Enveloping Worlds
Toward a Discourse of Immersive Performance
Published on 29. April 2025
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-472-07740-3 (ISBN)
Description
Enveloping Worlds is a collection of essays that analyzes the phenomenon of immersive, participatory performance as it has developed in the US. As this collection demonstrates, immersive performance offers three-dimensional multisensory experiences, inviting audience members to be participants in the unfolding of the story, and challenging pre-existing ideas about the function of performance and entertainment. Enveloping Worlds questions audience agency and choice, the space and boundaries of performance, modes of immersion, empathy and engagement, and ethical considerations through fifteen essays.
Case studies in the volume include the Choctaw Cultural Center in Oklahoma and Choctaw sovereignty; a Black artist's autoethnographic performance challenging White audiences' entitlement to full inclusion; Immersive Van Gogh experiences and their scenographers; telephone performance during the COVID-19 lockdowns; Diane Paulus's The Donkey Show; the Battle of Atlanta panorama; an antebellum-themed department store display from the 1920s; escape rooms; Disney Parks; remotely staged plays about aging and dementia; tiki bars; anachronistic costuming at Renaissance Festivals; the technologies that shape the boundaries of immersive worlds; and tabletop role-playing games. Taken together, these essays contribute a rich discussion of immersive performance across radically different contexts, offering analytical models and terminology with which to clarify and advance this emergent discourse.
Case studies in the volume include the Choctaw Cultural Center in Oklahoma and Choctaw sovereignty; a Black artist's autoethnographic performance challenging White audiences' entitlement to full inclusion; Immersive Van Gogh experiences and their scenographers; telephone performance during the COVID-19 lockdowns; Diane Paulus's The Donkey Show; the Battle of Atlanta panorama; an antebellum-themed department store display from the 1920s; escape rooms; Disney Parks; remotely staged plays about aging and dementia; tiki bars; anachronistic costuming at Renaissance Festivals; the technologies that shape the boundaries of immersive worlds; and tabletop role-playing games. Taken together, these essays contribute a rich discussion of immersive performance across radically different contexts, offering analytical models and terminology with which to clarify and advance this emergent discourse.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Ann Arbor
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
13 figures
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-472-07740-3 (9780472077403)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
E. B. Hunter is Assistant Professor of Drama at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of Acting the Part: Audience Participation in Performance.
Scott Magelssen is Professor of Theatre History and Performance Studies at the University of Washington. He is the author of Performing Flight: From The Barnstormers to Space Tourism, Simming: Participatory Performance and the Making of Meaning, and co-editor of Theater Historiography: Critical Interventions.
Scott Magelssen is Professor of Theatre History and Performance Studies at the University of Washington. He is the author of Performing Flight: From The Barnstormers to Space Tourism, Simming: Participatory Performance and the Making of Meaning, and co-editor of Theater Historiography: Critical Interventions.
Content
List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction: The Ascendance of the Immersive
Part I: Life
1. Building N?nih Waiya: Creating an Immersive Chahta World
Bethany Hughes
2. The Other Side of the Plexiglass Wall: Fear, Terror, and Defining the Rules of Engagement in a Solo Autoethnographic Performance Tragedy
Michelle Cowin Gibbs
3. Immersive Van Gogh: A Scenographic Analysis
Christin Essin
4. "The Telelibrary is Here for You": A Theatre of Service During a Time of Crisis
Lauren R. Beck
5. Farewell, Fond Pageant: Remount and Representational Space in The Donkey Show
E.B. Hunter
Part II: Liberty
6. The Immersive Archive: Restoring the All-Embracing View of Nineteenth-Century Painted Panoramas in Museum Display
Susan Tenneriello
7. Encountering the Old South in "Atlanta's Most Modern Department Store"
Laura Ferdinand
8. Playing Attention in an Escape Room: Strange Bird Immersive's The Man From Beyond
James R. Ball III
9. Why Be a Bad Guy? Immersive Performance and Transgression at the Disney Theme Park
Jennifer A. Kokai and Tom Robson
10. Remembrance Revisited: Insider/Outsider Perspectives on Immersivity
Cindy Rosenthal
Part III: The Pursuit of Happiness
11. Stepping Back into Your Own Timeline: Meaning, Yearning, and Immersive Simulations of The Recent Past
Scott Magelssen
12. The Immersivity of American Tiki Bars
Chloe Rae Edmonson
13. Time Traveler Day at the Renaissance Festival
Michelle Liu Carriger
14. Introduction, Invitation, and Integration in Immersive Performance
Sean Bartley
15. Turgin' the Dragon!: Dramaturgical Immersivity and the Tabletop Roleplaying Game
Michael M. Chemers and Mike Sell
Contributors
Index
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction: The Ascendance of the Immersive
Part I: Life
1. Building N?nih Waiya: Creating an Immersive Chahta World
Bethany Hughes
2. The Other Side of the Plexiglass Wall: Fear, Terror, and Defining the Rules of Engagement in a Solo Autoethnographic Performance Tragedy
Michelle Cowin Gibbs
3. Immersive Van Gogh: A Scenographic Analysis
Christin Essin
4. "The Telelibrary is Here for You": A Theatre of Service During a Time of Crisis
Lauren R. Beck
5. Farewell, Fond Pageant: Remount and Representational Space in The Donkey Show
E.B. Hunter
Part II: Liberty
6. The Immersive Archive: Restoring the All-Embracing View of Nineteenth-Century Painted Panoramas in Museum Display
Susan Tenneriello
7. Encountering the Old South in "Atlanta's Most Modern Department Store"
Laura Ferdinand
8. Playing Attention in an Escape Room: Strange Bird Immersive's The Man From Beyond
James R. Ball III
9. Why Be a Bad Guy? Immersive Performance and Transgression at the Disney Theme Park
Jennifer A. Kokai and Tom Robson
10. Remembrance Revisited: Insider/Outsider Perspectives on Immersivity
Cindy Rosenthal
Part III: The Pursuit of Happiness
11. Stepping Back into Your Own Timeline: Meaning, Yearning, and Immersive Simulations of The Recent Past
Scott Magelssen
12. The Immersivity of American Tiki Bars
Chloe Rae Edmonson
13. Time Traveler Day at the Renaissance Festival
Michelle Liu Carriger
14. Introduction, Invitation, and Integration in Immersive Performance
Sean Bartley
15. Turgin' the Dragon!: Dramaturgical Immersivity and the Tabletop Roleplaying Game
Michael M. Chemers and Mike Sell
Contributors
Index