Amplifying Theatrical Horizons: Rethinking the Value of Waste in Performance

Drawing on scholarship in theatre studies, economics, philosophy, and performance practice, the book develops the Wasteful Theatre Equation, distinguishing waste as surplus that amplifies experience rather than squandered loss. A reexamination of the role of waste in theatrical practices, from escape rooms to traditional proscenium theater. Amplifying Theatrical Horizons reimagines live performance through the lens of economy, value, excess, and waste, asking what it means to shower resources – material, sensory, and symbolic – on audiences beyond utilitarian calculation. It examines how waste operates within the theatrical relationship between audience, performer, genre, and space, focusing on excessive deployments of value. Drawing on scholarship in theater studies, economics, philosophy, and performance practice, Lisa Hall proposes what she calls the Wasteful Theatre Equation, distinguishing waste as a surplus that amplifies experience rather than diminishing it. Case studies span immersive environments, haunted attractions, escape rooms, site-specific productions, and traditional proscenium theater, demonstrating how space, participation, sensation, and fear operate as sites of wasteful excess. Key chapters pose practical questions for makers, reframing contracts of performance, proximity, and risk as tools for creating singular experiences. Across examples from Robert Wilson to Punchdrunk, Grand-Guignol to theme parks, the book positions waste as both disruptive and generative. Ultimately, it argues that wasteful excess enchants, reorienting theater toward presence, wonder, and transformative exchange. Lisa Hall is a theater director, playwright, and professor at Utah Valley University, USA, where she teaches courses in theater history, dramatic literature, and performance practice. Wasteful Theatre reimagines live performance through the lens of economy, value, excess, and waste, asking what it means to lavish resources—material, sensory, and symbolic—on audiences beyond utilitarian calculation. It examines how waste operates within the theatrical relationship between audience, performer, genre, and space, focusing on excessive deployments of value. Drawing on scholarship in theatre studies, economics, philosophy, and performance practice, the book develops the Wasteful Theatre Equation, distinguishing waste as surplus that amplifies experience rather than squandered loss. Case studies span immersive environments, haunted attractions, escape rooms, site-specific productions, and traditional proscenium theatre, demonstrating how space, participation, sensation, and fear operate as sites of wasteful excess. Key chapters pose practical questions for makers, reframing contracts of performance, proximity, and risk as tools for creating singular experiences. Across examples from Robert Wilson to Punchdrunk, Grand-Guignol to theme parks, the book positions waste as both disruptive and generative, showing how performance transforms by amplifying horizons of possibility. Ultimately, it argues that wasteful excess enchants, reorienting theatre toward presence, wonder, and transformative exchange.

Pagina's: 154, Hardcover, Intellect Books