ABSTRACT

Imagined Theatres collects theoretical dramas written by some of the leading scholars and artists of the contemporary stage. These dialogues, prose poems, and microfictions describe imaginary performance events that explore what might be possible and impossible in the theatre.

Each scenario is mirrored by a brief accompanying reflection, asking what they might mean for our thinking about the theatre. These many possible worlds circle around questions that include:

  • In what way is writing itself a performance?
  • How do we understand the relationship between real performances that engender imaginary reflections and imaginary conceptions that form the basis for real theatrical productions?
  • Are we not always imagining theatres when we read or even when we sit in the theatre, watching whatever event we imagine we are seeing?

chapter |11 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|2 pages

230 Titles (I)

chapter 2|2 pages

230 Titles (II)

chapter 3|2 pages

230 Titles (III)

chapter 4|2 pages

After Dinner

chapter 5|2 pages

“All the World's a ...”

chapter 6|2 pages

Ancestor Call—Guerrero

chapter 7|2 pages

Ancestor Call—Malinche

chapter 8|2 pages

Anecdote of the Stage (after Stevens)

chapter 9|2 pages

Animal Friendship: A Docudrama

chapter 10|2 pages

The Art of Forgetting

chapter 11|2 pages

Astigmatisms

chapter 12|2 pages

Candle Tears

chapter 13|2 pages

Casting, Four Ways

chapter 14|2 pages

A Chinese Actor's Late Style

chapter 15|2 pages

Cities of Refuge

chapter 16|2 pages

The Classroom

chapter 17|2 pages

Clockfire

chapter 19|2 pages

The Copper Thieves

chapter 20|2 pages

Court Theatre

chapter 21|2 pages

Crow Takes Hat

chapter 22|2 pages

Crowds with the Shape of Reason Missing

chapter 23|2 pages

Dance for Baghdad

chapter 24|2 pages

Dat Black Mermaid Man Lady/Home

chapter 25|2 pages

Dealing

chapter 26|2 pages

Disappearing Act

chapter 27|2 pages

A Displacement

chapter 28|2 pages

Dreams on Screen

chapter 29|2 pages

Earthly

chapter 31|2 pages

Enema of the People

chapter 32|2 pages

Esprit De Corps

chapter 33|2 pages

Extremely Poor Children

chapter 35|2 pages

Feminist Theory Theatre

chapter 36|2 pages

The Fort

chapter 37|2 pages

Friedrichshain

chapter 38|2 pages

A Garden Party Hamlet

chapter 39|2 pages

Ghost Light, an Animal Congress

chapter 40|2 pages

Ghost Practice

chapter 41|2 pages

Give, Take, and Shake

chapter 42|2 pages

The Greatest Show on Earth

chapter 43|2 pages

Gun

chapter 44|2 pages

Gut Body

chapter 45|2 pages

A Happy Life

chapter 47|2 pages

Holding Time

chapter 48|2 pages

How Does It Go Again?

chapter 49|2 pages

Human Too

chapter 50|2 pages

I Can't Breathe ...

chapter 51|2 pages

I, Majorie

chapter 52|2 pages

Imagined Cities (after Calvino)

chapter 53|2 pages

The Impossible Magic Show

chapter 54|2 pages

In Character

chapter 55|2 pages

IRL

chapter 56|2 pages

It Comes Back Together

chapter 57|2 pages

It Could Be a Forest

chapter 58|2 pages

It Was a Large Rubble Space

chapter 59|2 pages

Last Resort [No One Can Stop You Now]

chapter 60|2 pages

The Last Wor(l)d

chapter 61|2 pages

The Lost Notebooks of the Painter's Wife

chapter 62|2 pages

The Means of Production

chapter 63|2 pages

A Meta-Theatre

chapter 64|2 pages

The Monster When She Opened Her Wings

chapter 65|2 pages

Motion Capture

chapter 66|2 pages

Music for Charlie Morel

chapter 67|2 pages

The Night Everything Happened

chapter 68|2 pages

No Subject

chapter 69|2 pages

Not I (Not)

chapter 70|2 pages

Ocean Oration

chapter 71|2 pages

Oh, Have I Died, Then?

chapter 72|2 pages

On Location and Context

chapter 73|2 pages

On Scale

chapter 74|2 pages

Onboard Entertainment

chapter 75|2 pages

Or, the Whale (for Tess)

chapter 76|2 pages

An Orogeny

chapter 77|2 pages

Otto's Self Board Meeting

chapter 78|2 pages

Passenger Pigeons

chapter 80|2 pages

Poolside

chapter 81|2 pages

Precipitation

chapter 82|2 pages

The Previous Cry

chapter 83|2 pages

Private Language Argument I

chapter 84|2 pages

Private Language Argument II

chapter 85|2 pages

Questions for Women in Prison

chapter 86|2 pages

Realism

chapter 87|2 pages

Remains

chapter 88|2 pages

Rock Performance

chapter 89|2 pages

She

chapter 90|2 pages

Spiked

chapter 91|2 pages

Stress Melody

chapter 92|2 pages

Surveillance

chapter 93|2 pages

Tales

chapter 94|2 pages

Tectum Theatre

chapter 95|2 pages

Th'Eater

chapter 96|2 pages

Theatre of the Blind (or: Description)

chapter 97|2 pages

The Theatre at Calpurnia

chapter 99|2 pages

Theatre of Intimacy and Abandon

chapter 100|2 pages

The Theatre of the Town

chapter 101|2 pages

Theatre/Duty

chapter 103|2 pages

Thee Thy Thou Thine (a Fragment)

chapter 106|2 pages

Thresholding

chapter 107|2 pages

Touching Touches

chapter 108|2 pages

Triptych

chapter 109|2 pages

Two Dances

chapter 110|2 pages

Twodoor Drama

chapter 112|2 pages

Unstill Lives

chapter 113|2 pages

Untitled (Imaginary Theatre #1)

chapter 114|2 pages

Untitled (Imaginary Theatre #2)

chapter 115|2 pages

Variations (I-III)

chapter 116|2 pages

Vocabulary

chapter 117|2 pages

The Waiting Room

chapter 118|2 pages

Wanderspiele

chapter 119|2 pages

What to, Where (a Poets Theatre)

chapter 120|2 pages

Women & Children & an Old Man Godot

chapter 121|2 pages

Rajni Shah