The Essay-Can Theatre compete with other forms of media in the digital age?

I felt whilst researching into my essay subject and writting about the topic that for the first time on this virtuality and perfromance module that I really coonceted with the mater of Virtuality happening in theatres and its relevance to contemporary perfromances.

My question was 'Can Theatre compete with other forms of media in the digital age? Should it try? Discuss with reference to the work of contemporary theatre practitioners engaged with ‘intermedial’ work'.



My conclusion was that It is important to remember that drama is a multitude of form, thus plays an important part in the output of media as long as theatre decides to embrace technologies and multi-media practices within its work it should stand the test of time, theatre has to change with its era it is living in and this particular period of race is a high speed information dispersal world with a mesh of communication networks.

Within this essay I was allowed to explore futher into LIVENESS by philip Auslander who proclaims that 'live performance is identified with intimacy and disappearance, media with a mass audience, reproduction, and repetition'.

By seeing Complex which was a two piece perfromance of Electra which used multi-media and the oedipus, it gave me a real insight into theatre that uses multi-media to enhance the narractive and contribute to the overall stage picture and into a theatre production that used no effects and was JUST live perfromance. In all honestly having seen both i most defintely favoured Electra because the live feed images happening on the four television screens located downstage, left and right and centre stage left and right captured my attention as they kept changing colour from black and white to colour reflecting how television has advanced and creating a familiar but intimidating effect as it showed a slice of life and an overtly world view.