Gaming the Stage
Book • 2018
In Gaming the Stage, Gina Bloom explores how the commercial theater of early modern England served as an early form of playable media by staging popular games.
She investigates how staged performances of card games, backgammon, and chess trained audiences to understand and engage with the theater.
The book examines plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, revealing how games shaped audience expectations and transformed spectator consumption into a mode of production.
By linking early modern theater with contemporary digital games, Bloom offers new insights into the history of media and the nature of interactive play.
Her analysis highlights the theater's role in teaching audiences how to interpret complex narratives and engage with staged representations.
She investigates how staged performances of card games, backgammon, and chess trained audiences to understand and engage with the theater.
The book examines plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, revealing how games shaped audience expectations and transformed spectator consumption into a mode of production.
By linking early modern theater with contemporary digital games, Bloom offers new insights into the history of media and the nature of interactive play.
Her analysis highlights the theater's role in teaching audiences how to interpret complex narratives and engage with staged representations.
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Discussed by Cameron Kunzelman and Michael Lutz , exploring the relationship between games and theater in the early modern era.
8 – Bloom – Gaming The Stage
