Theatrical Complications

Abstract

Though theatricality as a concept has been extensively and variously theorized vis-a-vis live theatre through the sharing of space (see Cole 1975; Davis and Postlewait 2003; Davis and Postlewait 2003; Petrović-Lotina 2019; Shank 1969), through the rejection of the quotidian (Durang 1999; Heim 2020; White 2019), and through heightened expression (Carlson 1990; Peterson 2023; Smith 1984); many of its core tenets have recently been challenged through the rising prominence of virtual theatre. In this paper, I explore various theories of and about theatre to redefine “theatricality” as a term in its application to virtual (music) theatre. Additionally, I investigate how Rise, Shine, Sing!, a weekly, online participatory community music theatre project, reconfigures the demands for its participants to assume the unique role of spectator-performer, thus redefining the terms of engaging with and through theatricality in this medium.
 My interest in redefining theatricality in virtual contexts is motivated by the (post) pandemic impulse to prioritize audience safety in line with public health measures to protect those who are at risk, whether for reasons of age, ability, or health status. Because virtual theatre is therefore now a matter of access, theatricality is in a position to be (re)defined. I explore this in three ways: through further theorizing around the suspension of disbelief–a departure from the quotidian space that defines our daily living–which characterizes theatricality (see Causey 2006; Féral 2002; MacDonald 2013); through theatre’s reconfiguration of the social world’s constructivity to develop new iconography in gesture; and through a renegotiation of the opportunities for heightened experience on the part of the performer-spectator.