting stage directions, casting, using the limited rehearsal time effectively, simple "staging" suggestions, working with actors, handling complex stage directions, talkbacks, and limiting the use of props, costumes, and music. A variety of readings are covered, including readings of musicals, operas, and period plays, for comprehensive coverage of this increasingly prevalent production form.

Playwrights have always demonstrated an incredible adaptability, able to nimbly adjust to new circumstances and media. This was never in greater evidence than during the coronavirus pandemic, when—with venues shuttered and stages darkened—writers and performers across the world scrambled to sustain the art of theater via remote video. Even today, it is clear that the experiences of 2020–21 have dramatically altered the landscape of theatermaking, as artists continually refine and deploy the lessons learned during a period of seat-of-the-pants experimentation. This groundbreaking anthology brings together new works from both emerging and established playwrights to explore the rich opportunities afforded by streaming theater. They reveal a range of styles and approaches to storytelling; encompass both traditional and experimental plays, from solo pieces to large-cast dramas; and take place within single settings, multiple settings, or even in a utopian “nowhere.” Throughout, these selections all help to bring playwriting fully into our new era, embodying the sense of magic that comes from simple moments of human connection, even when we cannot be together. Includes plays by the following: Audrey Cefaly Joyce Miller J. Merrill Motz Arlene Hutton Greg Lam Vince Gatton Lindsay Adams Sharece M. Sellem Mrinalini Kamath Brendan Powers and Rachel Burttram Dana Hall Aly Kantor Kitt Lavoie Jenny Lyn Bader Ivam Cabral and Rodolfo García Vázquez Michael Hagins Trey Tatum with Jordan Trovillion Colette Mazunik Tory Parker Eric Eidson and Lauren Lynch-Eidson

Brenda Laurel's Computers as Theatre revolutionized the field of human-computer interaction, offering ideas that inspired generations of interface and interaction designers-and continue to inspire them. Laurel's insight was that effective interface design, like effective drama, must engage the user directly in an experience involving both thought and emotion. Her practical conclusion was that a user's enjoyment must be a paramount design consideration, and this demands a deep awareness of dramatic theory and technique, both ancient and modern. Now, two decades later, Laurel has revised and revamped her influential work, reflecting back on enormous change and personal experience and forward toward emerging technologies and ideas that will transform human-computer interaction yet again. Beginning with a clear analysis of classical drama theory, Laurel explores new territory through the lens of dramatic structure and purpose. Computers as Theatre, Second Edition, is directed to a far wider audience, is written more simply and elegantly, is packed with new examples, and is replete with exciting and important new ideas. This book Draws lessons from massively multiplayer online games and systems, social networks, and mobile devices with embedded sensors Integrates values-driven design as a key principle Integrates key ideas about virtual reality Covers new frontiers, including augmented reality, distributed and participatory sensing, interactive public installations and venues, and design for emergence Once more, Brenda Laurel will help you see the connection between humans and computers as you never have before-and help you build interfaces and interactions that are pleasurably, joyously right!

During the pandemic, theatermakers Sheila Callaghan, Meg Miroshnik, & Kelly Miller made a book with artwork from their peers: Liz Duffy Adams, Nayna Agrawal, Tessa Albertson, Jazmine Aluma, Liz Appel, Mallery Avidon, Rachel Axler, Jenny Lyn Bader, Kari Bentley-Quinn, Kate Bergstrom, Susan Bernfield, Larry Biederman, Rachel Bonds, Amy Boratko, Mattie Brickman, Eleanor Burgess, Adrienne Campbell-Holt, Jonathan Caren, Marisa Carr, Jaime Castañeda, Jo Cattell, Jennifer Chambers, Jackie Chung, Carmela Corbett, Adam D. Crain, Cusi Cram, Migdalia Cruz, Francisca Da Silveira, Mashuq Deen, Steph Del Rosso, Kristoffer Diaz, Julie Felise Dubiner, Erik Ehn, Larissa FastHorse, Annah Feinberg, Liz Frankel, Gibson Frazier, Matt Freeman, Edith Freni, Jeremy Gable, Joanna Glum, Emma Goidel, Jacqueline Goldfinger, Isaac Gómez, Tasha Gordon-Solmon, Kirsten Greenidge, Rinne Groff, Jason Grote, Lauren M. Gunderson, April Dawn Guthrie, Mary Elizabeth Hamilton, Adrien-Alice Hansel, Elizabeth Harper, Julie Hébert, Justice Hehir, Laura Heisler, Alex Henrikson, Deb Hiett, Daniel Hirsch, Lily Holleman, Jess Honovich, Scott Horstein, Andy Horwitz, Emma Horwitz, Lily Houghton, Lindsay Brandon Hunter, Kristin Idaszak, Naomi Iizuka, Rachel Jendrzejewski, Kate Jopson, Lila Rose Kaplan, MJ Kaufman, Lucas Kavner, Lisa Kenner Grissom, Callie Kimball, Ramona Rose King, Krista Knight, Andrea Kuchlewska, Jenni Lamb, Jacqueline E. Lawton, Jer Adrianne Lelliott, Sarah Rose Leonard, Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, Danielle Levsky, Mike Lew, Jerry Lieblich, Katie Lindsay, Craig Lucas, Kirk Lynn, Wendy MacLeod, Jennifer Maisel, Chelsea Marcantel, Winter Miller, Rehana Lew Mirza, Michael Mitnick, Anne G. Morgan, Matt Moses, Allie Moss, Gregory S. Moss, Rebecca Mozo, Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko, Katie Locke O'Brien, Kira Obolensky, Laurel Ollstein, Matthew Paul Olmos, Julie Oullette, Kristen Palmer, Lina Patel, Christopher O. Peña, Roxie Perkins, Eric Pfeffinger, Rebecca Phillips Epstein, Daria Polatin, Christina Quintana (CQ), Stella Fawn Ragsdale, Molly Rice, Anya Richkind, Colette Robert, Alexis Roblan, Ashley Lauren Rogers, Elaine Romero, Whitney Rowland, Zoe Sarnak, Matt Schatz, Dana Schwartz, Betty Shamieh, Mike Shapiro, Alexandra Shilling, Jen Silverman, Jessy Lauren Smith, Elizabeth Spreen, Matt Stadelmann, Ellen Steves, Caridad Svich, Adam Szymkowicz, Kate Tarker, Ashley Teague, Melisa Tien, Ken Urban, Kathryn Walat, John Walch, Molly Ward, Seanan Palmero Waugh, Tatiana Wechsler, Jenny Rachel Weiner, Calamity West, Deborah Yarchun, Mackenzie Yeager, Gina Young.