ABOUT US

WHAT IS play/PLAY: dramaturgies of participation?

play/PLAY: dramaturgies of participation is a research project based at Queen’s University at Kingston, Canada. The two principal researchers are Jenn Stephenson and Mariah Horner.

play/PLAY: dramaturgies of participation is a blog where we are sharing that research. Posted here are responses to our reading and to the performances we are seeing. We are also profiling the artists and creators of these participatory play-games. Also included here is a work-in-progress gallery of the 70+ performances we have collected to date.

play/PLAY: dramaturgies of participation is a book. The book is a kind of alphabetical keywords dictionary with attitude. With 150+ entries ranging from ASYMMETRY, AUTOPOIESIS, and AVATAR FEELINGS through SECRET WEIRDOS and SIMMING to TYRANNY, UNWELCOME, and WINNING, the book pieces together the larger argument about how and why participatory theatre matters through concise topical essays. Projected publication in 2023.

Dr. Jenn Stephenson is Professor in the Dan School of Drama and Music at Queen’s University, teaching dramatic literature, history and theory, as well as production design. Her 2003 PhD thesis on metatheatre in Shakespeare received the Clifford Leech Dissertation Prize from the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto. She is the author of two books. Performing Autobiography: Contemporary Canadian Drama received the Canadian Association for Theatre Research’s Ann Saddlemyer Award in 2013. Her recent book is Insecurity: Perils and Products of Theatres of the Real (University of Toronto Press, 2019). Examining the proliferation of reality-based performance genres like documentary, verbatim, and site-specific theatre in the first decades of the 21st century, the book argues that although the inclusion of real objects and real words on the stage would seem to increase the epistemological security and truth-value of the presentation, under the social context of post-reality in fact the opposite is the case. Elsewhere, articles have appeared in Theatre Journal, Theatre Research in Canada, New Theatre Quarterly, and L’annuaire théâtrale. Since 2016, Jenn has served as Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Theatre Review.

Mariah Horner is a theatre creator and PhD Student based in Kingston, Ontario. Selected credits include: directing Hana Hashimoto: Sixth Violin (Thousand Islands Playhouse 2019), assistant directing Behaviour (GCTC 2018), assistant directing Butcher (Theatre Kingston 2018); assistant directing The Revolutions (SpiderWebShow 2017); and directing girls!girls!girls! (Cart Before the Horse/TACTICS 2017). She was the director of Kingston’s Storefront Fringe Festival from 2016-18, CFRC's Shortwave Radio Theatre Festival and the inaugural winner of the Patrick Conner Theatre Ticket Award. She is an associate producer with SpiderWebShow, producing digital content for FOLDA (festival of live digital Art). Co-founding site-specific theatre company Cellar Door Project in 2013, Mariah has since produced fifteen new works in Ottawa and Kingston in cemeteries, record stores, bars, parks and the Diefenbunker. Mariah played Kate Unger in George F. Walker’s HBO Canada Series Living in Your Car and graduated from uOttawa with an MA in Theatre Theory & Dramaturgy. She's been published by Canadian Theatre Review, SpiderWebShow, Visit Kingston and the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario. Her PhD research is about abolitionist dramaturgies.

Our Team

Dylan Chenier | Research Assistant from September 2020-current

Dylan is a Master’s student in the Cultural Studies program at Queen’s University. Dylan’s research focuses on the relationship between politics and theatre, and how the theatre can be used to facilitate meaningful political discourse. Dylan’s work as a theatre artist often reflects these research interests. Dylan’s first full-length play, Iowa, an exploration into the complex US Presidential primary system, received its first-ever staged reading in January of 2020 and is currently being developed.

Derek Manderson | Research Assistant from May-August 2019

Derek is a student of Drama and English literature at Queen’s University. Although he has explored a variety of theatrical perspectives, his studies have taken a particular focus in dramaturgy, theory, set production, and education. In the summer of 2019, he completed a research fellowship with Stephenson and Horner which ignited his passion for theatre academia. The interactive poster representing the culmination of this collaboration entitled “The Guide: An Emerging Role in Participatory Theatre” can be accessed through QSpace. Since then, Derek has continued to contemplate the implications of audience participation and the role technology plays in facilitating innovative modes of performance. Currently, he is completing the final year of his undergraduate degree and working as a teaching assistant for three courses within the DAN School of Drama and Music.

Hamish Hutchison-Poyntz | Research Assistant from May-August 2021

Hamish is a student of Drama and Political Studies at Queen’s University. Interested in storytelling of all kinds, Hamish is particularly fascinated by the social implications of theatre, both as a reflection of culture and society and a tool to shape it with. Having worked as a research assistant for Dr. Kelsey Jacobson in the summer of 2020 studying audience responses to theatre, Hamish is excited to dive back into the world of theatre academia and research in 2021. He plans to study the concept of emergence as it applies to theatre, and the possibilities iterative theatre models might open. Hamish is currently completing his third year of his undergraduate degree, and acting, podcasting and directing whatever bits of weird theatre he can.

Jacob Pittini | Research Assistant from May-August 2020

Jacob is a student of Drama and English literature at Queen’s University. As a Concurrent Education student he is interested specifically in contemplating the diverse ways theatre connects to teaching and learning. In the summer of 2020, he began a research fellowship with Dr. Stephenson and Mariah Horner, bringing him into the exciting realm of the play/PLAY: dramaturgies of participation team. As part of the project, Jacob is focusing on the bodily experience of audience-participants and how these embodied experiences inform our understanding of artworks. Jacob is headed towards the final year of his undergraduate degree and also working as a teaching assistant within the Dan School of Drama and Music.

Hailey Scott | Research Assistant from May-August 2020

Hailey is a student of Drama and English literature at Queen’s University. During the summer of 2020, Hailey was honoured to have had the opportunity to peek behind the curtain into the exciting world of theatre academia. As a concurrent education student, Hailey loves to look at the relationship between theatre and teaching and how audiences and learners are emotionally stimulated by the artistic and academic world around them. To culminate her collaboration with play/PLAY: dramaturgies of participation, Hailey’s research concentrated on how emotions are fostered by participatory theatre. Currently, Hailey is completing the final year of her undergraduate degree and is working on producing her first site-specific piece of theatre.

Mary Tooley - Research Assistant from May-August 2021

Mary is a student of Drama and Music at Queen’s University. She is thrilled to begin her research fellowship in the summer of 2021 and to collaborate with the team of play/PLAY: dramaturgies of participation. With a background in and passion for performance, Mary is particularly intrigued by the precious and ever-changing dynamics of interaction between actor and audience in immersive and participatory theatre. Social media culture reveals a desire to perform, and she is fascinated by the elements of danger, decision, and opportunity that arise when spectators are invited to co-create the world of the piece alongside its performers. Mary is currently completing her final semester as a co-producer for the DAN Studio Series, and she will be heading into her final year of her undergraduate degree in the Fall of 2021.