play as rehearsal for living

June 30th, 2007 • research

I’m currently working on a paper that covers a few of my research interests: improvisation, activism and interactive theatre. To be more specific, I’ve been looking at World Without Oil - a collective imagining of an real world oil-shock led by Jane McGonigal and Ken Eklund - and trying to tease out the relationship to the methods in other communal, activist performances.

The most productive link I’ve found so far has been to the communal forum theatre form pioneered by Augusto Boal, which shares the same intention to use play as rehearsal for living.

I’m also working with material from a paper I gave at the Improvisation Continuums conference a few months back - there’s a definite sense that the kinds of creativity available are determined by structure. Put simply, we accept limitations or borders in order to make our play more coherent and productive, a concept familiar to most if not all improvisers.

Finally, some (unrelated) pictures from a combination birthday and farewell party for some artists I’ve had great fun working with.