Overview
In this book, Chloë Rae Edmonson analyzes performance sites from throughout U.S. history to reveal the material ways that drinking culture is performative, immersive performance is intoxicating, and how alcohol shapes performance space. Combining archival research with first-hand accounts of immersive spaces, this study demonstrates how social drinking and performance in themed spaces often collude to reify power dynamics latent to mainstream American culture, such as patriarchal values, racial and wealth inequality, and labor exploitation. Yet there are also examples of how performers, designers, and consumers creatively subvert such dominant attitudes in pursuit of their own creative expression and fulfilment.Part one examines historic bars and clubs that are immersive by design, while part two explores immersive theatre productions from the 1980s to today. At the heart of all these American examples, of course, is alcohol, its associated cultures of immersive consumption, and the wide range of influence it can have on the bodies and minds of participants. In addition to its pop cultural appeal, this study will be relevant to scholars and university students interested in immersive theatre and performance, drinking culture, and American Studies.
- | Author: Chloe Rae. Edmonson
- | Publisher: Routledge
- | Publication Date: Sep 04, 2023
- | Number of Pages: 176 pages
- | Language: English
- | Binding: Hardcover
- | ISBN-10: 1032266562
- | ISBN-13: 9781032266565
