UC Davis

During the first two decades of the twenty-first century, American theatres experimented with audience engagement as a remedy for perceived challenges rising from meteoric societal and technological changes. This dissertation presents a case study of the radical hospitality program at Center Theatre Group as an example of this trend in the American theatre. Inspired by Jacques Derrida’s articulation of hospitality, radical hospitality became the programmatic context for authoring ludic frame experiences (aka, lobby games) as a modality of audience engagement that facilitated a renegotiation of traditional audience roles. Frame experiences form distinct magic- circles bracketing the formal temporal, spatial, and social frame of the theatrical event; authoring procedures for audience interactivity in such experiences allows theatre makers to challenge theatre conventions that mitigate audience participation. To understand both the philosophical foundations of and practical approaches to developing frame experiences, my dissertation draws connections between games and theatre, using game studies theory, performance psychology, systems theory, and cognitive science to argue that theatre is a game, and to situate games and theatre in relation to the concept of fun. Building upon Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow my dissertation offers an understanding of the psychology of fun that pivots on a bifurcation of fun into the promise of fun and radical fun, demonstrating how theatre and theatre games can produce a feeling of fun that motivates practice, learning, and a growth mindset.