Towards an Online Community-Engaging and Participatory Theatre: Participation, Interaction and Engagement

Abstract

Papagiannouli explores participation, interaction and engagement in cyberformance in the context of democratization of theatre (in terms of radical democracy), looking at intermedial interculturalism and community/public engagement in theatre to locate the Etheatre Project in a lineage of practices. Particular attention is paid to the National Theatre Wales Community blog and the use of the Internet as a space for conflictual participation, as well as the performances of Dries Verhoeven’s Life Streaming (2010) and Rimini Protokolls Call Cutta in a Box (2008). The chapter also examines the Høyblokka Project’s (2010–12) use of the Internet as a memory archive space; Merton and Folds’ cyber-street theatre performances on Chatroulette; Jamieson’s use of private and public spaces to stream eco-cyberformances; and Field Broadcast’s nine-day-long virus-like performances.