Gaming the Stage
Bloom, Gina,
Gaming the Stage Playable Media and the Rise of English Commercial Theater / Gina Bloom. - 1 online resource (xii, 276 pages) : color illustrations - Theater: theory/text/performance . - Theater--theory/text/performance. Book collections on Project MUSE. .
Issued as part of book collections on Project MUSE.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-265) and index.
Gaming history -- Cards : imperfect information and male friendship -- Backgammon : space and scopic dominance -- Chess : performative history and dynastic marriage.
Open Access
Rich connections between gaming and theater stretch back to the 16th and 17th centuries, when England's first commercial theaters appeared right next door to gaming houses and blood-sport arenas. In the first book-length exploration of gaming in the early modern period, Gina Bloom shows that theaters succeeded in London's new entertainment marketplace largely because watching a play and playing a game were similar experiences. Audiences did not just see a play; they were encouraged to play the play, and knowledge of gaming helped them become better theatergoers. Examining dramas written for these theaters alongside evidence of analog games popular then and today, Bloom argues for games as theatrical media and theater as an interactive gaming technology. Gaming the Stage also introduces a new archive for game studies: scenes of onstage gaming, which appear at climactic moments in dramatic literature. Bloom reveals plays to be systems of information for theater spectators: games of withholding, divulging, speculating, and wagering on knowledge. Her book breaks new ground through examinations of plays such as The Tempest, Arden of Faversham, A Woman Killed with Kindness, and A Game at Chess; the histories of familiar games such as cards, backgammon, and chess; less familiar ones, like Game of the Goose; and even a mixed-reality theater videogame.
9780472123919 0472123912
Games in the theater--History.--England
Theater--History--England--17th century.
Theater--History--England--16th century.
Electronic books.
Electronic books.
PN2590.G36 / B564 2018
Gaming the Stage Playable Media and the Rise of English Commercial Theater / Gina Bloom. - 1 online resource (xii, 276 pages) : color illustrations - Theater: theory/text/performance . - Theater--theory/text/performance. Book collections on Project MUSE. .
Issued as part of book collections on Project MUSE.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-265) and index.
Gaming history -- Cards : imperfect information and male friendship -- Backgammon : space and scopic dominance -- Chess : performative history and dynastic marriage.
Open Access
Rich connections between gaming and theater stretch back to the 16th and 17th centuries, when England's first commercial theaters appeared right next door to gaming houses and blood-sport arenas. In the first book-length exploration of gaming in the early modern period, Gina Bloom shows that theaters succeeded in London's new entertainment marketplace largely because watching a play and playing a game were similar experiences. Audiences did not just see a play; they were encouraged to play the play, and knowledge of gaming helped them become better theatergoers. Examining dramas written for these theaters alongside evidence of analog games popular then and today, Bloom argues for games as theatrical media and theater as an interactive gaming technology. Gaming the Stage also introduces a new archive for game studies: scenes of onstage gaming, which appear at climactic moments in dramatic literature. Bloom reveals plays to be systems of information for theater spectators: games of withholding, divulging, speculating, and wagering on knowledge. Her book breaks new ground through examinations of plays such as The Tempest, Arden of Faversham, A Woman Killed with Kindness, and A Game at Chess; the histories of familiar games such as cards, backgammon, and chess; less familiar ones, like Game of the Goose; and even a mixed-reality theater videogame.
9780472123919 0472123912
Games in the theater--History.--England
Theater--History--England--17th century.
Theater--History--England--16th century.
Electronic books.
Electronic books.
PN2590.G36 / B564 2018