Location: PNX140
Abstract:
Facilitated by Laurel Green with Derek Manderson. At CATR 2025, we convened a well-attended roundtable which invited panellists to model unique experimental play frames through which a collective of observers was transformed into an enthusiastic community of players. For CATR 2026, we propose facilitating a game design praxis session that invites attendees to envision new ways of playing together in a performance context. As games are increasingly mobilized in participatory theatre to structure interactivity, practitioners need to increase their literacy as designers. What do games do? How do they make meaning? What do they reveal about the larger systems we inhabit? Together, we’ll explore these questions through the hands-on activity of modding, developing, and playing new games. Introducing core concepts from game studies, including “critical play” (Flanagan), “the magic circle” (Huizinga; Salen and Zimmerman), and “procedural rhetoric” (Bogost), participants will then design a game using an array of provided materials. Buttressed by the theoretical frame, activities include modifying or extending upon an existing board game to create a new game that emulates a familiar system (like a theatre company, the academy, or a shopping rewards program) and imagines new ways of playing a role within it. The session will model rapid prototype and play-testing methodologies to demonstrate the transformative potential of play, and gesture towards the kinds of collaboration and care that games can facilitate.
Requirements
All are welcome.
No prior game design or performance creation experience is necessary, and there is no need to prepare anything in advance.
We welcome all forms of participation, and encourage observers to play the games that emerge.
Biographies:
Laurel Green is a nationally regarded artist and doctoral scholar whose research-creation work bridges participatory performance and games for social transformation. She is a PhD Student in Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at York University, supported by Connected Minds, an interdisciplinary research unit exploring the enmeshment of new technologies in communities.
Derek Manderson is a PhD Candidate in Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies at York University. His research imbricates participatory performance and game studies to unpack the dramaturgical structures of play in audience-driven theatrical experiences. His writing has been published in Canadian Theatre Review, Theatre Research in Canada, and Theater.