Mediation and the PandeTheatre: Digital performativity in the smart staging of Brilliant Mind

Mona Khattab; Wessam Elmeligi

doi:10.7146/mk.v38i73.131306

Authors

Mona Khattab University of Vaasa https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6277-4755
Wessam Elmeligi University of Michigan-Dearborn https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4744-658X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/mk.v38i73.131306

Keywords:

Affect, transcultural mediation, psychodrama, interactive theatre, audience participation

Abstract

One of the negative impacts of the pandemic on creative culture is new limitations imposed on interactive performance in theatrical production. Producers resorted to digitality to explore the potentials of smart staging. A new play titled Brilliant Mind is a case in point for its innovative use of digital alternatives to maintain interactive performativity in what the producers describe as “live theatre in digital landscapes”. The play was digitally performed online in 2021, and members of the audience were allowed to digitally explore parts of the set and interact with characters. This paper examines the play’s use of digital performativity as a form of mediation for pandemic-era theatre by unpacking its digital interactive strategies. The authors offer a close textual and visual analysis of their experience as audience members in addition to employing theatrical principles of psychodrama, as well as concepts of affect theory as an approach to visual communication.

Author Biographies

Mona Khattab, University of Vaasa

Mona Khattab, MA, is a doctoral researcher at the University of Vaasa, Finland. Her research focuses on the impact of new digital media on communication, focusing on individual access and outreach. Khattab’s research interests include social media, new technology, digital cultures, games and media studies.

Email: mona.khattab@uwasa.fi

Email: monamhkhattab@gmail.com

Wessam Elmeligi, University of Michigan-Dearborn

Wessam Elmeligi, PhD, is Assistant Professor and Director of the Comparative Literature and the Arabic Translation Certificate at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, USA. His research includes works on narratology, visual narrative analysis, literary theory, identity and migration studies, and Middle Eastern and comparative literature. His most recent book is Cultural Identity in Arabic Novels of Immigration: A Poetics of Return (Rowman and Littlefield, 2020).

References

Aristotle (1961). Aristotle’s poetics. Hill and Wang.

Berberich, C. (2015). Affect theory. In J. Wolfreys (Ed.), Introducing criticism in the 21st century (pp. 217–233). Edinburgh University Press.

Bergstrom, K. (Director). (2021, June 1). Brilliant Mind by D. Ibrahim [Story Krapht]. Marin Theatre Company, California. https://www.marintheatre.org/productions/brilliant-mind#overview

Bouko, C. (2016). Le théâtre immersif: Une définition en trois paliers. Sociétés, 134(4), 55–65. https://doi.org/10.3917/soc.134.0055

Butler, J. (1988). Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory. Theatre Journal, 40(4), 519–531. https://doi.org/10.2307/3207893

Callon, M. (2007). What does it mean to say that economics is performative? In D. MacKenzie, F. Muniesa, & L. Siu (Eds.), Do economists make markets? On the performativity of economics (pp. 311–354). Princeton University Press.

Callon, M. (Ed.). (1998). The laws of the markets. Blackwell.

Cockayne, D., Leszczynski, A., & Zook, M. (2017). #HotForBots: Sex, the non-human and digitally mediated space of intimate encounter. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 35(6), 1115–1133. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775817709018

Danielson, V. L. (2022). Umm Kulthum: Egyptian musician. Britannica. Retrieved January 15, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Umm-Kulthum-Egyptian-musician

Derrida, J. (1988). Limited inc. Northwestern University Press.

Gladstone, J. (2021, May 11). Smart staging: Marin Theatre Company’s ‘Brilliant Mind.’ The Bay Area Reporter. https://www.ebar.com/story.php?304766

IMDB. (n.d.). Adel Emam. Retrieved January 14, 2022, from https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0408054/

Kaisar, M. (2021). Bluetooth orgasms. MedieKultur: Journal of Media and Communication Research, 37(71), 143–160. https://doi.org/10.7146/mediekultur.v37i71.125253

Massumi, B. (2002). Parables for the virtual: Movement, affect, sensation (1st ed.). Duke University Press.

Moreno, J. L. (1946). Psychodrama: First volume. Beacon House. https://doi.org/10.1037/11506-000

Moreno, J. L. (1953). Who shall survive? Foundations of sociometry, group psychotherapy and socio-drama (2nd ed.). Beacon House.

Moreno, J. L. (1973). Foreword. In A. Blatner (1996), Acting-in: Practical application of psychodramatic methods (p. ix). Springer.

Pain, R., & Staeheli, L. (2014). Introduction: Intimacy-geopolitics and violence. Area, 46(4), 344–360. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12138

Pickering, A. (2010). The cybernetic brain: Sketches of another future. University of Chicago Press.

Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. Pantheon Books.

Scheiffele, E. (1995). The theatre of truth: Psychodrama, spontaneity and improvisation: The theatrical theories and influences of Jacob Levy Moreno (Publication No. 9621353) [Doctoral dissertation, University of California Berkeley, USA]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Shields, R. (2002). The virtual (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203987186

Smith, N., & Snider, A. (2019). ASMR, affect and digitally-mediated intimacy. Emotion, Space and Society, 30, 41–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2018.11.002

Stewart, K. (2007). Ordinary affects. Duke University Press. The Tomkins Institute. (n.d.). Nine affects, present at birth, combine with life experience to form emotion and personality. http://www.tomkins.org/what-tomkins-said/introduction/nine-affects-present-atbirth-combine-to-form-emotion-mood-and-personality/

Mediation and the PandeTheatre

Digital performativity in the smart staging of Brilliant Mind

Authors

DOI:

Keywords:

Abstract

Author Biographies

Mona Khattab, University of Vaasa

Wessam Elmeligi, University of Michigan-Dearborn

References

Downloads

Published

How to Cite

Issue

Section

License

Make a Submission