Less Predictability, More Play: An Experimental Syllabus for Theatre in Pandemic
Well Played V10 N2: Playable Theatre. Play Story Press. 2024
By Nica Ross and Stuart Candy
The Well Played Journal is a forum for in-depth close readings of games that parse out the various meanings to be found in the experience of playing a game. It is a reviewed journal with CfPs for submissions that will be released on a regular basis with high-quality essays.
This special issue of Well Played explores the emerging field of “playable theatre,” where live performance, games, and interactive media intersect to create participatory experiences with meaningful audience agency. Spanning everything from immersive theater and LARPs to mixed reality and online performance, the collection examines how artists and researchers are redefining what it means for audiences to actively shape a live experience — especially in the wake of the pandemic’s shift toward mediated and hybrid forms of performance.
My essay with Stuart Candy, “Less Predictability, More Play,” is both an experimental syllabus and a reflection on a pandemic-era CMU course that reimagined theatre under socially distanced conditions. It documents the course’s prompts, games, rituals, LARP exercises, online platforms, and final student projects, while reflecting on how constraints, uncertainty, and play can become tools for creating new forms of playable theatre, meaningful participation, and collective intimacy at a distance.
You can find a pdf of our essay here.