games as theatre, theatre as games

Hey there!

This month I’ve been in residency with Welcome to My Homepage, an incredible digital residency that invites artists from a variety of backgrounds to “take over” a homepage and create a project to live on it.

My project, David & Jonathan, is a play-script, where you uncover scenes between a golden boy (Jonathan) and a short king (David) by finding pieces within a larger image. Think Where’s Waldo, but you click Waldo and get to read a scene about two guys growing up and falling in love.

Working on this piece resurfaced various thoughts I’ve been thinking about theatre (arguably a type of game) and games (arguably a type of theatre) and what place the audience serves in each.

The audience as active participant

My father–in-law recently went with his students to see A Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare Theatre Company. As Luciana was courted by Antipholus (who she believes is her sister’s husband), one student said (something like) “girl don’t do it.” Luciana, rebuffing Antipholus, marched over to the student and they high-fived. 

While many US theatre practitioners and audiences have pushed back against the idea of a ““proper”” way to watch theatre, this still isn’t the norm. Western, Euro-centric theatre has built a culture of quiet passivity that practitioners fight to this day. Because we know the audience is a participant. The success of the performance also falls on them. 

In games, this is pretty straightforward. The Mystics fan who yells “brick” at every opposing player’s free throw attempt believes their participation makes a difference. The card game can’t continue if everyone refuses to play their hand. The characters in a tabletop roleplaying game don’t exist until the players breathe them into being. 

In 2020, while in the Liveness Lab residency with Orchard Project, I started positing that the easiest way to replicate theatrical atmosphere (as opposed to theatrical methods) online was to create interactive work that acknowledged the presence of the audience and gave them some method of agency for engaging with and/or affecting the performance itself. I still think that’s true. (And I think it’s becoming more and more essential, not just for distanced theatre, but in person theatre as well.) 

Does theatre exist if there’s no audience to experience it? Not in my mind (although we could talk for days about what and who counts as “audience”). So why do we still make dead plays that try desperately to pretend the audience isn’t there?

Games as theatre

Sports are reality theatre.

Drama and character types (villain, rival, underdog, champion) are inherent to competitive sports and athletes.

TTRPGs are theatre for you and your friends.

TTRPG players are the crew, the performers, the designers, the writers, the directors, and the audience of a production that happens at the (metaphorical or literal) table.

Laying down your hand and winking at your partner who just lost is playing a version of yourself which is also performing.

Working intentionally to put together the perfect spread of tiles is set design. Or prop design? It’s design.

Sending out your little guys to do little tasks is stage managing. 

Visual novels are just a play you read.

Visual novels are a play you read.

A play you just read is still a play, it’s just not a production.

Is there a way to make a production that is a play you read? (I’m still not sure.)

The play-script

So I made David & Jonathan, a script you can play. It’s set in small town Texas, because that’s where I grew up. It’s based on the Biblical figures because, despite everything, those stories are still knocking about my head. It’s gay because it was gay. 

It’s about a trans boy with no lack of confidence becoming a passionate man. It’s about a loyal boy who looks up to his unsupportive father while struggling to find his own path. It’s about them discovering themselves and each other as they grow together.

And the play doesn’t happen unless you show up. Hope you’ll be in the audience.

xoxo
Tristan

P.S. What’s your favorite game and how is it also theatre?

P.P.S. David & Jonathan will be a part of the upcoming 2024 From-Home Fest starting next month!