Theatre And Social Media

This book offers the first broad-based survey of the way artists, audiences and society at large are making use of social media, and how the emergence of social media platforms that allow two-way interaction between these groups has been held up as a ‘game changer’ by many in the theatre industry. The first book to analyse aesthetic, critical, audience development, marketing and assessment uptake of social media in the theatre industry in an integrated fashion, Theatre, Social Media and Meaning Making examines examples from the USA, UK, Europe and Australasia to provide a snapshot of this emerging niche within networked, telematic, immersive and participatory theatre production and reception practices. A vital new resource for the field, this book will appeal to scholars, students, and industry practitioners alike.

How does theatre, one of the most ancient and physical arts, relate to the modern, dynamic technology that is social media? Used daily by many, social media has become one of the main mediums through which we present and perform our lives. In this timely introduction to the revealing relationship between theatre and social media, Patrick Lonergan considers social media as a performance space, analyses how theatre-makers' engagement with social media on and off stage affects elements of theatrical composition and reception, and explores the practical and conceptual implications of audiences interacting with professional productions through social media.

Digital Media, Projection Design, and Technology for Theatre covers the foundational skills, best practices, and real-world considerations of integrating digital media and projections into theatre. The authors, professional designers and university professors of digital media in live performance, provide readers with a narrative overview of the professional field, including current industry standards and expectations for digital media/projection design, its related technologies and techniques. The book offers a practical taxonomy of what digital media is and how we create meaning through its use on the theatrical stage. The book outlines the digital media/projection designer’s workflow into nine unique phases. From the very first steps of landing the job, to reading and analyzing the script and creating content, all the way through to opening night and archiving a design. Detailed analysis, tips, case studies, and best practices for crafting a practical schedule and budget, to rehearsing with digital media, working with actors and directors, to creating a unified design for the stage with lighting, set, sound, costumes, and props is discussed. The fundamentals of content creation, detailing the basic building blocks of creating and executing digital content within a design is offered in context of the most commonly used content creation methods, including: photography and still images, video, animation, real-time effects, generative art, data, and interactive digital media. Standard professional industry equipment, including media servers, projectors, projection surfaces, emissive displays, cameras, sensors, etc. is detailed. The book also offers a breakdown of all key related technical tasks, such as converging, warping, and blending projectors, to calculating surface brightness/luminance, screen size and throw distance, to using masks, warping content and projection mapping, making this a complete guide to digital media and projection design today. An eResource page offers sample assets and interviews that link to current and relevant work of leading projection designers.

This book argues that the digital revolution has fundamentally altered the way musicals are produced, followed, admired, marketed, reviewed, researched, taught, and even cast. In the first hundred years of its existence, commercial musical theatre functioned on one basic model. However, with the advent of digital and network technologies, every musical theatre artist and professional has had to adjust to swift and unanticipated change. Due to the historically commercial nature of the musical theatre form, it offers a more potent test case to reveal the implications of this digital shift than other theatrical art forms. Rather than merely reflecting technological change, musical theatre scholarship and practice is at the forefront of the conversation about art in the digital age. This book is essential reading for musical theatre fans and scholars alike.

Theatre and Performance in Digital Culture examines the recent history of advanced technologies, including new media, virtual environments, weapons systems and medical innovation, and considers how theatre, performance and culture at large have evolved within those systems. The book examines the two Iraq wars, 9/11 and the War on Terror through the lens of performance studies, and, drawing on the writings of Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou and Martin Heidegger, alongside the dramas of Beckett, Genet and Shakespeare, and the theatre of the Kantor, Foreman, Socíetas Raffaello Sanzio and the Wooster Group, the book positions theatre and performance in technoculture and articulates the processes of aesthetics, metaphysics and politics. This wide-ranging study reflects on how the theatre and performance have been challenged and extended within these new cultural phenomena.

How does theatre, one of the most ancient and physical arts, relate to the modern, dynamic technology that is social media? Used daily by many, social media has become one of the main mediums through which we present and perform our lives. In this timely introduction to the revealing relationship between theatre and social media, Patrick Lonergan considers social media as a performance space, analyses how theatre-makers' engagement with social media on and off stage affects elements of theatrical composition and reception, and explores the practical and conceptual implications of audiences interacting with professional productions through social media.

This book introduces readers to the widespread phenomenon of how social media platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok become an extension of long-standing aspects of musical theatre engagement. Although casual observers may dismiss social media's import, social media has revolutionized the field of musical theatre since the early days of Web 2.0 with spaces such as AOL, LiveJournal, and Myspace. Now, as social media continues to grow in relevance, the nuanced ways in which digital platforms influence musical culture remain ripe for study. Social Media in Musical Theatre moves beyond viewing social media merely as a passing fad or a space free from critical engagement. Rather, this volume takes a serious look at the critical role social media play in musicals, thus challenging how social media users and musical theatre-makers alike approach digital spaces. This book introduces the relationship between musical theatre and social media in the 21st century as well as methods to study social media's influence on musicals through three in-depth case studies organized around marketing on YouTube, fan engagement on Twitter, and new musical development on TikTok.