Plugged In On Stage: A note from the Editors
Jennifer Goff and Julia Moriarty
Technology.
It connects us. It separates us. It inspires us. It frustrates us.
It surrounds us.
In an increasingly digital, online, and otherwise technologically dizzying world, theatre can often come across as resistant to the advances around us. Sometimes we worry that the analog interface of live theatre is destined to fall by the wayside as society disappears more and more into its screens and feeds and twitter wars. But technology is not going anywhere. And neither, it seems, is live performance. The articles highlighted in this issue's themed section illuminate exciting ways in which performance, narrative, liveness, and technology intersect and intertwine, and provide a robust foundation for the ongoing conversations of how theatre can, could, might, and should invite itself into the digital age. In "Technology Takes Center Stage," the author explores the ways chat rooms, blogs, and reality TV shape the worlds of four contemporary Hispanic and Hispanic-inspired dramatic texts, both idealizing and criticizing the roles these technologies play in narrative structure and in the "real" world. "Between Liveness and Presence" provides an insightful analysis of a deeply mediatized performance by English-German performance collective Gob Squad as they lead audiences through filmed, live, and immersive elements during a "live" performance of a series of famous Andy Warhol films. "The Man Within" departs from the stage and, instead, observes the potential and performance of empathy and representation facilitated by game play as the Cyborg character in the DC Comics-based video game Injustice: Gods Among Us. Finally, technology crosses the fourth wall to become a performer in a thorough review of The Alexa Dialogues, staged by Therefore Art and Performance Group.
In addition to the pieces that respond directly to our theme, we also present two writers who are engaging in exciting ways with landmark texts. "Towards Unmediated Performance" feels almost as if it is providing a counterpoint to our themed section, exploring the ways in which Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner's outrageous tour de force A Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe breaks down boundaries of mediation between text, performer, and audience. And "Stone Angels" examines the continued immediacy of contemporary stagings of Angels in America as it defies settling into a "period play" portrait of a particular American past.
We have also continued to include profiles of some of our peer reviewers. These profiles are intended to expand the community that Etudes has begun to create, to highlight the variety of interests represented in our peer reviewers, and to give a little digital round of applause to the people whose contributions to building this publication have been immensely generous and absolutely instrumental.
As a fully digital publication dealing with an almost entirely offline medium, the intersection of technology, performance, and narrative is as central to our identity as it is to the continued development of our art form.
It connects us. It separates us. It inspires us. It frustrates us.
It surrounds us.
In an increasingly digital, online, and otherwise technologically dizzying world, theatre can often come across as resistant to the advances around us. Sometimes we worry that the analog interface of live theatre is destined to fall by the wayside as society disappears more and more into its screens and feeds and twitter wars. But technology is not going anywhere. And neither, it seems, is live performance. The articles highlighted in this issue's themed section illuminate exciting ways in which performance, narrative, liveness, and technology intersect and intertwine, and provide a robust foundation for the ongoing conversations of how theatre can, could, might, and should invite itself into the digital age. In "Technology Takes Center Stage," the author explores the ways chat rooms, blogs, and reality TV shape the worlds of four contemporary Hispanic and Hispanic-inspired dramatic texts, both idealizing and criticizing the roles these technologies play in narrative structure and in the "real" world. "Between Liveness and Presence" provides an insightful analysis of a deeply mediatized performance by English-German performance collective Gob Squad as they lead audiences through filmed, live, and immersive elements during a "live" performance of a series of famous Andy Warhol films. "The Man Within" departs from the stage and, instead, observes the potential and performance of empathy and representation facilitated by game play as the Cyborg character in the DC Comics-based video game Injustice: Gods Among Us. Finally, technology crosses the fourth wall to become a performer in a thorough review of The Alexa Dialogues, staged by Therefore Art and Performance Group.
In addition to the pieces that respond directly to our theme, we also present two writers who are engaging in exciting ways with landmark texts. "Towards Unmediated Performance" feels almost as if it is providing a counterpoint to our themed section, exploring the ways in which Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner's outrageous tour de force A Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe breaks down boundaries of mediation between text, performer, and audience. And "Stone Angels" examines the continued immediacy of contemporary stagings of Angels in America as it defies settling into a "period play" portrait of a particular American past.
We have also continued to include profiles of some of our peer reviewers. These profiles are intended to expand the community that Etudes has begun to create, to highlight the variety of interests represented in our peer reviewers, and to give a little digital round of applause to the people whose contributions to building this publication have been immensely generous and absolutely instrumental.
As a fully digital publication dealing with an almost entirely offline medium, the intersection of technology, performance, and narrative is as central to our identity as it is to the continued development of our art form.
- JG & JM
