Hyperdrama

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Hyperdrama is a dramatic performance generated by playscripts written in hypertext. The performance is noted for its split narrative with scenes branching to play simultaneously in an expanded performance space. The audience is mobile, able to follow actors and watch scenes as each individual chooses.

Contents

Several universities added the study of Hyperdrama to their hypertext and electronic media studies, including the University of Virginia, [1] Tunxis Community College, [2] and New York University,. [3]

Description

According to Astrid Ensslin in her book Canonizing Hypertext, [4] the term hyperdrama "was coined by hyperdramatist and theorist Charles Deemer, [5] who understands 'traditional drama as a special case of hyperdrama'." Ensslin places Deemer's one-act hyperdrama The Last Song of Violeta Parra [6] in the canon of "first generation hypertext."

Hannah Rudman, who wrote "The Benefactor: a Hyperdrama" in 1998 with Billy Smart, describes the form this way:

"A hyperdrama is a play that is written in hypertext, that is performed as a promenade and that is realised on multiple levels. Scenes happen simultaneously throughout a performance space." [7]

Discussion of hyperdrama is included in the book Theatre In Cyberspace:

"... theatre practitioners are increasing their potential audiences with online technology while attempting to discover how to present theatre in an interactive yet non-corporeal way. Also fascinating is how educators and practitioners can collaborate, creating online performance spaces that can be adapted for teaching, and creating online teaching techniques that can be adapted for performance." [8]

Productions

Deemer wrote a hyperdrama expansion of Chekhov's The Seagull. [9]

In 2009, the American Repertory Theater and Punchdrunk performed Sleep No More, "a hyperdrama rendition of Macbeth with a creepy, Hitchcock feel." [10]

Russell Anderson, author of Woyzeck: a Hyperdrama, calls his play "a performance in the ‘hyperdrama’ format: that is, where multiple elements of performance occur in multiple locations simultaneously." [11]

Tegan Zimmerman uses the presentation software Prezi to explore "Hypertext and Hyperdrama" and their relationship online. [12]

Other hyperdrama works of note are Tamara by John Krizanc and Tony n' Tina's Wedding .

See also

Related Research Articles

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<i>The Seagull</i> 1896 play by Anton Chekhov

The Seagull is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. The Seagull is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramatizes the romantic and artistic conflicts between four characters: the famous middlebrow story writer Boris Trigorin, the ingenue Nina, the fading actress Irina Arkadina, and her son the symbolist playwright Konstantin Treplev.

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Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect human perception. The term is an anglicisation of French narratologie, coined by Tzvetan Todorov. Its theoretical lineage is traceable to Aristotle (Poetics) but modern narratology is agreed to have begun with the Russian formalists, particularly Vladimir Propp, and Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of heteroglossia, dialogism, and the chronotope first presented in The Dialogic Imagination (1975).

Scenography is a practice of crafting stage environments or atmospheres. In the contemporary English usage, scenography can be defined as the combination of technological and material stagecrafts to represent, enact, and produce a sense of place in performance. While inclusive of the techniques of scenic design and set design, scenography is a holistic approach to the study and practice of all aspects of design in performance.

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Moscow Art Theatre production of <i>The Seagull</i> 1898 production of a play by Anton Chekhov

The Moscow Art Theatre production of The Seagull in 1898, directed by Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, was a crucial milestone for the fledgling theatre company that has been described as "one of the greatest events in the history of Russian theatre and one of the greatest new developments in the history of world drama." It was the first production in Moscow of Anton Chekhov's 1896 play The Seagull, though it had been performed with only moderate success in St. Petersburg two years earlier. Nemirovich, who was a friend of Chekhov's, overcame the writer's refusal to allow the play to appear in Moscow after its earlier lacklustre reception and convinced Stanislavski to direct the play for their innovative and newly founded Moscow Art Theatre (MAT). The production opened on 29 December [O.S. 17 December] 1898. The MAT's success was due to the fidelity of its delicate representation of everyday life, its intimate, ensemble playing, and the resonance of its mood of despondent uncertainty with the psychological disposition of the Russian intelligentsia of the time. To commemorate this historic production, which gave the MAT its sense of identity, the company to this day bears the seagull as its emblem.

The Ian Charleson Awards are theatrical awards that reward the best classical stage performances in Britain by actors under age 30. The awards are named in memory of the British actor Ian Charleson, and are run by the Sunday Times newspaper and the National Theatre. The awards were established in 1990 after Charleson's death, and have been awarded annually since then. Sunday Times theatre critic John Peter (1938–2020) initiated the creation of the awards, particularly in memory of Charleson's extraordinary Hamlet, which he had performed shortly before his death. Recipients receive a cash prize, as do runners-up and third-place winners.

<i>Sleep No More</i> (2011 play) Play by British theatre company Punchdrunk

Sleep No More is the New York City production of an immersive theatre work created by the British theatre company Punchdrunk. It is primarily based on William Shakespeare's Macbeth, with inspiration also taken from noir films, as well as some reference to the 1697 Paisley witch trials. It builds on their original 2003 London incarnation and their Brookline, Massachusetts, 2009 collaboration with Boston's American Repertory Theatre. The company reinvented Sleep No More as a co-production with Emursive, beginning performances on March 7, 2011. Sleep No More won the 2011 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience and won Punchdrunk special citations at the 2011 Obie Awards for design and choreography.

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ATHEMOO was a MOO created in 1995 By Juli Burk at the University of Hawaii, as an online performance and teaching space, for a professionals and academics who were interested in theatre. A MOO is an online text based reality which is used for socialising or game playing. They are user driven with many people coming together to create new worlds out of text.

<i>The Masque of the Red Death</i> (play)

The Masque of the Red Death was an original theatre production by British theatre company Punchdrunk, in collaboration with the Battersea Arts Centre that ran from September 2007 to April 2008

Immersive theater differentiates itself from traditional theater by removing the stage and immersing audiences within the performance itself. Often, this is accomplished by using a specific location (site-specific), allowing audiences to converse with the actors and interact with their surroundings (interactive), thereby breaking the fourth wall.

<i>Figurski at Findhorn on Acid</i>

Figurski at Findhorn on Acid is a hypertext novel by Richard Holeton published on CD-ROM by Eastgate Systems in 2001 and republished on the open web by the Electronic Literature Lab, Washington State University, in 2021. Re-Imagined Radio presented a radio interpretation of this novel in 2022 in which Holeton made an appearance. It is a work of interactive fiction with various paths for readers to choose from, an early example of electronic literature, and one of 23 works included in the literary hypertext canon.

References

  1. "Syllabus".
  2. "Course Syllabus" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
  3. "Writing: Time and Space".
  4. Ensslin, Astrid (2007). Canonizing Hypertext. Continuum. p. 27. ISBN   978-0-8264-9558-7.
  5. "Hyperdrama".
  6. "The Last Song of Violeta Parra".
  7. Rudman, Hannah. "The Benefactor: a Hyperdrama". Hannah Rudman's website. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  8. "Peter Lang Publishers". Archived from the original on 2015-12-22.
  9. Deemer, Charles (2004). The Seagull Hyperdrama. Sextant Books.
  10. "Sleep No More".
  11. Anderson, Russell. "Woyzeck: a Hyperdrama".
  12. "Hypertext and Hyperdrama".

Further reading

part of an MA Thesis on Hyperdrama