The Art of Play: The New Genre of Interactive Theatre

The Art of Play is the first published guide to address this new and growing form of entertainment. Theme parks and Renaissance fairs are popping up all over the place, and the demand for a definition of Interactive Theatre, as well as a "how-to" guide to interactive improvisation, is rapidly growing. With The Art of Play, Gary Izzo fills the "how-to" void with a warm, insightful, and often amusing collection of examples, anecdotes, and annotated exercises designed to cover all aspects of interactive theatre, from concept through design and production.

Students of drama and the performing arts, teachers, theatre and media professionals will find the practicality of The Art of Play invaluable. The study of play and the benefits of its techniques in freeing the imagination will appeal to educators of children, as well as anyone looking for good techniques for creativity, communication, and positive interactions.

Gary Izzo pioneered the use of interactive theatre in Renaissance fairs and theme parks. he makes his home in Orlando, Florida.

Subtitled The New Genre of Interactive Theatre, this useful, informative book serves as an introduction and guidebook to the recently popularized style of theatre in which audience members take part in a semiscripted "occasion" (Tony 'n Tina's Wedding, Grandma Sylvia's Funeral, etc.) in which actors ad-lib many of their lines and audience members are drawn into the action. Mounted in churches, catering halls, and medieval fairs, these interactive theater events demand a range of new techniques and strategies for the author, director, and especially the actors. Izzo's carefully laid-out book offers plenty of nuts-and-bolts advice while telling the history of these techniques, many of which date back to commedia dell'arte and beyond.