Cyberformance: towards a transnational user-response theory

Abstract

ABSTRACTCyberformance is a type of reciprocal digital theatre that provides a space for performers and audiences from all over the world to participate in transnational digitized performances making use of technology, interactive computer platforms and participatory applications. Within this transnational cyber-collaborative theatre community, relationships between the author, text, and audience are redefined. The audiences in cyberformance are internet users who acquire authorial voices and become co-present in the making of the performance. This study claims the need for expanding critical theory, particularly reader-response theory, to approach this emerging theatrical form produced on a cyberstage. The study questions the shift of relationships between the author, text, and audience; and proposes a user-response theory, a version of the reader-response critical theory, to reflect the development and metamorphosis of the reader’s/audience’s role in a digital theatre environment. The study offers an analysis of Cyberian Chalk Circle (2011) as a case study and a practical application of the proposed user-response theory.