Location: Imperial Room, Atlas Hotel
Convenors: Derek Manderson (PhD Candidate, Theatre & Performance Studie, York University) and Laurel Green (PhD Student, Theatre & Performance Studies, York University)
Roundtable Participants: Mariah (Mo) Horner (PhD, Queen’s University), Jenny Salisbury (PhD, University of Toronto), Nicholas Orvis (DFA Candidate, Yale School of Drama)
| In game studies, the “magic circle” is a popular theoretical term (coined by Huizinga) that imagines an invisible barrier between the action of a game and reality. This topic continues to provoke debate – see “In Defence of a Magic Circle: The Social, Mental and Cultural Boundaries of Play”, where Stenros unpacks the concept of the magic circle, its criticism and the numerous other metaphors that have been used to capture the zone of play or the border that surrounds it. Theatre scholars will recognize it as a play frame, not unlike theatre’s ‘proscenium,’ for its ability to change the meaning of the actions inside of it. As boundaries of play continue to shift alongside our media and the gamification of performance, new defences, skepticisms, or transformations of the magic circle might be offered from a theatrical perspective. When read through the language and theory of games, participatory performance becomes an experientially rich site to interrogate, rehearse, and transform systems, relationships, and the roles we play in a collective ecosystem. Through invitation, audiences become active agents with the ability to shift between their roles as spectator, player, co-author, and labourer within a reciprocal network. This roundtable investigates the intersection of games and theatre, focusing on fricative moments where the world of the game/performance and exterior life overlap. We hope to spark a necessary collective interdisciplinary inquiry into new gameful dramaturgies, and approaches to framing play. Through participation in this roundtable, we invite members of the CATR/ACRT community to explore the following questions and provoke new ones: • How does play inside the magic circle impact the ways in which we play together outside, and vice versa? • When does the magic circle become blurred and perforated, or abandoned altogether? • How do play frames invite collective displays of care? • Can games help us negotiate new social contracts with audiences? At our Roundtable, panel participants will present a brief case study about their research topics and then we will facilitate a larger discussion. Participation from all in the room is encouraged. |
Biographies
Derek Manderson
| Derek Manderson is an interdisciplinary scholar, educator, and PhD candidate in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University. His research imbricates participatory performance, game studies, and care ethics to unpack the dramaturgical structures of collaborative play. His writing has appeared in Canadian Theatre Review, Theater, and CANNOPY. |
Laurel Green (she/her)
Laurel Green is a dramaturg, producer, and interdisciplinary collaborator who designs gameful performances as invitations to participate and provocations for change. A PhD Student in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University, Laurel is also a Connected Minds Trainee. Her creative research was recently published in Canadian Theatre Review, and the SSHRC-funded pilot project Performance in the Pacific Northwest.
Dr. Mariah “Mo” Horner
Dr. Mariah “Mo” Horner is a theatre artist, musician, emcee, and assistant adjunct professor at the DAN School of Drama and Music at Queen’s University in Kingston, ON. Most recently, she co-authored PLAY: Dramaturgies of Participation with Dr Jenn Stephenson (Playwrights Canada Press, 2024). Currently, she sings in Kingston’s “folkestra” The Gertrudes.
Nicholas Orvis
Nicholas Orvis (he/him) is a DFA Candidate in dramaturgy at Yale School of Drama. His dramaturgical work includes Yale Repertory Theater, Premiere Stages at Kean University, Portland Stage Company, and more. He is a former managing editor of Theater magazine, and co-produces (with Percival Hornak) Dungeons + Drama Nerds, an ongoing podcast investigating the intersections between theater and tabletop roleplaying games.
Jenny Salisbury
Jenny Salisbury, Ph.D. is a theatre artist and educator. She teaches Critical Arts Pedagogy at the University of Toronto. She is co-artistic director of Gailey Road Productions gaileyroad.com and co-director of the Centre for Spectatorship and Audience Research www.centreforspectatorship.com. Her research is published in Theatre Research in Canada, Qualitative Inquiry, and Arts.