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Play helps define who we are as human beings. However, many of the leisurely/ludic activities people participate in are created and governed by corporate entities with social, political, and business agendas. As such, it is critical that scholars understand and explicate the ideological underpinnings of played-through experiences and how they affect the player/performers who engage in them.
This book explores how people play and why their play matters, with a particular interest in how ludic experiences are often constructed and controlled by the interests of institutions, including corporations, non-profit organizations, government agencies, religious organizations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Each chapter explores diverse sites of play. From theme parks to comic conventions to massively-multiplayer online games, they probe what roles the designers of these experiences construct for players, and how such play might affect participants' identities and ideologies. Scholars of performance studies, leisure studies, media studies and sociology will find this book an essential reference when studying facets of play.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Play Matters
Matt Omasta & Drew Chappell 2. Warriors, Wizards, and Clerics: Heroric Identify Construction in Live Action Role Playing Games
Dani Snyder-Young 3.
Homo Ludens and the Sharks: Structuring Alternative Realities while Shark Cage Diving in South Africa
Michael Schwartz 4. Playfully Empowering: Stunt Runners and Momentary Performance
Terry Brino-Dean 5. The Future of Family Play at Epcot
John Newman 6. Mormons Think They Should Dance
Megan Sanborn Jones 7. All the Dungeon's a Stage: The Lived Experiences of Commercial BDSM Players
Danielle Szlawieniec-Haw 8. Cheering is Tied to Eating: Consumption and Excess in Immersive, Role-Specific Dinner Theatre Spaces
Drew Chappell 9. Becoming Batman: Cosplay, Performance, and Ludic Transformation at Comic-Con
Kane Anderson 10. Plaza Indonesia: Performing Modernity in a Shopping Mall
Jennifer Goodlander 11. Britpicking as Cultural Policing in Fanfiction
Erin Horáková 12. Dramatic Manipulations: Conflict, Empathy, and Identity in World of Warcraft
Kimi Johnson 13. Afterword:
Who are
You?
Matt Omasta & Drew Chappell
About the author
Matt Omasta is the Director of Theatre Education & Applied Theatre programs at Utah State University. His recent publications appear in
Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre & Performance; Youth Theatre Journal; The International Journal of Education and the Arts and
Theatre for Young Audiences Today.Drew Chappell is an interdisciplinary researcher whose articles appear in
Qualitative Inquiry,
Children's Literature in Education, and
Youth Theatre Journal. His edited volume
Children Under Construction: Critical Essays on Play as Curriculum was published by Peter Lang. Drew teaches theatre at Chapman University and California State University Fullerton.
Summary
This book explores how people play and why their play matters, with a particular interest in how ludic experiences are often constructed and controlled by the interests of institutions, including corporations, non-profit organizations, government agencies, religious organizations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Scholars of performanc
