PLAYING A GAME

GAMING A PLAY
Sofia Kisteneva
With the guidance of
Mathew Staunton Ph. D.
École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs
PLAYING A GAME
GAMING A PLAY
Paris 2019

Sofia Kisteneva

With the guidance of

Mathew Staunton Ph. D.
INTRODUCTION
 A game such as chess is a habitable universe
for those who can follow it, a plane of
being, a cast of characters with a seemingly
unlimited number of different situations
and acts through which to realize their
natures and destinies 2

Six people are sitting around a dining table, still and

concentrated. It’s already midnight, the party started five
hours ago but those men and women have no intention of
leaving the table. One of the players, a bearded guy with
long hair, frowns and takes a big nervous gulp of coffee from
his scull-shaped mug. He looks around. “What would your
character do?” the voice comes from a lean man in his 30s,
The mental sphere from which the drama
wearing a cheap wizard hat. For some reason he is hiding
springs knows no distinction between play
behind a bent piece of cardboard set vertically on the table
and seriousness1
in front of him.

“A book can not be inherently good nor evil, it has no will in

itself and only the person who use it can channel its power.
By leaving the book in its place we choose to leave its magic
to the next traveler who reaches it. I’m taking the book” -
says the bearded guy in a deep trembling voice.

The man wearing the wizard hat rolls one of his shiny black
oddly shaped dice. For anyone around this table it’s obvious
that an action always causes consequences. In this magical
world of Dungeons and Dragons the consequences are not
limited by real world physics, or by the capacities of CGI in

1. Huizinga, Johan. 1950. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. Boston: Beacon Press. 2. Goffman, Erving. 1974. Frame Analysis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
6 7
 films, nor by the friendship these people probably share. to 7 players. One of the players takes the role of Dungeon
Anything can happen and the death of a character is not Master or DM. The DM’s role is to do everything that is not
always the worst-case scenario. done by the players themselves including: planning, creating
the game plot, narrating, playing all of the “non playable
Hamlet takes his sword and pierces a curtain. The character characters” the heroes meet on their way including monsters
he plays for the people around him is a ruthless madman and and, last but not least, deciding the consequences of players'
in this act he gains a relative freedom. He is no longer bound actions.
by his primary social role, and he can express his anger by
taking an immediate action. Shakespeare rolls natural 20 and Gene Doty, in his article on roleplaying games says:
Hamlet’s sword kills Polonius.
Roleplaying games require a referee who
How would your character react? What would your functions analogously to author of a
character do? Did Hamlet know who was hiding behind the fiction. The referee establishes the setting in
curtain? which the story curs, populates the setting
with humans and other creatures, and
The game of Dungeons and Dragons or D&D is a tabletop plays a role in the creation of the player-
game known by its hefty book of rules, cheap wizard hats characters. {...} The referee uses a game system
and bearded men in their 30s. It’s a classic nerd game of the that determines the features of the setting,
80s, recently gaining more and more popularity with a mass and his/her own imagination, knowledge of
audience. Part of this recent success can be attributed to history, geography, and literature provide
web series where Internet celebrities continue playing the the materials. The referee's sources parallel
same game on a weekly basis, creating a captivating saga that the kinds of sources that go into the "leaf-
can last for a year and longer, consisting at the final count of mould" that a writer uses in creating a
hundreds of hours of play. world.3

The rules of the game, in the shape of a pdf or a heavily Of course the aim of the game for the players’ characters is
decorated book are not only complicated to grasp in one go to survive, gain the experience, power and resources. But most
but also exist in several different editions and varieties. Let’s important aim of the game is for everyone to have fun.The
briefly go through the main principles of the game. Dungeons fun of discovery, the fun of embodying a different persona.
and Dragons is a tabletop roleplaying game adapted for 4 Each character, even the most stereotypical one is unique

3. Gene Doty, A Toss of the Dice: Writers, Readers, and Role-Playing Games,
8 Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Vol. 14, No. 1 (53) (Spring 2003), pp. 51-67, p. 51
9
 and the more time the player spends “in the game” the more handling of medieval weapons). Personas
a character’s personality, the survival, gain of experience and often belong to fantasy races—humanoid
power, become tools in the storyline progression. A good beings that have their own special “racial”
game is a game where each player is invested in and inspired traits (such as elves, dwarfs, half-orcs, and
by their character and story and the DM is eager to challenge halflings). Most important, participants
those characters in their beliefs and principals. play fantasy personas: they bestow symbolic
personas that are fashioned in the liminal
In their sociological study Role-Playing and Playing Roles: boundaries between interaction with other
The Person, Player and Persona in Fantasy Role-Playing, players during the course of the game and
Dennis Waskul and Matt Lust describe the basic principles fantasy action in a world of dragons,
of the game: goblins, valiant swordsmen, sagely wizards,
and epic medieval warfare. Although the
Clearly, fantasy role-playing games are thematic setting varies from one game
leisure activities that involve a unique system to the next, this liminal condition
form of play. “The game” is not competitive, is generic to all fantasy role-playing games
has no time limits, is not scored, and has and obligates participants to actively
no definitions of winning or losing. Unlike negotiate distinctions between persona,
card games, board games, games of chance, or player, and person4
organized sports, the point of fantasy role-
playing games is neither merely to play well While the classic D&D approach to the character creation
nor to “win.” Instead, the goals of the game can be quite problematic, since it falls in many ways into
are survival and character development: stereotypical descriptions of fantasy "races" the recent takes
participants create and play fantasy personas on the game are actively working with this subject. In this
that, if kept “alive,” increase and advance skills research I'm going to addres this problem further.
and abilities over the course of many often
lengthy gaming sessions. These personas fall The role of a DM, or a Dungeion Master is a key element to
into quasi-occupational classes (for example, understand the mechanics of the game. Gene Doty explains
barbarians, assassins, or wizards) who have the role of the DM - while being in control of the game the
expertise in specialized skills and abilities DM is there purely to make the players' experience as good
(such as spell-casting, pickpocketing, or the as it can be:

4. Role-Playing and Playing Roles: The Person, Player, and Persona in Fantasy Role-Playing Dennis Waskul and Matt Lust Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 27, No.
10 3 (Summer 2004), pp. 333-356, p.356
11
 or even help the character in the way the NPC understands
[The dungeon master] can be surprised “help”. But by “befriending” an enemy the player must know
by the choices made by players and by the that it’s still possible for their PC friends to be discovered
outcome of actions as determined by and attacked, and through mindless chat it’s easy to reveal
dice rolls; third the referee necessarily the secret information that will be used against them later,
improvises and participates in the unfolding or to say something triggering that would make the enemy
of the encounter5 NPC fall out of charm and attack or call for reinforcements.

There are several possible approaches to playing the game. Frans Mäyrä in the article Dialogue and Interaction in Role-
Some will tell you that Dungeons and Dragons is a game Playing Games: Playful Communication as Ludic Culture
developed strictly as a war game and the only way you can
play is by focusing on killing monsters, gaining experience It was in the “Threefold Model” document
and becoming more and more powerful through level-ups that was compiled as the summary of the
and accumulating treasure and magical items. But if this is discussion where three basic goals for
the one and only way to play this game why would there be role-playing were identified: Drama, Game
all the possibilities of various in-game social interactions, and Simulation. The model reduces the ways
vivid descriptions of set, tragic character backgrounds, in which players negotiate the different
history of war and politics between tribes, cities and races, layers of role-playing situation into three
stories of love and death? A simple proof that the game is fundamentally different interpretations
much more complex than a linear computer-based RPG is about goals of RPGs, which in its turn gives
the presence of “charisma” status in the game. A character birth to different playing styles that are
with a good charisma level is able to negotiate, charm and win then agreed upon by the gaming group in
the alliance of any non-playable character of even a monster their (sometimes explicit but most often
in the game. But this power is not limited to good dice rolls, implicit) “game contract.”
they will not will not guarantee the success; the player must
think through and decide what exactly to say to make the A ‘dramatist’ playing style “is the style
situation stable. For example if the charismatic character which values how well the in-game action
is being caught on the spot while hiding or sneaking, its creates a satisfying storyline”,
possible for the player to roll a good number and charm the
NPC so they won’t attack immediately, or won’t attack at all, a ‘gamist’ playing style emphasises the role

5. Role-Playing and Playing Roles: The Person, Player, and Persona in Fantasy Role-Playing Dennis Waskul and Matt Lust Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 27,
12 No. 3 (Summer 2004), pp. 333-356, p.356
13
 of challenges and fair ways of solving them, Why did I decide to research this combination of D&D, a
tabletop game with dragons designed for nerds in the 80s
whereas ‘simulationist’ style values above and theater, a serious cultural and political establishment?
all the internal consistency of the diegetic What am I trying to achieve and how can it be relevant and
game world, and emphasises that in-game useful in this day and age?
events should be influenced only by “game-
world considerations” (ibid.). As a person from Russia I have to a certain degree
experienced the culture of Russian theater as well as the
Comparing the three alternatives to the theatricality of Russian culture. Of course I have no right to
RPG frames Fine had identified, it could be proclaim that I, as an individual, understand the nature of the
said that for one faction of players, a role- integrity of Russian culture, but I know some things about
playing event is primarily organised in order drama and the hardship of Russian life, several clues about
to the participating (real) people to have how the climate and specific characteristics of language are
fun and entertaining social interaction contributing to many ways Russians suffer and communicate
together (‘dramatists’), the second group is the suffering into the world. One of the ways Russian people
participating to play a game, to solve a puzzle allow themselves to communicate personal suffering is
and master the rule-based game system through the cathartic co-living of drama in theater. Theater
(‘gamists’), and the third group perceives the is extremely important in the national culture in many ways
character frame and the in-game fantasy functions as a church. Due to the Soviet regime every city,
world as the main priority (‘simulationists’). even the smallest one has an establishment called “home
It should be noted that the playing styles of culture” and a theater. Home of culture is a place where
do not necessarily define the player: it is children and adults can take drama, music, dance, and
perfectly possible to prefer one style in art classes. The popularity of those establishments has
the context of one game, and change the decreased quite a lot since the fall of the Soviet Union but
preference while moving to another playing not because of lack of interest but rather because of the
context6 appearance of small private “circles” and schools of dance
music and art. In 2016, according to official statistics on
In this research I will mostly focus on “dramatist” and cultural events and establishments the number of registered
“simulationist” approaches since those are much more theaters was 651, 2 887 newly set plays and 38 880 000
relevant to acting and set. people visiting7. Regularly visiting a theater play is rarely

6. Frans Mäyrä, Dialogue and Interaction in Role-Playing Games: Playful Communication as Ludic Culture, Jarmila Mildorf and Bronwen Thomas (Eds.), 7. https://stat.mkrf.ru/upload/statdoc/20180116.pdf
14 Dialogue across Media. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins (2017), pp. 271-290., p.174
15
 perceived as entertainment but rather a mental exercise workshop organized in the Centre Nationale de la Dance.
and an enriching cultural activity much closer to visiting I chose a class given by Sylvie Fortin, a Canadian choreographer
a museum than a cinema. Attending a theater play, even a and a writer. The practical part of her class was based on the
comedic one is mostly perceived as a serious event. Feldenkrais method but at some point she presented her
research on choreography and the social structure of artistic
With the wide popularity of theater culture, theater-related creation in the world of dance. I never thought about how
professions are not seen as stable and serious. Women in a dancer and their personality rarely become a part of the
theater are rarely in high positions and the most accepted creative process. This reflection made me realize how the
career for a woman in theater is being an actress. At the same performing world is mainly constructed around stars and
time with widely spread misogynistic approaches in media and people holding executive power with rare attempts to break
performance-based arts more than anywhere else it’s harder the system or exit the vicious circle.
to be accepted in acting schools if you don’t correspond to
media-promoted beauty standards. So to be employed as A theater creation, even the most minimalistic or humble,
actress becomes harder and harder as women age. In many holds so many elements, depends on many people and
ways the binary structure of the film and theater system is is easy to mess up by one person not being there at the
either being seen as a “genius” or remaining “unknown” and right moment. That naturally implies a strict discipline and
puts a lot of pressure on actors, in many ways dehumanizing hierarchy. Dungeons and Dragons is a game with a giant book
them. In public opinion a “genius”, an actor or a director is of rules, a mathematical calculation element and a Dungeon
someone who is visionary, eccentric and somewhat unstable. Master, a person who literally creates the game world.
They can be excused for almost any harmful actions because Nevertheless, while players are advancing in the storytelling,
of the inhuman nature of their genius. A director who is character development, acting, improvisation and analysis
perceived by the public eye as a genius has the right to they are also being entertained in friendly atmosphere. In
be abusive with his actors, who without the “genius” label many cases a good game session works as therapy, helping
becoming just a pliable material for the “genius” to produce people to get through life with depression, anxiety and
“high art”. trauma. I think there’s something we can learn from the game
and bring this knowledge to the theater.
The french culture of theater creation in all the broadness
of the term made me question my acceptance of rigid This research is going to consist of three parts. In the first
hierarchies as the only way to organize a group of people. one I’m going to analyze the character construction, and
In 2017 I was lucky enough to participate in a choreography focus mostly on the player’s part of the game. This part will

16 17
 also include interviews of the players I know to discover their
personal gaming experience. In the second part I’m going
to explore the problems that may occur in theater creation
and two different theater systems – by Judith Malina and
Konstantin Stanislavski. In the third one I’m going to address
the construction of narrative through setting and set in the
game, and thinking on how game methods can advance the
set design. I can consider this research a success if with time
its can be helpful in any way to someone practicing theater
creation.

The subject of tabletop roleplaying games is quite well

studied by younger generations of scholars who move
forward general game studies like Huizinga’s. Homo Ludens:
A Study of the Play Element in Culture. Nonetheless the
subject of tabletop roleplaying games has not yet been seen
as a possibly helpful for theater creators.

18 19
1. PLAYING
 Creating a character is one of the first and most important
things to do for players to prepare for the game. Each player
has the liberty to create their unique character to embody
and roleplay through the duration of the game (or rather
while the character stays alive). There are several possible
ways to start and one of them, the most classic is by rolling
six times a 20-sided die or d20.

The website called Instructables describes the first steps

of character creation in the following manner:

Roll your ability scores. You have 6 Ability

scores to roll for: Strength, Dexterity,
Constitution, Charisma, Intellect, and
Wisdom. You can either roll 4 6-sided die
and record the cumulative total of the
highest 3 dice 6 times or take the “standard
set” which is 15,14,13,12,10,8. You do not need
to assign these scores yet, but you can if you
want to8

Each roll will either be strictly attributed to one of the

abilities or you can get your rolls and than redistribute them
according to your preference in characters in general, or, if
you are more of an experienced player, according to your
preferred or planned game play.

8. https://www.instructables.com/id/DD-5E-Character-Creation/
22 23
 Here is how Dennis Waskul and Matt Lust describe the
character creation possibility of the game:

Participants create fantasy personas

from basic attributes generated by random
dice rolls that players interpret by
assigning their personas varying levels of
strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity,
constitution, and charisma—allowing them
to create imaginary personal characteristics
that are best suited for the kind of fantasy
persona they would like to play. A player who
intends to develop a wizard or illusionist
needs a persona with great intelligence and
wisdom, thieves and assassins need dexterity
and charisma10

In the game your abilities and your "profession", or class are

connected. Normally you want to choose a class that goes
well with the abilities of your characters, but as anything else
in the game this rule is not strict.

There are many ways to make this part easier for less
experienced players: you can take a preexisting character,
you can take a set of stats and develop the character’s
personality based on their strengths and weaknesses or take
a character from fiction or even real life media. More creative
or experienced players take joy in crafting the character of
their liking without the need to adapt pre-existing elements
directly.

10. Role-Playing and Playing Roles: The Person, Player, and Persona in Fantasy Role-Playing Dennis Waskul and Matt Lust Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 27,
24 No. 3 (Summer 2004), pp. 333-356, p.341
25
 CREATING HAMLET
It’s extremely interesting to see how thinking in numbers
changes the approach to a character in general. This method
can easily be applied to analyze existing characters and their
actions in fictions. Let’s take the most clichés and classic
theater play – Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Taking for example
Hamlet himself let’s construct his character as if he was
played in tabletop roleplaying game. He’s not known for his
strength or constitution, as he is described being “far from
Hercules”:

My father's brother, but no more like my father

Than I to Hercules: [...]

But he’s quick enough to kill Polonius hiding behind a

curtain and participate in a long duel, which means his
dexterity is on a good level.

Let’s take a classic interpretation of the character and say

that Hamlet pretends to be mentally unstable through the
whole play with success. This action relies on Charisma, and
his intellect and wisdom allow him to turn around the events
of an existing play (The Murder of Gonzago) to prove his
uncle guilty.

26 27
 Hamlet, Prince of Another element quite prominent in classic D&D play
is so called alignment. You decide if the character you are
Denmark going to play is going to be “good” “neutral” or “evil”. “The
original version of D&D allowed players to choose among
three alignments when creating a character: lawful, implying
Human honor and respect for society's rules; chaotic, implying
Strength 10 rebelliousness and individualism; and neutral, seeking a
Dexterity 13 balance between the extremes.
Constitution 8
Charisma 15 Wikipedia page of Dungeons and Dragons mentions
Intellect 14 alignements in the following manner: The 1977 release
Wisdom 12 of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set
introduced a second axis of good, implying
altruism and respect for life, vs evil, implying
selfishness and no respect for life. As with
the law-vs-chaos axis, a neutral position
exists between the extremes. Characters and
creatures could be lawful and evil at the
same time (such as a tyrant), or chaotic but
good (such as Robin Hood)11

As pretty much everything else in the building of this game

the alignment can be interpreted strictly, vaguely or just
not used at all. Some DMs, like Matt Colville, are
advising against the use of alignement, saying that it either
limits the players' choises, serving as an excuse for illogical
actions or being ignored alltogether. But if you stick to the
system, the haracters can also go through traumatic or healing
events and change the alignment, which adds an extremely
personal and psychological level to the game.

11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignment_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)
28 29
 Let’s imagine Hamlet’s strategy as if he was a playable
character: Hamlet knows what happened because of his
father’s ghost appearing before his eyes. In Hamlet’s mind
it’s credible but can’t be a legitimate proof of what’s been
done by others. He can’t directly attack the king and kill
him to revenge his father because the fact of the crime is
not yet proven. If Hamlet reveals what he knows directly
the king will try to protect himself and Hamlet might not
be able to unravel the crime or avvenge it. Hamlet is
imitating being mentally ill for anyone who can be on the
side of the current king. He orders the actors to perform
a play that will show his uncle’s deed, the strategy works
well, Claudius fails a critical hit and his proves him guilty.
Hamlet is a highly charismatic character whose aim is to
avenge his father’s death while being surrounded
by the supporters of his enemy. He needs to avoid being
killed, sent away, discovered or imprisoned until the truth is
revealed and his father’s death is avenged. Hamlet is highly
melancholic and his will to live is fragile and
based only on necessity to reveal the truth and find
justice. His way of achieving the goal is by questioning
the situation and adding the elements of chaos into
it. He is not inherently kind or good, even toward people
he loves and cares about. But nether deos he seek extreme
power or wealth. His alignment is Chaotic Neutral.
His most powerful statistic is Charisma.

30 31
 Let’s now imagine Hamlet being a Lawful Evil character. the true grandeur of his father who is not only wise but also
Hamlet’s father was a tyrant who chose to marry Gertrude has pity on those who betrayed him. When Hamlet is being
just to show his power to his brother who was in love with sent to England he continues to heavily hallucinate and
her since early age. Being the older son, future king and an writes a letter to the English king ordering to kill him. When
extremely scary man, Gertrude doesn’t have a choice but to the hallucination is over he finds the letter, which again
obey. Obsessed by eternal life, king Hamlet is educating his confirms his theories, he changes it to get rid of his friends
son as if he was his own copy, preparing him for the future who he also sees guilty of collusion. In the end duel scene,
regiment. While young Hamlet is away the King dies from Claudius does try to poison Hamlet because he knows that
natural causes. Young Hamlet turns back to the court and he is able and probably will kill everyone including the love
sees his mother reunited with her one true love, Hamlet’s of his life, Gertrude.
uncle. He is furious; in his eyes it’s not only treason of the
one true King but also a threat to the throne he needs to take
after his father’s death. Hamlet plans revenge but he knows
that people of the kingdom must be on his side to truly be
able to rule afterwards. Hamlet paints his face and body with
lead paint and goes out to tell people that he is his father’s
ghost and that his murder must be avenged.

At first everything goes according to the plan but one

night the regular intake of lead makes Hamlet hallucinate.
He actually sees his father’s ghost who proves that Hamlet’s
rumor is true which makes him firmly believe his own
invention. Due to childhood trauma and reinforced by the
visions Hamlet continues to dress up as his father at night
which makes his mental state even worse. Ophelia sees
him putting on the armor and makeup at night once and
understands that no one can protect her from Hamlet and
she is scared of what he is capable of. Hamlet wants to attack
his mother but he is interrupted by a vision of his father who
stops him from hurting her. In Hamlet’s eyes it just confirms

32 33
 Shifting the alignment of a character that is traditionally seen on a patients suffering with depression and anxiety. In this
in one way is an extremely interesting tool to unravel the new paper he defines several main types of character creation in
ways of interpreting the plot of even the most known plays. correlation to personality:
In 2018 I had the honor to see Carmelo Agnello’s workshop
for young opera singers who tried to understand why the • CHARACTERS AS PLAYERS typify a class
way they sung was not working. His method consisted of of gamer who, in effect, play their own
suggesting directions of movement by imagining big curves personalities - “Themselves with weapons on”
in the air. It made the performers realize the scale, find the as one interviewee described them. Typically,
“aim” and work with the full body. At the same time if I had such players are young and/or beginners,
the opportunity I would add the questioning of alignment and so set competitive goals for themselves,
for the character, and some exercises to understand whom wanting to “win” and willing to sacrifice
exactly you are trying to play. character consistency in order to do so.
• Those who invest their characters
Dungeons and Dragons is a game that operates in the with meaning, CHARACTERS AS SYMBOLS, can
world of post-Tolkien medievalism. There is no need to try be typified into two possible types, aesthetic
to create a character that is completely alien to the universe and personal symbols. These categories are
and free of medievalist tropes even if it is always an option. not necessarily contradictory.
Let’s say one of the players wants to “break the rules” and go • Some characters are created simply
for a contemporary character that is transported to magical for creative effect as AESTHETIC SYMBOLS.
medieval setting. Interestingly enough it’s not only possible Such characters may be humorous, wistful,
in the game but it’s also a well-known and used topos of dramatic, a parody of a literary or film
the magical medieval universe. Starting with Mark Twain’s character, or simply possess a good deal
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, clashing of savoir faire appropriate to the gaming
contemporary a character with a medieval world is a way to milieu. If such characters do take on aspects
see technology and science as magic. of their creator’s personality, they are not
consciously manipulated.
Character creation is one of many artistic possibilities of
the game that deeply connects the player’s personality to
the story. John Huhges in 1988, did wonderful research in
psycology on the subject of healing properties of roleplay

34 35
 PERSONAL SYMBOLS the particular skills or characteristics
bring success. Such identifications may
fall into three broad categories. It is extent into the ideological realm, for as
possible for a single character to combine one interviewee explained:
elements from all three categories. “I always play rational characters because
I’m a rationalist”.
• COGNITIVE SYMBOLS (Jamie).
are in effect symbols of opposition, for they
are created by players to explore some aspect • COMPENSATING SYMBOLS
of personality that they themselves do not are characters created to explore a
possess. Such characters are answers to the characteristic or skill that the player
question “How does a royalist/ anarchist/ believes they do not possess. “Jack”, the
man/ woman/ elf/ blind dwarf/ alien/ character created by MalorI in the case study
minor god think, feel and act?” They are which comprises Part Two of this essay, is a
constructed as exercises in empathy, posited compensating symbol par excellence. Such
around perceived oppositions to the players characters are attempts by players to “round
own concept of selfhood. up” their own personalities into something
The final categories that I have typified more accomplished and balanced. Thus, shy
both are conscious manipulations of a players attempt to play forward, confident
player’s perception of self. characters, cerebral bookworms create bare
chested barbarians, impatient players create
• EXAGGERATED SYMBOLS silent, meditative monks etc12
are characters created to amplify
characteristics or skills that the players At this point of game development you can choose to
believe they possess. Thus, intelligent players “become” whoever you like, you don’t have “the assigned
create genius characters, sports-minded character” as you would in theater. There is no need to
people create super athletes etc. Such be “realistic” in the way you role play, you can go over the
characters are a way of building up a players top, get to ultimate levels of kitsch and still have a deep
self affirmation, for such characters are a psychological experience through traumatic and cathartic
source of uplifting emotional feedback when events in storyline. It can be a good exercise to see how in

12. Hughes, John (1988). Therapy is Fantasy: Roleplaying, Healing and the Construction of Symbolic Order. Paper presented in Anthropology IV Honours,
36 Medical Anthropology Seminar, Dr. Margo Lyon, Dept. of Prehistory & Anthropology, Australian National University
37
 relation to those categories actor can analyze an attributed sphere of activity that is segregated from
role and find out the relationship between “yourself” as a the normal strictures of life; activities
character with certain characteristics and the character that most people engage when not preoccupied
you are playing. Depending on that correlation you can see with routine involvements that otherwise
certain points of the storyline that are harder for you to relate describe mundane life. Consequently, these
to and try to find a solution using some ideas and exercises I kinds of activities are “outside and above
will suggest later in this research. the necessities and seriousness of everyday
life”. Like most hobbies or leisure activities,
The roleplaying games are mostly seen as childish hobbies, fantasy roleplaying “is essentially a separate
since people are mostly playing those to have fun and escape occupation, carefully isolated from the
the mundane reality. While we can say that for an actor rest of life, and generally is engaged in with
pretending to be someone else is a serious activity, its never precise limits of time and place”13
seen as such when we talk about games. Dennis Waskul and
Matt Lust tend to separate roleplaying games from everyday At the same time for Waskul and Lust the realm of roleplay
life: becomes real in the social situation of the game:

[…] in these gaming sessions, each “player- In role-playing games each participant
character” is also a person. Participants in is the fantasy persona he or she plays—a
fantasy role-playing games are not only brutal barbarian, a mystical illusionist,
personas and players; they may also be called a sly gnome. “For the game to work as an
students, employees, adolescents, adults, aesthetic experience players must be willing
spouses, parents, and a wide variety of other to ‘bracket’ their ‘natural’ selves and enact
statuses they occupy and roles they play a fantasy self. They must lose themselves to
in everyday life. As Fine (1983) has detailed, the game” (Fine 1983:4). Role-playing games
sometimes these other self-investments are “not ‘ordinary’ or ‘real’ life. It is rather
can interfere with role-playing games and a stepping out of ‘real’ life into a temporary
vice versa. However, for the most part, sphere of activity with a disposition all of
role-playing games are fantasy adventures its own” (Huizinga 1950:8). However, since
or activity enclaves. They are hobbies—a fantasy personas are played—not merely
form of recreational leisure—a distinct generated by rules and dice—make-believe

13. Role-Playing and Playing Roles: The Person, Player, and Persona in Fantasy Role-Playing Dennis Waskul and Matt Lust Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 27,
38 No. 3 (Summer 2004), pp. 333-356, p.337
39
 remains influenced by the same symbolic A participant in role-playing games is also
processes that mediate non-fantasy public a player; the gamer who plays the imaginary
personas. In other words, role-playing games persona. As a player, each participant must
are played with others who come to know know and understand the rules of the game
fantasy personas (their own and others) on that function as organizational guidelines
the basis of a collective history of real and for action and interaction. Players must
fictitious action and interaction14 know which dice to roll in what situation,
which rulebook to consult in what
The separation of the person's knowledge, the player's circumstance, and how to manipulate a
knowledge and the characters knowledge is one of the vast system of practical gaming knowledge
characteristic traits of roleplaying games . that specifies what a fantasy persona can
and cannot do, when, where, and how.
Six people around the table are waiting in silence. One Successful and satisfying games involve
of them, a player, is in a state of deep concentration. “What players who not only role-play but also
would your character do?” – Asks the dungeon master. The possess proficiency in the complex rules. A
question is always the same but in the context of the game participant in these games must not only
it sounds new and shocking every time. The player, let’s call play the role of a fantasy persona, but the
them Emily, doesn’t know what to do. The in-game situation player as well15
is difficult, ambiguous; any decision will be followed with
inevitable consequences that will affect the whole narrative The game is happening strictly in the narrative plane. The
of the game. Emily, herself would do one thing that’s based storytelling started and maintained by the DM is navigating
on her real-life morals and understanding of good and evil. around personal character’s stories and previous game
As a player, Emily, with 5 years of player experience in similar experiences to maintain the interest of the players:
games would do a different thing, something that in her
player experience would make sense, would save the One of the underlying assumptions of
in-game situation and move the group forward. But what narrative theory—both in its structuralist
would her character do? and in its post structuralist phase—is that
readers’ interest in narrative is sparked and
Wskul and Lust define the role of the player as someobe sustained by the temporal dynamic that
who is separate from the person: weaves together a set of events16

14. Role-Playing and Playing Roles: The Person, Player, and Persona in Fantasy Role-Playing Dennis Waskul and Matt Lust Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 27, 15. Role-Playing and Playing Roles: The Person, Player, and Persona in Fantasy Role-Playing Dennis Waskul and Matt Lust Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 27,
40 No. 3 (Summer 2004), pp. 333-356, p.337 No. 3 (Summer 2004), pp. 333-356, p.337
41
16. Marco Caracciolo, Narrative Space and Readers’ Responses to Stories:

A Phenomenological Account, Style, Vol. 47, No. 4, Narrative, Social Neuroscience, Plus Essays on Hecht's Poetry,Hardy's Fiction, and Kathy Acker

(Winter 2013), pp. 425-444, p. 425

 Gene Doty in A Toss of the Dice: Writers, Readers, and or action on stage:
Role-Playing Games article compares the stages of reading
with the stages of roleplaying tabletop. The first step is the Adoption of an efferent or aesthetic
introduction and primary interest in the story, in some ways stance: This distinction essentially refers to
similar to first steps of semiotic analysis. In the theater this reading that is purely practical in purpose,
step is happening in the first gestalt perception of the set, such as reading a set of instructions
lighting or the actors if they are already on stage before the ("efferent reading"), and reading which
actual start of the play: seeks artistic pleasure ("aesthetic reading").
Generally, players may have both purposes.
Response to cues: Role-players respond Most of a player's actions are efferent as the
to cues given them by the referee as the player seeks to win a combat, solve a problem,
referee describes the setting and actions or convince another character. Insofar as
occurring and plays the role of various their motivations are efferent, role-players
NPC's. The cues include maps and sketches are more like characters in a novel than
drawn by the referee, nonverbal cues such as readers of it. As player-characters, they are
chuckles or headshakes, elements of "code" immersed in the fantasy world and seek to
(the parameters and tone of the particular achieve ends defined by themselves or the
gaming system), and the other players' verbal referee. Players can, however, have aesthetic
and nonverbal communications. The players motives, as will be seen lateribid
use other information to interpret these
cues - previous game experiences, knowledge The next step is basically immersion into the narrative and
of the game system, and general knowledge depending on each players’ or spectators’ personal approach
of humans and the world17 to the game/play as the session progresses:

The next step is defining your own interest in the story. Development of a tentative framework:
For the game the involvement in the process can be much Both player and reader assemble an
more active and some players heavily prefer the game where understanding of the world as the reading
they try to see the limits of the possible in a mad or the game progresses. This framework
scientist kind of way. In theater this step can be processed is tentative because the reader or player
through active liking or disliking elements of the set, actors receives new information as the text or game

17. Gene Doty, A Toss of the Dice: Writers, Readers, and Role-Playing Games,
42 Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Vol. 14, No. 1 (53) (Spring 2003), pp. 51-67, p. 52-53
43
 progresses; the new information provides
feedback that alters or reinforces the
emerging framework of understandingibid We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric
school. Well, we can do you blood and
The next step is theories and concepts of what’s going love without the rhetoric, and we can do
to happen next in a story line or in the game in general, you blood and rhetoric without the love,
the involvement is on maximum level, players’/spectators’ and we can do you all three concurrent
experience intrigue and suspense: or consecutive. But we can't give you love
and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is
Arousal of expectations and fulfillment, compulsory. They're all blood, you see.
reinforcement, of frustration of
expectations: Just as the reader forms The end part, the final synthesis is the same for tabletop
hypotheses and expectations, so does the roleplaying game and creative writing narrative:
role-player. Both reader and role-player
test their hypotheses against further Final synthesis: When the novel ends, if the
developments of the story in which they’re act of reading has been successful, the story
immersed. As the hypotheses are tested, becomes a whole for the reader, expectations
players and readers reformulate them to are resolved, and a sense of completion is
account for new informationibid reached. When a group of gamers completes
a scenario, there is a similar sense of
The arc or the game is being resolved and the difference completion. The purpose of the adventure
between reading a book, being in theater and playing a may have been achieved (or not), but the
tabletop roleplaying game is in a psychological analysis of players have done all they can. Some of the
the players and the story by the DM that allows to change player characters may not have survived the
the story, the mystery or the outcome to satisfy player’s scenario. But they know the outcomes of
needs. It’s interesting how in the tradition of the street their specific decisions and of the ensemble
theater the action can be changed and adapted following the of their decisions. In retrospect, they and
reaction of the public. Like in Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and we can view their experience of the scenario
Guildenstern are dead the actors are letting the characters as a whole18
choose between love blood and rhetoric:

18. Gene Doty, A Toss of the Dice: Writers, Readers, and Role-Playing Games,
44 Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Vol. 14, No. 1 (53) (Spring 2003), pp. 51-67, p. 52-53
45
 The outcome of the story depends fully on the actions of
the players, but the ending satisfaction comes with a good
psychology and narrative skills of the DM.

Creating a character for the game is one of my personal

favourite parts of the game. It feels fun and exiting, you also
analyze how you would like to play this particular game and
how other in your group like to play. Thinking through the
ways a character functions and how can you make their story
captivating is a question shared between tabletop roleplaying
players, writers, actors and directors. The difference in the
approach is only a player aims to have fun.

In the next part I'm going to analyze the intrviews of three

experienced players I personally know, to see how the game
may affect the players.

46 47
 I decided to ask some of my friends aged 26 to 33 who play
table top roleplaying games regularly in independent groups
to answer some questions on their experience.
I wanted to know what affects them the most in the game
and how the game influences their emotions, acting and real
life experiences.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
- Do you have any extremely memorable moments
while playing tabletop roleplaying games? Which feelings do
you remember the most vividly (scenery, sensory imagination,
sense of empowerment, fear, catharsis…)
- Do you have an experience of playing while tired, in
a bad mood, sad or any other way emotionally unstable? Did
the game help you to improve your state of mind?
- Do you think you feel more comfortable acting out
your character through the game? Did you feel awkward
roleplaying when starting your first sessions of tabletop
roleplaying games?
- Do you feel that your experience in roleplaying games
would help if you wanted to do theater? (Is your role-play
experience helping improve your acting/directing)
- Have you ever tried to “gamify” casual life tasks and
experiences? (For example formal phone calls as npc quest
interactions)

48 49
 Do you have any extremely memorable moments while a compensating symbol.
playing tabletop roleplaying games? Which feelings do you
remember the most vividly? (scenery, sensory imagination, A: More recently, I played a regular table of Shadowrun
sense of empowerment, fear, catharsis...) for about a year, with at least 2 games a month, each game
session being at the very least from 1pm to 8pm. Both the
A: I have some extremely memorable moments of rpg. universe and story were really dark and gritty, and the dm
The oldest one is the first time I actually played, I was about had decades of experience and was really good at making
10 years old, it was at a friends bday party, and his parents had us forget we were just gaming. There were a lot of moral
hired a teenager to be the dungeon master of a quick game. choices, very hard ones, and our characters had to make calls
I was the only girl and the boys were not specifically mean that kept the gamers up at night. It was all super intense,
to me but clearly saw me as "alien", "other" and obviously to the point where we always took some time all together
weaker than them, which was irritating me. I chose to play after a game to "get back to reality", as we had a kind of
a rogue assassin, and at the end we were all facing a huge emotional "descent" back to the norm. The last game is one
monster and the fight was really tough, and our fighter got I will forever remember, and even years later we still talk
knocked down, it seemed like we were about to die and I about it when I see the others players or the DM! It was the
made a very dangerous move to try to finish the monster off, most intense game I ever played, to make this "last assault"
gambling with the DM stg [swear to God] like "I kill it or I feel different and more epic than our usual games, the DM
die trying" and actually crit and saved the whole party. After chose to make it diceless, so it was even more narrative and
that the boys treated me like an actual person. It felt super all about the ambience. I won't tell tale the whole Game but
empowering in the moment, and also the consequences we all basically spent 7 hours forgetting we were not actually
afterward, as I spent a happy afternoon and made friends our characters and saved the world, even though it wasn't
instead of feeling lonely amongst them. the same afterward. I even have "sensory memories" of it
that can't be real as we were safely inside around the table
Sofia: Let’s note how at first young A felt alienated and but it felt so real, and I know at least 2 of the other players
weak in comparaison to the group and how the in-game experienced these too. About this Shadowrun campaign, it
experience helped her to feel stronger. A choose a rogue is one of my best experiences in rpg, but also it was hard
assassin character, who is cunning, dangerous and powerful sometimes.
to go against toxic masculinity vibes of boys surrounding her.
Through successful violence in the game her status in the Sofia: Most of the players, DM and scholars are agreeing
group grew to 'actual person' and a 'friend'. A’s character was on the highest importance of the immersion for the game.

50 51
 This type of socially shared active immersion is incredibly his character's background) to celebrate a recent quest the
unique; no game, book, film or theater play can't emulate the group had succeeded in. There was a feeling of enchantment
combination of freely constructed narrative, improvisation there that was breath-taking - the notion that the boundary
and realness while staying socially active. Sensory memories between worlds was actually broken, that Imagination was
is a quite common thing you can find in reading, and this will given a physical shape, a tangible power.
be addressed in the third chapter of this research.
Sofia: A Dungeon master sadly has a less chance to feel
B: The moments I remember the most are either the the same level of immersion as the players, this is why a
atmosphere of a scene/environment that was depicted very theater director might benefit immensely from changing the
vividly by the GM [Game Master = DM] (which most of the role and playing rather than DMing.
time comes with a sense of awe or dread, depending on the
situation), or the moments where the story took a decisive Do you have an experience of playing while tired, in a bad
turn solely based on the roleplay interactions between the mood, sad or any other way emotionally unstable? Did the
players/a player and an NPC (which feels very personally game help you to improve your state of mind?
intense and engrossing, because of the power that our
simple words hold in those moments). A: For the second question, about playing sad or in a bad
mood. I suffer from depression, and the game was so intense
Sofia: In the third part of this research I will talk about that it always impacted my actual feelings, at least a bit, even
relationship between in-game atmosphere and set design if I was conscious of it and could obviously tell and mostly
and how playing a short session can help improve set control it. But some games were really very angsty. The story
designer’s work experience. may be about a team of runners, but the DM also made a
big effort to address every single detail of our characters
C: I have few striking memories as a player due to the fact background and made arcs about their choices and regrets
I've been GMing most of my life and play very little. As a and why and they arrived there... In a year of gaming we
GM though I've had some memorable moments, usually tackled subjects from grief and depression to abandonment
due to the satisfaction of feelings players engage with issues, disablement, PTSD and lots if diff kinds of trauma...
the universe and tales proposed to them. My fondest and It was not that rare an occurrence of players actually crying
most striking memory is when a player of mine, who plays during the game. It was really really intense. But because of
music professionally, composed an in-character and in- my depression I had to miss some games because I knew I
lore song (following the cultural traditions and modes of wouldn't be able to dissociate enough from my character to

52 53
 feel ok. It happened twice in the year I think, and I talked reason before starting a game : it generally went away as soon
about it with the DM and he really tried to take it into as we got into it. On the flipside, I could get into a bad mood
account. I told you we took time after a game to "get back to if the conditions of a game weren't great and prevented me
emotional stability" all together, but once I had to go earlier from getting immersed; if I'm not on the same wavelength
than usual and skipped it And it was awful, I felt really angsty as the GM/the other players and had much different roleplay
and like I was "in between". I was at the edge of having a expectations than they did, for example.
panic attack all night and was unable to rest. BUT it was
very few times. Usually the games actually helped me gain Sofia: Discussing the roleplay expectations and personal
confidence (or at least fake it till I make it) on a daily basis. approach is an extremely important thing that should
Most games also usually improve my mood a lot, because be done before the start of the game. In roleplaying the
they leave me feeling like I did significant things, and also scenario, while being prepared before each session can
I really love the connection you can experience with other turn in an unpredictable way which means possibly turning
players while discussing your character's interactions and hilarious or extremely dark. In theater, working with an
pov [point of view]... already written play can allow the same type of discussion to
happen beforehand allowing everyone to see the full picture
Sofia: Being an amazingly powerful thing the sense of the play and characters more clearly.
immersion can trigger anxiety and PTSD, as well as being a
wonderful tool to heal and exchange feelings in a friendly C: I have frequently played while in emotionally altered
atmosphere. Two articles I used to do this research are or weighty states of mind, and the performance in-game
looking at the influence of role play games on people tends to suffer, especially in terms of focus and endurance.
suffering depression. In one case the character was used as I'm not sure I'd say playing levens the state of mind though,
a compensating symbol, helping a depressed, socially shy rather that it delays or postpones the moods. But that may
woman to be active by imagining what could her character also be due to that fact that I amost exclusively GM rather
do; in the other case a socially alienated, depressed and than play, which means my experience is much more solitary
suicidal teen found himself roleplaying extreme violence, (and consequently less socially uplifting) than a player's
that was coming from suppressed anger towards his parents experience might be. I do find however that preparing a game
and younger brother. Acting it out in the game helped him - writing the narratives, delving into the research and creative
realize he has the right to be angry and stabilized his state. process - helps improve the state of mind.

B: I can remember having been in a bad mood for some Sofia: Again it’s interesting to see how the DM sometimes

54 55
 can feel out of the party, which is definitely similar for theater what my character does "I focus to try to detect if there's
directors. With great power comes great responsibility but traps, specifically in the shadows *rolls detection & the dm
also loneliness. Mixing up the game and putting the director informs me there's actually a trap there* ok, so I hold my
on a player’s sit can change the perspective and bond the hand up to notify the others, then point to the trap so they'll
group together. know to avoid it before trying to get close enough to observe
it"etc But it is also obvious to me that it always takes some
Do you think you feel more comfortable acting out time to really get into the game, so acting, whichever type of
your character through the game? Did you feel awkward rpg it is , always gets easier as the game goes on :) I think my
roleplaying when starting your first sessions of tabletop rpg experiences would surely help if I ever was to do theatre,
roleplay? but as I never did I can't actually confirm it. But the whole
process of getting a character and analyzing them and how
A: The first time I actually roleplayed was at the bday party and why they act is something I’m used to do thx to rpg, and
I told you, when I was about 10. I knew what RPG was, as my I guess it is a part of theatre acting too?
dad used to play and told me his old characters adventures as
night time stories, but I had never actually witnessed a game Sofia: Playing roleplaying games can bee a helpful tool
or knew how to, so I was quite anxious about not making it to work with teenagers and amateurs. Even playing yourself
right or not knowing how to. The teen that dm this game was as a character can allow you to feel the immersion and make
quite cool though, and reassured us all about it, so it became your approach to acting easier.
easy very quickly. After this specific game it took me years
to get to play again, I bribed my dad to dm for two university B: It certainly felt a bit awkward the first time, but playing
friends, my lil sister and myself nearly 10 years later. I also with friends made things much more comfortable than if I
felt like I didn't really know how to play, or at least felt quite had been playing with strangers, as I wouldn't have let down
shy and awkward acting the character, and to make this my guard as easily around people I didn't know. With time,
easier I created a character quite close to me, so it would it just becomes easier and easier to inhabit a character and
be easier to act. But even not having much experience, I was take up some space, and I'd probably feel fine playing with
still the player around the table that knew more than the strangers now.
others except for the dm, but he hadn't played for more than
15 years and never dmed, s So it was quite comforting. I still Sofia: A lot of awkwardness comes from the fear of being
take time to get comfortable really acting as I play, the style judged, rejected or feeling ridiculous. Actors experience
of game that comes easier to me is narrating at first person this in a different way, and cope by following clichés. This

56 57
 question will be thoroughly addressed in the next chapter. leading to tons of private jokes and shared memories. We
sometimes "slip back" in some of our old D&D characters,
C: I've never felt particularly awkard roleplaying, but not while gaming, just while passing time together, more like
then again I mostly play online, so the lack of visuals from these characters are now "personas".
and to the other players does erase most of the potential
awkwardness (visuals tend to be more awkward than audio). Sofia: the fact of sharing out-of-work creative friendly
I'm not sure my experience in roleplay would be of much experience can help bonding with the team and quickly
help for acting, but it has proven quite useful for the few include new members in the group.
experiences I've had in writing and directing drama (albeit
audio drama online). B: I don't think I have, or at least not consciously. I'd find
it more helpful to myself get inspiration by emulating a
Sofia: Yes. Writing and roleplaying D&D scenarios can character if I were in a situation where I didn't feel confident,
help with writing. It’s interesting though to see how being rather than seeing as other people as NPCs or picturing
not physically present next to other players helps with quests in real life.
awkwardness. I will address this idea in the next chapter.
Sofia: this experience is similar to the experience
Have you ever tried to gamify casual life tasks and described in Therapy is Fantasy: Roleplaying, Healing and
experiences? (For example formal phone calls as NPC quest the Construction of Symbolic Order by John Hughes19
interactions)
C: I've never actually tried to gamify casual life experiences
A: I do indeed try to gamify "real life stuff" to make for myself, but I have gamified them for others as part of a
them easier to do. There was even an app (rpg life? I don't pedagogical set of tools. It's actually something I frequently
remember the name but it was stg like that) I tried. Suffering do in scouting camps - implement xp gain, reputation gain or
from depression makes the most basic task sometimes bonus points for kids who act out the scouting law, do their
impossible for me, mostly taking care of my environment, chores properly and so on.
so I thought it would motivate me more, but I didn't worked,
so I stopped after a few months. It's too far from actual rpg Sofia: this subject is also quite interesting. In many ways
to feel satisfying to me. Though I sometime gamify real life D&D session and a play directing is a lesson, where the DM
with one of my friends. We used to play together and still do and the director act as teachers or tutors. I will talk about it
when we find the time, so we have lots of rpg xp together, in the next chapter called...

19. http://www.rpgstudies.net/hughes/therapy_is_fantasy.html
58 59
2. LEARNING
 In this part of my research I would like to address certain
problems and methods of solving those problems that might
occur in theater and opera work. It's going to consist of a
brief analysis of certain problems occurring in “traditionally”
approached theater and opera and some of my ideas for
exercises that may help actors, directors and set designers to
approach the narrative, characters and set. Those ideas are
based on my humble knowledge and experience and in any
case shape or form I’m not trying to suggest that I “know
what to do” better than any seasoned professional. My ideas
are here for people who are accepting the fact that they
are experiencing troubles in their theater work and who are
open-minded enough to try something new to solve them.
The methods I’m going to develop in this chapter are never
the answers in themselves but rather an enriching experience
that must be taken as such. None of the following should be
taken too seriously because the serious stuff is only going to
happen if everyone is having genuine fun.

The first thing I want to address is what I personally call

“dictatorship”. I call it that because I myself certainly
have this trait, so to avoid critiquing anyone else who I might
not have enough knowledge of I’m going to analyze myself
and share the exercises that help me manage this approach.
First of all, as I addressed it in the introduction, I come
from a culture where hierarchy is incredibly important in
every sphere. When you grow up in a household where the
only way to manage things comes from the immense effort
of showing power and threatening if things wont go “the
right way” and all of your friends growing in a same type of

62 63
 household but also your own parents are coming from the not obvious even for actors who were
same type of a household and when you go to school and see the part of the group to understand and
the exact same situation maintained between the students accept the refusal to follow traditional
and teachers, teachers and the school direction, later, when structure. It leads, of course, immediately
you finally go to the university and see a similar type of social into a debate because people are not pacifist
construction, facing it later in the professional environment anarchists. You know, people may say "This is
is not a surprise. This complex situation can’t be described a stupid idea. You want us to just drop our
as just being angry or demanding. It is a problem of higher guns and walk into the enemy's mouth and
understanding of order and certain ways to react to situation say 'kill me?' What do you think we are? This
that leaves you vulnerable and helpless. You feel empty and is Utopian foolishness! Yes, if people were
the only way to make important things happen is by forcing all good, this would be fine. But people are
people around you to act according to your plan because no not all good." And then we come into the
one has the willpower or energy to do what they've “got to question of good and evil and that debate.
do”. But the play that comes out it is going to be
a collective work. It's not going to be based
Of course I’m not the only or first person to address this on that debate, but out of the real feeling
problem concerning theater organization. In this part of my aroused, our real position in relation to
research I will talk about Judith Malina, who was a German- the other people in the collective21
born American Theater and film actress, writer and director.
Wikipedia says: With her husband, Julian Beck, What is really interesting about Judith Malina’s approach
Malina co-founded The Living Theatre, a regarding my idea to introduce some principals of D&D into
radical political theatre troupe that rose the theater is the trespassing of the borders of “professions”.
to prominence in New York City and Paris The creative process becomes everyone’s responsibility and
during the 1950s and 60s20 The philosophy, and the nobody’s burden:
political approach behind her reinvention of theater lies in
pacifist anarchy and healing: In pioneering a transition from an
authoritarian to an egalitarian creative
I want to make what I call the fundamental process – in such famous productions as
ideas – peace and liberty – clear. I want to Frankenstein (1965) and Paradise Now (1968)
work in the alleviation of suffering . It’s – Judith Malina helped make “The Living”

20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Malina 21. Richard Trousdell and Judith Malina, The Director as Pacifist-Anarchist: An Interview with Judith Malina, The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 29, No. 1
64 (Spring, 1988), pp. 22-38, p. 25
65
 (as it came to be called) internationally why it is better for one person to do any
influential. Her work demonstrated in of these tasks than for twenty, except that
particular how the roles of playwright, it takes longer and that the process has to
director, designer, and performer could be refined through more minds, and then
be unified, not in an individual, but in an the problem, and perhaps the glory, emerges
autonomous group22 that we are in fact not born equal at all23

Contemporary theater production with a long chain of Without the limits of between the directing and performing
decision-making was not useful to Malina’s perception of the writers part also becomes collective:
theater creation:
Now the role of the director and the role
The director examines the play and after of the writer are very, very problematical
a short time knows more about it than the in terms of egalitarianism. Obviously, the
writer knew about it, takes it a step further, writer creates something and the director
examines it in terms of what it can or cannot formulates it and clarifies it to the company.
say to an audience, extending the writer's But I feel that everybody is in the process of
meaning, going beyond the writer, under understanding the play all the time.
standing the characters more deeply. The
director then explains this to actors, begins Like in a D&D session the first step of a theater creation for
to impart what the playwright has imparted Malina was getting together and talking though identities,
to her or to him, to the company. And then life paths and desires:
within a short time, the performers should
know and understand the play better than That is, in this group, whoever they may be
the director, have a deeper knowledge of the - it might be a group of the unemployed in
workings of it and a deeper understanding Napoli - we always begin with "What is the
of the characters. This happens in time, it's idea that we have in common? We are a group
a process in time. It's also a process that of itinerant actors, avant-garde theater; you
doesn't have to happen in time if the writers are a group of unemployed people in different
and the directors and the actors are all fields of labor in Naples. And what ideas have
the same people. There is no intrinsic reason we really got? What ideas are important to

22. Richard Trousdell and Judith Malina, The Director as Pacifist-Anarchist: An Interview with Judith Malina, The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 29, No. 1 23. Richard Trousdell and Judith Malina, The Director as Pacifist-Anarchist: An Interview with Judith Malina, The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 29, No. 1
66 (Spring, 1988), pp. 22-38, p. 33 (Spring, 1988), pp. 22-38, p. 24
67
 you? What would you like to express? We'll opera director who was guiding me, Antoin Gindt agreed that
tell you what we want to express. And we'll the division is possible and asked Dusapin the permission
all talk and you'll all talk 24 to do it. Not only did Pascal Dusapin agree, but also said
that they already tried singing the piece with 6 voices. While
A typical session of D&D doesnt happen like that but the working with the singers I wanted to see if it was possible
preparation meetingswith the DM do. By expressing what do to introduce the performance score and make them react
you actually want from the game and what brings you joy the according to the public around them. While introducing the
DM is able to construct the basic line of a plot to allow the concepts the singers answered, “no, you must tell us exactly
players to express themselves in the manner they like. what to do and we are going to do this. It’s not our job to
react and improvise the movements”. I understand that those
With the D&D approach the narrative creation technically singers had no reason to trust me, knowing my status (set
lies on the shoulders of the DM but at the same time the design student) but I mostly felt bad for them being afraid
more the DM tries to uphold the narrative and path taking of having too many professional responsibilities, instead of
power the less it will go in the planned way. There’s a thinking about how they can leave their shells and interact
video, created by Matthew Colville, explaining two types of directly with the public. Judith Malina was working on the
narrative depending on the DM’s decision making . In the simmilar aim but in a different way:
video Colville describes two separate games based on the
plot of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. In the first And we took that forward toward a closer
imaginary session the DM follows the ideas coming from the and more intimate, more here-and-now
players and adapts the plot to what they find cool and exiting. relationship with the audience in terms of
In the second game the DM’s narrative is heavily set which who we were, and then in terms of who we
makes players angry and frustrated. The exact same situation were really, and then in terms of who we
can and is happening in theater creation everywhere around were really if we wouldn't have the socially
the world. In my personal experience I was working with imposed areas of alienation between us:
professional opera singers on a performance happening trying to break barrier after barrier, even
at Le Palais de la Porte Dorée. We were working with the taboo after taboo, trying to force our
music of Pascal Dusapin who is an extremely well known way through the social structures that
contemporary opera composer. I looked at the score and alienate us from one another. We called
saw the possibility to divide it for two voices, which made that Paradise Now25
the singers even more skeptical about my competence. The

24. Richard Trousdell and Judith Malina, The Director as Pacifist-Anarchist: An Interview with Judith Malina, The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 29, No. 1 25. Richard Trousdell and Judith Malina, The Director as Pacifist-Anarchist: An Interview with Judith Malina, The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 29, No. 1
68 (Spring, 1988), pp. 22-38, p. 34 (Spring, 1988), pp. 22-38, p. 33
69
 Performance and tabletop roleplaying games are both a scientific congress in 1904 […] He gave
sharing the interactive side but in extremely different this example of the audience as forum very
manners. In D&D the spectator doesn’t exist – everyone is frequently, but when I saw people interfering
involved in the process has an active part in the creation. The in a performance, he was enraged. But he
interaction in the performance is much more reactive and had this vision of the audience being able
follows the protocol or it’s absence. Put in a gallery it creates to ask such question and the actor being
the rules of gallery behavior separating the spectator from able to remain in character or speak for the
the performer: character. My problem was that he spoke
of this all the time and didn't do it. And
At first, it was only the formal barrier of I wanted him to do it. He spoke of a very
the "fourth wall" that Malina shattered passionate kind of performance and a very
with active and actual contact replacing passionate kind of commitment, but he was
the audience's passive witnessing of illusion. himself very reserved and very formal. And I
By the early 1960s, however, Malina saw that never saw him break that formality 27
larger and more fundamental barriers
of social constriction, language, and Malina found the idea of the spectator’s freedom
authoritarian process had to be confronted fascinating but in that example I see the need for the actor’s
if her deepest political and artistic vision commitment who stays immersed in the character even
was to be fulfilled26 when being “interrupted” by the public.

Malina in her interview talks about her experience working The identification of an actor/player with their character
with Erwin Piscator, a German theatre director and producer: has a limit and even in a case where the immersion is really
strong the separation of the two is the reason why the activity
He felt that it was important for all of us can be called a “play”:
to understand the idea in such a way that
a spectator should be able to stop the play […] a fantasy roleplaying game constitutes
and say “You, actor there! How much did a voluntary and limited domain. Players
you pay for that sweater?” and that what we act out/ work out their fantasies under
should answer in character “This sweater an explicit sense of containment. Players
I bought in Kiev when I was travelling for must identify with their characters if the

26. Richard Trousdell and Judith Malina, The Director as Pacifist-Anarchist: An Interview with Judith Malina, The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 29, No. 1 27. Richard Trousdell and Judith Malina, The Director as Pacifist-Anarchist: An Interview with Judith Malina, The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 29, No. 1
70 (Spring, 1988), pp. 22-38, p. 29 (Spring, 1988), pp. 22-38, p. 27
71
 game is to be a success; in other words, There in no single piece of advice that can help resolve the
they must invest their characters with dictatorship problem but there are many ways to rethink and
meaning. Characters grow with experience; relive your position of someone holding power and change
the depth of their game personality becomes the dynamics to live more fulfilling and enjoyable creative
more individual and unique over time. life.
Correspondingly, the player’s identification
with the character grows – as evidenced by Let’s imagine a game of D&D. A DM has an immense power
the very real trauma many players experience to construct the world, create characters and situations,
if their favoured characters die. In contrast attack players with monsters and put them in every kind of
to this growing identification with the trouble possible. The Dungeon Master's guide says:
character there is also an ideology of
distance acknowledged between the players: You are not entering this world in the
a failure or repugnant moral attitude on usual manner, for you are setting forth to
the part of the character is not usually seen be a Dungeon Master. Certainly there are
to reflect in any way on the player running stout fighters, mighty magic-users, wily
that character. It’s just a fantasy28 thieves, and courageous clerics who will
make their mark in the magical lands of
Between the figures of a director and a DM finding creative D&D adventure. You however, are above even
freedom and staying open-minded while organizing and the greatest of these, for as DM you are to
guiding the whole process of creation is a hard balance to become the Shaper of the Cosmos. It is you
find. Judith Malina says: who will give form and content to the all
the universe. You will breathe life into the
And I tell you the truth, that in my years stillness, giving meaning and purpose to all
of experience, one of the things I don't the actions which are to follow30
know is where gentle persuasion ends and
psychological pressure begins. I don't know. Let’s imagine a situation where a dungeon master has a
Clearly some things are brainwashing, and plot but players are acting in a different way. The DM has a
clearly some things are just gentle efforts perfect, extremely entertaining, well-constructed plot but
at persuasion. But there's a wide field in somehow players are either bored or trying to do things in a
between in which I don't know the degree.29 different manner. What does this mean? Does this mean the

28. http://www.rpgstudies.net/hughes/therapy_is_fantasy.html 30. Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide

72 29. Richard Trousdell and Judith Malina, The Director as Pacifist-Anarchist: An Interview with Judith Malina, The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 29, No. 1 http://hellequin.net/oldRoot/Dungeon%20Master's%20Guide.pdf
73
(Spring, 1988), pp. 22-38, p. 30
 players are not good? No. If we take a group of at least three at lately. If you were angry at everyone take the person who
players who want to play, with characters they are interested has the least significant role in the play. The one you would
in how can that happen that the “perfectly constructed” plot never trust to replace you if you can’t be at the rehearsal.
flops and nothing happens. Of course there are many possible They are now your Dungeon Master. Create your character
answers. Maybe the weather is too good and people want to and let them create the world around your character. See
just go outside. Maybe it’s not the right time and everyone how the person you trust the least in their independency
is too tired. Or maybe the plot was so well constructed that makes the right choices.
it could have been even better without the players? It might
have been a plot perfect for any other group of players (not Your mind is software. Program it. Your
you bored dumplings!)? Maybe the DM planned everything body is a shell. Change it31
in such a manner that the personal journey and discoveries
are not possible anymore, maybe they (DM) are not taking
hints from the players to add personalized elements, to
introduce something you never planned on, as a DM to also
have fun and play the game yourself?

To not be pretentious, I will not address myself to a theater

director. I will address myself to a DM. You are, the Dungeon
Master is, here to have fun. No one truly cares anyway
because what you do is art and art is not neurosurgery. If you
do everything right, living people should not die or suffer
mentally of physically because of your actions and decisions.
If they do you are doing a bad job. I’m not saying your “art” is
bad I’m saying you are doing a bad job. You are here
to entertain, help, nourish and heal. Catharsis is a process of
healing and getting through hard life situations, not a process
of creating hardship for your team.

The workshop idea is a D&D session. Gather with your

team. Take the person from your team that you were angry

31. Katherine Angel Cross, The New Laboratory of Dreams: Role-playing Games as Resistance, p. 76
74 75
 STANISLAVSKI
ROLLS THE DICE
Since my theory was geting closer and closer to what I'd
call "acting advice" I decided to see if it was disrespectful
towards the Grand Maestro of Russian Theater Konstantin
Stanislavski. Wikipedia says:

Stanislavski was a seminal Russian theatre

practitioner. He was widely recognized as an
outstanding “character actor” and the many
productions that he directed garnered him
a reputation as one of the leading theatre
directors of his generation. His principal
fame and influence, however, rests on his
'system' of actor training, preparation, and
rehearsal technique32

Acting in traditional theater and playing a D&D session are

extremely different activities in many ways. At first let’s see
the most vivid differences of the two activities to be better
able to compare the two. The first problem, or let’s rather
say dramatic difference, is the stage. By that I not only mean
the physical construction of the stage but also the presence
of the audience. Many of Stanislavski’s exercises are meant
to allow the actors to act naturally while being watched and
isolated on stage. I personally don’t think that any role-
play methods can help with this problem and also I don’t
32. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Stanislavski
76 77
 think there’s a need to develop those types of exercises any it’s just a fruit of several decades of theater experience and
further. good advices collected on this journey. The book is written
from the point of view of a student character who, with his
The second problem is the repetitiveness, essential to the class mates is making all kinds of acting mistakes and are
actor’s craft. For this part exercising D&D can help to get taught by their (also an imaginary character) teacher. The
more personally attached to the character and make the narrative starts with the first student performance, that is
rehearsals more profound and vivid because of the recent happening before the actual actin classes start. The narrator
memories of the game play. On the other hand integrating is going to play Othello and prepares for the role by himself.
roleplaying in case of accumulating rehearsal fatigue can His first idea is to interpret Othello as a racist stereotype,
help to revive interest and breathe new life to the characters. as someone who is “wild” and acts most of the time like a
predatory animal. After the performance one of narrator’s
The third problem is the need to act and say things that friends comes over to share his opinion on the performance:
don’t “belong” to the actor. Thre actor’s job is to present
someone else, who, even if similar in personality will never Pushin was saying good things about
be the exact same person as the actor themselves (even if Shakespeare’s play and Othello’s part. But he
they play “this exact actor” in the context it’s a choice of was expecting a lot more than what I could
concentrated mannerisms they need to present in a certain give [playing Othello].
way), and will apparently say or act according to scenario or He was talking very righteous things about
director’s orders. For this one combining the roleplaying the bitterness, surprise, shock of the Moor
practices with ideas of Stanislavski might in certain cases when he believed that Desdemona’s beautiful
be extremely effective, which we will analyze further in the mask hides a horrific sin underneath. This,
following part of my research. in Othello’s eyes makes her even scarier.
After my friend has left I tried to rethink
The book i’m going to be using is An Actor Prepares. This certain parts of the play according to
work has already been translated to english, but i preferedto Pushin’s interpretation and it made me cry, I
translate some parts of it myself to keep the spirit of the felt sorry for poor Othello. [A]
book as closely to the original as i can, even if by doing so
it's loosing some smoothness. It’s not written as a structured In several places the teacher character addresses this
research and in the introduction Stanslavski says himself performance reminding students that in any case you should
that the book does not pretend to be scientific or objective, never glue together elements you think you know and you

Citation marked with [Letter] is my own translation of Stanislavski. The original text in russian text can be found in the annex.
78 79
 must always find the logic, inner motifs and human reactions and in it’s analogy to it think, desire, aspire,
of the characters, no matter who they are. act in righteous, logical and human-like
way. As soon as the actor achieves it he gets
In many contemporary D&D sessions (for example The closer to the role and starts feeling in the
High Rollers, The Critical Role and Friends At the Table) the same way [as the role].
problem of racism is addressed in an extremely particular In our [theater] language it’s called: to
way. There are histories of races who are in some ways live the part through. This process and this
relevant to real life history but there are also non-playable term define our art. [B]
character races who are always used as “enemy units”.
Enemy unit race is a Tolkienist concept but was born long In a good game every character, playable or not is able to
before Tolkien and definitely can be discussed in a separate “in the environment of the role and in it’s analogy to it think,
paper on concept of “other” and race. Traditionally since the desire, aspire, act in righteous, logical and human-like way”
80s enemy unit races did not have any distinct personalities, even if we are talking about fifth goblin on the left.
were “generally” brutal, barbaric, bad at everything, even in
their only “function” – war. There was no friendship, love, As in D&D no action on stage is going to be interesting
camaraderie, grief or any reactions except for sometimes and captivating if there is no aim to it. Think about what your
rage and fear. The only way we could see a slightly personal character wants to do, why, how and when :
side of non playable races was if by magic or charisma a
player seduced one of the enemy units, but normally those There is no need in senseless running
situations are played as ridiculous and hilarious. Lately things around on stage – he continued. – There you
have started to change and in several public campaigns with can not run just for the sake of running
a large fan base the problem of in-game racism that is less or suffer for the suffering. On stage you
complex but not much different from the real-life one is shouldn’t act ‘in general’ for the act
addressed actively through the plot that depending on a itself, you need to act reasonably and in a
situation gives personalized characteristics to enemy units, productive way.
their culture and history. - And truthfully – I added
- A “truthful” action is a reasonable and
-What do you mean by “justice” in actor’s productive action, and since you need to
play? – I asked him really produce actions to act on stage – go
- It means in the environment of the role there and act

80 81
 [A student is performing the exercise ill. He was extremely violent and needed to
“closing the door”] be hospitalized. If it turns out he escaped
In one brief moment he slammed the door the hospital and now is standing behind
and came back to his place. this door, what would you do?
- You won’t call that “closing the door” As soon as the question was asked our
it’s more of “slamming the door to get me relation to the action, or “inner aim”
off your back”. By closing the door I mean changed and we didn’t even think about
closing it to stop a cold draft, or so people ways to make the action last, we didn’t care
in the hallway won’t hear what we are what it looked like on the outside, but
talking about. [C] rather mentally judging if the actions we
did were reasonable for the situation. We
Any part of the play/game can be borderline breathtaking were analyzing the space and looking for
if your actions make sense and are reasonable to your safer ways to evacuate. We looked around,
character : adapting and trying to understand where
to run if the man tries to get in and attack
That’s too complicated! We don’t think us. The survival instinct was showing us the
about that yet. Give us something simple and ways to define danger and avoid it. [D]
easy to do
- It depends on you and you can make any This description makes so much sense in a context of
action interesting or boring, short or long. the game. If a player approaches the game in a sceptic way,
Does it depend on the surface-level, obvious untill the player's first immersion happends the actions of
goal of the action or rather on your inner the player won't make much sense. Those actions are there
motifs, circumstances; ideas that make you without the logic behind them and with no intention they
act this way? Take as an example a simple act will not make any sense.
of opening and closing a door. What can be
more senseless than this purely automatic The sense of intention makes a person belong somwhere
action? But imagine if this apartment, where according to Goffman:
we are celebrating the housewarming of
Ms. Young (one of the students) was once Without something to belong to, we have
occupied by a man who fell severely mentally no stable self, and yet total commitment and

82 83
 attachment to any social unit implies a kind “What if” is the way to daydream and it might be equally as
of selflessness. Our sense of being a person pleasant as anxiety inducing. In tabletop roleplaying games
can come from being drawn into a wider what if exists as a part of the planning and game strategy.
social unit; our sense of selfhood can arise Stanislavsky tried to reach for a vivid child-like imagination
through the little ways in which we resist in the actors he worked with, to let them accept the
the pull. Our status is backed by the solid situations that are hardly relatable as a part of their acting
buildings of the world, while our sense of reality. Nowadays the fantasy world and the reality of highly
personal identity resides in the cracks33 improbable things is much closer to us than it was to theater
actors in the 20s because of the TV, internet, video games,
A big role in Stanislavsky’s system is played by “what if” virtual reality, Chernobyl and Boston dynamics robots.
a grammatical construction that wakes your imagination up,
allowing your mind to open for the most unreal things and But accepting the improbable things as a part of your
place the in the reality: reality is not the same thing as reacting to them in a natural
way. This is why having a good quality immersion experience
- Yes, that’s very good that the “what through a role play game might help with rethinking the least
if” construction is honest and direct. It relatable action in a bizarre situation in a coherent, justified
destroys the taste of scam that you often and natural manner:
feel on stage!
- And what if instead of admitting the - Why would an actor need imagination?
fiction I would try to convince you that - What do you mean? Of course to be able to
the violent man is actually behind that create the “what if-s” answered mr. Quickly
door? (one of the students)
- I wouldn’t believe you and stayed - But it’s already created by the author, the
sitting at my place. It’s incredible how “what play is fiction
if” alleviates violence. It’s the only way you Mr Quickly was silent
can seriously discuss something that didn’t - Is everything you need to know about
happen but had a possibility to happen in the play is given by the author? – asked
reality. [E] mr. Angle. Can you on a hundred pages
tell everything about the lives of every
character? Or many things are left behind

33. Goffman, Erving. 1961a. Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor.
84 85
 the scenes? For example: is the author saying No, all of those things must be deepened by
enough about what happened before the the actor himself. Only like this the work
start of the play? Is he saying what happens of the author, director and everyone else
after the end of the play, what happens participating in creating the play will bring
backstage, when a characters enters the itself to life and reach different corners
stage where he comes from and where he of the souls of people on stage and in the
leaves? The author is not usually stingy auditorium. Only when the actor is able to
on comments like this, in text its only live the inner life of the character and act
marked “Same people and Petrov” or “Petrov according to the author, director and his
leaves”. But we can leave and unknown own feelings. The best ally to help us with this
environment and go back into it without work is our imagination, with its magical
thinking about the aim of our movements. “what if” and “suggested circumstances”. [F]
You cannot believe in “in general”. We’ve seen
other notes like this: “gets up”, “walks in In game theory the “what if” is related to the notion of
excitement”, “laughs”, “dies”. We only get dry metacommunication. The situation is placed in a playful
characteristics of a character like “Young realm of unreal where everything is possible. Jakko Stenros,
handsome man. Smokes a lot” the author of many wonderful works on roleplaying games
says:
But is it enough to create the integrity of
appearance, mannerisms, walk, and habits? “Where exploration can be difficult to
And the text itself, is it true that we only separate from play from an external vantage
need to learn it by heart and repeat the same point, some observers have been tempted to
thing? boil play down to the observable. Based on
All of the author’s remarks, director’s observation in a zoo, Gregory Bateson (1955,
demands, stage settings? Is it enough 315-317; see also Eastman 1948, 15-17) came up
to just memorize those things and than with the concept of metacommunication.
reproduce them coldly on stage? Are all This metacommunication sets the frame of
of those things doing enough to create the activity, and in the case of play carries
the personality, nuance the details of his the message “this is play.” As the ‘meta’ implies,
thoughts, decisions, and actions? this is communication about communication

86 87
 (and not a higher form of communication). stage. Isn’t it better to develop your own
The metamessage of play is: “These actions, in imagination? [J]
which we now engage, do not denote what
would be denoted by those actions which Stanislavsi describes on eof the ways you can develop the
these actions denote.” Bateson’s example, imagination:
which is a minor classic in itself, is play- [An exercise to develop the imagination consists of active
fighting; it is possible to play at fighting dreaming. The narrator tries to dream at home but easily falls
so that it looks like fighting, yet it is clear asleep. He understands that dreaming without the initiative
that it is not-fighting. However, according will rather make him fall asleep than capture his attention.
to Bateson (1955, 315-317) (social) play is only Next day he comes to the class and tells the teacher about
possible if the participating organisms are his experience at home]
capable of metacommunication. Although
such communication is central to shared, - Your experience did not succeed because
social play, it hardly accounts for all kinds of several mistakes you made. First of all you
of play34 were torturing your imagination instead of
engaging it with interest. The second mistake
Most of the Stanislavski's exercises are aimed at revivng is that you were dreaming rudderless,
the natural human playfulness that was dulled by repetitions, randomly. In the same way you shouldn’t
learning by heart and the cultural perception of what is do something just for the sake of doing
acting: something, you shouldn’t dream for the
sake of dreaming. You didn’t give sense, and
- If the imagination is so important for an interesting task to your imagination to let
actor what should we do if we don’t have it properly create. The third mistake is that
it? – Asked mr. Quick. your dreaming was passive. The activeness
- you either train and develop it or leave of the imaginary life is extremely important
the profession. In other case the directors in actor’s life. Imagination should lead him
who are willing to replace your lacking to the inner action, and than to a physical
imagination by their own will trap you. one.
It would mean for you to refuse your - But I was acting, I was dreaming about
own creative spirit and become a pawn on flying at high speed above a forest!

34. JAAKKO STENROS Playfulness, Play, and Games, p 62

88 89
 - When you are taking a high-speed train tale monster. It’s too dark to see the shape of
does this make an action? The train and it’s giant body, this will make it even scarier
the driver are active but the one who for you. Tell yourself “If this fiction was a
takes the train is not inherently in action. reality what would I have done?”. The same
It’s a completely different story if you are question could have been asked by a fairy-
on a train while having a conversation, tale prince, before trying to attack it, find a
arguing or working on a document. […] The solution following a simple mundane logic,
imagination we need to train is active, not from which side it’s better to attack the
passive. [H] monster, if it’s facing your way and it’s tale
is far behind it. [I]
At this point it becomes obvious that the idea to integrate
the tabletop roleplaying games into actors' and director's life I'd like to continue researching Stanislavski's approach
is not only far away from being revolutionary but basically while playing D&D with different groups of actors. There
continues the work of Stanislavski, while keeping in the are may ways the game can be organized depending on the
fun, playful approach he intended to introduce into actors' particular difficulties the actors and the director are facing at
profession: the moment. The game can be heavy in character creation if
the motifs and personality of the characters are unclear. It
[The narrator tries to do a concentration can follow the plot of the play to find the reasoning behind
exercise, but does not succeed in holding actions. Or it can have no direct connection to the play and
his attention on a lamp that’s placed far act as a group experience to allow people in the group be
away from him] more comfortable with themselves and others.
- You know that its not the object
in itself, not the lamp, but an attractive
fiction around it that draws and holds
your attention to it. Try to surround it
with a beautiful mystery, than the lamp will
become a tool of artistic creation.
[…]
- I will help you. Let’s imagine that this lamp
is in fact a half-open eye of a sleeping fairy-

90 91
3. EXPLORING
 After looking into how roleplaying games can help actors dungeons, not necessarily and not always hidden under the
and directors let’s see how the game mechanics can be ground but usually abandoned and feared by regular NPCs
helpful to a set designer. [Non-Playable Characters]. In game mechanics a dungeon is
a closed area of interconnected spaces, it’s in most cases full
The first step of any game and most of the game sessions is of monsters and traps but also contains some kind of treasure
the description of the environment. It highly depends on the in some of the hidden or protected areas. It’s possible to
DM but in some cases the first description rather introduces say that a dungeon is normally considered a scary place and
the universe of the game e.g.: political system, history, regular non-playable characters wouldn’t go there to live or
mythology or landscape, going then from the larger image to hang out. But don’t forget that the player characters are on
the particular situation in which characters find themselves their way to become heroes by killing monsters and finding
at the start of the game. Regardless of the first narrative the powerful magic items. How a dungeon is perceived by PCs
aim of this description is to create the sense of immersion, depends fully on who they are and their past. Nature-related
spark interest in players and make the transition between classes may feel comfortable in more “natural” settings like
“real-life” and the fantasy world of the game smooth and a ranger or a druid can feel pretty comfortable in a naturally
captivating. After giving the general view the DM normally occurring dungeon while a wood elf can feel trapped in a
zooms into the setting the characters find themselves in at deep man-made mine.
the moment. Normally all of the players’ characters are in
the same space, in most cases meeting each other for the The immersion in D&D is created in and by the narrative:
first time.
Role-playing games constitute a unique
The “traditional” way of starting the game is making all of environment in which fantasy, imagination,
the players’ characters captive. This allows setting a visible and reality intersect and oblige participants
goal shared by everyone in the party (escaping) and also to occupy the role of a “PC,” gaming
makes the first exchange between the characters easy (why lingo for “player-character”—a marginal
and how did you end up here). This also allows the players to hyphenated role that is situated in the
explore their first dungeon - fighting low-level monsters and liminal boundaries of more than one frame
finding their first loot. But what is a dungeon? of reality. “Games,” as Goffman (1961:27) wrote,
“are world-building activities35
The initial idea of Dungeons and Dragons lies behind its
name. First game settings were taking place in so called The creation of the world happens before the players’

35. Role-Playing and Playing Roles: The Person, Player, and Persona in Fantasy Role-Playing Dennis Waskul and Matt Lust Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 27,
94 No. 3 (Summer 2004), pp. 333-356, p.334
95
 eyes, or rather players’ characters’ eyes through the verbal A dungeon is an extremely particular space. Many of the
description of the DM. When talking about the tabletop qualities of dungeons in general come from the fact that a
roleplaying immersive settings we need to introduce the dungeon is a closed space that is constructed by a DM to
term of narrative space. contain secrets and surprises that are solely there to be
revealed by the players. The Dungeon Master's manual
Here is one of many possible explanations of the describes the key difference between a "dungeon space"
term "narrative space" taken from a personal blog called and "the wilderness" (not-dungeon space):
Mineofgod:
Narrative space is a broad and abstract Within a dungeon, adventurers are
term. First defined by Stephen Heath in 1976, constrained by walls and doors around
the term has come to include not only them, but in the wilderness, adventurers can
novels and film, but also video games and travel in almost any direction they please.
real-life environments. In Heath’s paper, Therein lies the key difference between
so aptly named “Narrative Space,” he talks dungeon and wilderness: it's much easier to
extensively about spectatorship in film predict where the adventuring party might
and the rules of Renaissance perspective. go in the dungeon because the options are
Narrative space in film is defined as the limited - less so in the wilderness37
control of movement throughout the
story, from the reader/viewer’s perspective. By default it’s an unknown place that exists exclusively
In other words, narrative space is how in the context of discovery. This means that the imaginary
the reader interprets events within their architecture is described in a way that makes players
respective landscapes. Heath argues that the curious, exited and scared. Being in the dark, being trapped,
creation of movement and pattern within walking an endless corridor, a labyrinth, noise of dripping
the film creates a space for the action to water, mysterious light far away, library, temple, mine, dusty,
take place. His main conclusion is that covered in cobwebs, stone, getting lost, giant space after a
events not only take “place,” but also provide narrow one, similar but different, close but far away, echo,
an environment for someone to observe all of those things are classic elements of a D&D dungeon –
and move within. It is the passive spectator a place of permanent suspense. The same elements can be
who follows and moves throughout the easily found in a detective story or even more in its ancestor
narrative space provided by the film itself36 – a gothic novel. The “purpose” section of the manual lists a

36. https://mineofgod.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/narrative-space/ 37. https://thetrove.net/Books/Dungeons%20&%20Dragons/D&D%205th%20Edition/Core/Dungeon%20Master%27s%20Guide.pdf - p.99

96 97
 small number of initial conceptions of the dungeons: death and thoughts of the characters38
trap, stronghold, lair, temple or shrine, maze, tomb, mine,
treasure vault and planar gate. All of those things have a While the characters are exploring dangers and wonders of
reason to stay secret, a logical reason to containin treasure a dungeons the players stay put around the table. Everything
and an excuse to be constructed in a confusing, complicated that happens, happens in the imagination of the players and
way. the dungeon master. In some cases DMs use maps, figurines
and illustrations to keep some visual elements important
An article by Marco Caracciolo is exploring the perception for the fight and puzzles consistent from player to player.
of narrative space by analyzing a corpus of online reviews of Tabletop roleplaying never fluctuates into being live action
Cormac McCarthy’s—The Road (2006): roleplaying; the players rarely involve their whole bodies to
act their characters out. Mackay in his article The Fantasy
“[…] Ryan’s preliminary distinction between Role-Playing Game: A New Performing Art says:
spatial frames, setting, story space, and
storyworld offers a useful summary of Have we gone too far with our implications?
previous narratological work on space, and After all, the personas of role-playing games
can therefore help exemplify the container belong, positively, to the realm of fantasy.
conception of narrative space. To begin Unlike everyday life, role-players “adopt
with, a “spatial frame” is any location in roles with which they strive to identify,
which the events told by a story take place. but they do not fall victim to the illusion
As immediate surroundings of the action, that they are those roles” In spite of certain
these frames tend to be spatially specific similarities, participants in role-playing
and relatively self-contained. […]“Setting” games are also quite different from theater
refers to the spatio-temporal coordinates actors: the role-player does not share bodies
of a story, especially when its events can be with the persona they play. While they do
positioned vis-à-vis real-world history and share minds, “the player’s body is never seen
geography: “somewhere in America, after as the character’s body”39
an unspecified environmental disaster” […]
Ryan’s “story space” includes all the spatial To increase the immersion experience some DMs add a
frames of a text—it is, she writes, “the space special lighting or just dim the light in the room, add ambient
relevant to the plot, as mapped by the actions music or noises that go well with the intended atmosphere,

38. Marco Caracciolo, Narrative Space and Readers’ Responses to Stories: A Phenomenological Account, Style, Vol. 47, No. 4, Narrative, Social
98 Neuroscience, Plus Essays on Hecht's Poetry,Hardy's Fiction, and Kathy Acker (Winter 2013), pp. 425-444, p. 428
99
39. Mackay, Daniel. 2001. The Fantasy Role-Playing Game: A New Performing Art. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
 some add decorative elements to the table. Set design wise (1950:21) noted, “The playmood is labile in its
those added elements are far from being essential and at very nature. At any moment ‘ordinary life’
best adding those makes the transition between the real life may reassert its rights . . . which interrupts
before the start of the session and the game itself smoother. the game . . . by a collapse of the play spirit, a
With no music, sounds, lighting effects or accessories the sobering, a disenchantment40
game session can still be incredibly immersive and satisfying
for the players and the DM. In contrary to this situation, the classical “Italian” theater
The only problem with organizing a space to play tabletop is technically a black box of silence, an architectural
roleplaying is finding a place where the players are not going construction made to focus attention on the stage for good
to be disturbed in 4, 6 or even 8 hours of the session. Waskul 2 to 4 hours. At the same time in those types of theater the
and Lust are describing the environment of the players notion of an empty stage doesn’t exist. The stage is so well
outside of the in-game setting: separated from the public that even an “empty” black box is
going to seem distant and purposeful. Any type of lighting is
Not only do players come to know each going to feel like an artistic choice and actor’s movements
other during the course of game-play, but even the most spontaneous are most certainly going to be
also, like the “friendly poker game” (Zurcher seen as a well-planned choreography.
1983:138), during role-playing sessions, “it
was understood that there were to be no It’s interesting to compare the set design approach and a
‘outside’ interruptions. There were no literary aspect of special descriptors. Caracciolo says:
radios or televisions playing, no wives
serving beverages, no children looking Research on the topic (Zoran; Ronen) has
over shoulders.” In fact, for one of the role- leaned towards what I would like to call
playing groups included in this study, it was a “container conception” of space, whereby
necessary to repeatedly move the location narrative space is seen as the container
of gaming sessions for no other reason of the events and existents represented
than the struggle to find a setting free by a story. This approach has little to say
of these distractions—a context insulated about readers’ lived experience of narrative
from “outside” interruptions that not only space—a shortcoming that becomes more
interfere with gaming but might also evoke conspicuous when space takes center stage
roles superfluous to the game. As Huizinga in readers’ interaction with a story. In

40. Role-Playing and Playing Roles: The Person, Player, and Persona in Fantasy Role-Playing Dennis Waskul and Matt Lust Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 27,
100 No. 3 (Summer 2004), pp. 333-356, p.346
101
 this case, the container conception proves their time to be revealed with the players’ characters actions.
misleading; we should not drive a wedge In theater the spectator is fixed on one place, unable to move
between space, the events that take place in and the decorations are changing before the spectator’s
a story and the characters that populate it, eyes, revealing the secrets according to the director’s plan.
as if space were external to (and detachable A dramatic change in the set, a reveal or a change of lighting
from) these events and existents. Rather, we feels like traveling while the public stays put.
should focus on how characters and space
are coupled—and on how this coupling For a tabletop roleplaying the movement happens in the
affects the reading experience . Truly if imaginative space created by the narrative. Marco Caracciolo
a set design concept is easily detachable says: A storyworld is not only a space in the
from the action on stage, maybe there is a objective sense (one that can be mapped and
reason to change it. Of course there are measured) but a place, or rather a collection
theater directors who would say that they of places that readers experience through
don’t use set design at all. But that is never their embodied and emotional reactions42
true because no matter what, the choice of
space and lighting stays a conscious choice In theater the set is physical and real in many ways but the
and sets up the visual part of the play: space is not. A theater play transports us in different time,
“The second key feature of place is that it place or plane of existence using visual cues, set architecture,
possesses a distinctive “feel,” an experiential lighting and accessories. Transporting and immersing the
quality also known as “sense of place.” This public/player happens with either narrative descriptors
term, notoriously vague and polysemic, or visual atmospheric elements. Lighting, color, smell and
renders the complexity of our experience sound in many ways are even important than objects for both
of place, in which perception, emotion, and theater and D&D: The Road may evoke vivid visual imagery
cultural meanings are deeply intertwined. (as we have seen in the previous subsection), but such visual
In general, however, “[sense] of place is a dimension is rarely correlated with a feeling of presence by
common allusion to what makes a place the reviewers. Usually, the illusion of presence is related to
distinct, special, or unique41 the imaginative simulation of non-visual—gustatory, haptic,
or olfactory—experiences. This is why of all things using light,
In many ways a dungeon is a theater – it is dark, things are smell and ambient sounds is the most recommended way to
hidden behind the curtain and are staying secret until it’s achieve and maintain the immersion in a D&D session. With

41. Marco Caracciolo, Narrative Space and Readers’ Responses to Stories: 42. Marco Caracciolo, Narrative Space and Readers’ Responses to Stories:
102 A Phenomenological Account, Style, Vol. 47, No. 4, Narrative, Social Neuroscience, Plus Essays on Hecht's Poetry,Hardy's Fiction, and Kathy Acker A Phenomenological Account, Style, Vol. 47, No. 4, Narrative, Social Neuroscience, Plus Essays on Hecht's Poetry,Hardy's Fiction, and Kathy Acker
103
(Winter 2013), pp. 425-444, p. 429 (Winter 2013), pp. 425-444, p. 429
 0 props added but lighting, smell and background sounds
not only the players but also the DM are more attentive to
narrative cues describing lighting smell and noises. A good
example of minimalistic but extremely effective approach to
set design is a play Rêve et folie by Claude Régy. One actor
dressed in a dark long sleeved t-shirt and a pair of pants of
the same color is barely visible on an empty black stage. The
show starts in a complete darkness, even the emergency exit
signs are off for a moment. Nothing happens until the public
is completely, utterly silent. You stop not only moving but
also tame your breathing to make it less audible. Being in a
complete darkness is in itself torture-like, but limiting your
movement and in this way staying completely alone facing
the sounds of your bloodstream is a horrifying experience.
When the audience finally achieves the complete silence
the dimmest light appear on stage. The lighting of a candle
would be 10 times stronger; a light of a phone screen would
feel bright like the sun itself. Through the whole play we can
only guess the actor’s shape, his voice is silent and it feels like
he’s in pain. The audience is staying in a complete silence,
immobile and horrified, the sense of immersion is so strong
you want to escape but there is no way. Silence holds you
back you can’t betray it by physically quitting. The outside
world seems as distant as peaceful time in a war zone, or
summer warmth in freezing winter. The immersion happens
through the tension, the light and the narrative. At one point
we can hear a sound effect of a fly but at this point it’s not
a necessary element to imagine the presence of rotten flesh
appearing in the narrative.

104 105
 While working with D&D there's no need to take the direct In several connected mesas
inspiration from the D&D settings to create a set. What's On a mountain peak
more important is how the place feels for the characters, On a promontory
what it becomes in their perception. On an island
Underwater
Here is a long and wonderful list of places you can create
your dungeon in, took form the same DM manual. I personally EXOTIC LOCATION
find this list beautiful and poetry-like, it has a flavor of Among the branches of a tree
Umberto Eco’s lists and 17-century advice on how to write a Around a geyser
play. Again, it can be a direct inspiration or one of the many Behind a waterfall
ways to rethink a place, existing in the play. Buried in an avalanche
Buried in a sandstorm
A building in a city Buried in volcanic ash
Catacombs or sewers beneath a city Castle or structure sunken in a swamp
Beneath a farmhouse Castle or structure at the bottom of a sinkhole
Beneath a graveyard Floating on the sea
Beneath a ruined castle In a meteorite
Beneath a ruined city On a demiplane or in a pocket dimension
Beneath a temple In an area devastated by a magical catastrophe
In a chasm On a cloud
In a cliff face In the Feywild
In a desert In the Shadowfel1
In a forest On an island in an underground sea
In a glacier In a volcano
In a gorge On the back of a Gargantuan living creature
In a jungle Sealed inside a magical dome of force
In a mountain pass Inside a Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion
In a swamp
Beneath or on top of a mesa
In sea caves

106 107
 Almost all of those places are far from being casual, they are watch the characters live their lives outside their parts and
normally hard to reach and represent at least to some extent the scene “to be or not to be”, in which Hamlet was lying on
an extreme and spectacular setting. Classically the dungeon the floor in agony and the audience was sitting on the floor
part of a D&D campaign doesn’t happen in a “normal” setting, around while Hamlet was reaching to people, holding their
it’s a journey of discovery of a foreign land, of unknown and hands for moral support. The element of freedom, discovery
hostile environment. The heroism of the players’ characters and surprise helped the immersion at the same time the
is by definition epic and the game takes inspiration from role of the spectator was much more defined and limited in
antique, Celtic, medieval gothic and Tolkienist literature. But comparison to an art performance where the audience fuses
does this mean that the only way you can draw inspiration with the artist taking part in action.
for your set is by making every set epic and mysterious?
While the set design of this play was much less important
While working on this research, by a happy accident on my than the quality of the open space, i feel like there are many
day-job in the museum of Louvre, I met Laurent Labruyère, ways it is possible to create an maintain the immersion of the
one of the actors involved in an immersive take on audience.
Hamlet43. I was lucky enough to have an invitation and
participate in the experience. The play took place in an To see how the experience of Dungons and Dragons can
ancient factory building in the 5th district of Paris. A giant help with set design let’s look again at our play of choice –
open space was divided to create rooms and the public Hamlet. Playing hamlet in a castle seems logical and natural
could walk around freely through the whole performance. but at this point of history the idea of just bringing castle
The performance happened in several places at the same related decorations on stage seems tired and far from being
time, for the most part there were two or three dialogue innovative or interesting. But what hat if Hamlet’s castle is a
scenes happening at the same time with the exception of death trap? What if it was a death trap for his father and now
several central scenes that were indirectly announced by the it’s going to be one used on him? Creating a death trap on
actors passing through the space to bring the audience with stage doesn’t mean bringing spikes, or covering walls with
them (like Hamlet repeating to be or not to be while quickly fake blood. It means that living in this place feels like you
walking). With the exception of the last scene of the duel the are imprisoned and like you are afraid of walls and floors.
audience didn’t have any restrictions on where to stand or sit Can this be a good reason for Hamlet to say, “Denmark is
nor where to go and when. You were not allowed to speak a prison” and at some point kill Polonius hiding behind a
or touch actors without their initiative or move objects. The curtain? If hamlet is scared like a trapped rat but not only of
most captivating elements of the play were the possibility to people but of the place itself? A place with a long history of

43. https://www.le-secret-paris.com/helsingor
108 109
 disappearances and murders seems like a solid base not only
to conceive a set but also for the actors to live in it.

Let’s now see what’s going to happen if Hamlet’s castle is

actually a tomb? What if the idea behind the generations of
dead kings is actually more important than the living ones?
If only by dying Hamlet-father gained following and respect
and the castle exists not for the living but to maintain the
mythology of the dead. If Hamlet knows that he can only be
taken seriously by dying, if the only way he can change the
landscape of the place he’s living in is by being cast into a
stone effigy on a tomb.

In the same way as with acting my advice on using D&D

consists of two parts – sharing a roleplaying experience in a
creative team and trying to analyze the play by dramatically
shifting perspectives using dice and a manual. It doesn’t even
matter if everything in the conception of the play stays the
same; looking through the possibilities as a team and having
genuine fun together will make the working process more
enjoyable and fun.

110 111
CONCLUSION
 I see this work as a first step in a bigger research project. In
the future I would love to continue looking into the subject
and work with theater groups, both amateur and professional,
to see how D&D and tabletop roleplaying games can advance
the relationships, creativity and make things more fun.

In this work i've started to discover and develop several

ideas that will need further research on practice.

1. Tabletop roleplaying games can be alot of creative fun if

the Dungeon Master is listening to what players want to do.
In theory same thing can be applied in theater, Judith Malina
confirms this possibility with her own directing experience.

2. Creative fun is one of the effective ways to advance the

progess of working on a play. Stanislavski's experience proves
that the immersion, imagination and inner logic behind the
actions help keeping the play alive.

3. The immersion can be achieved by active character

development, narrative or narrative space. All of those things
can be explored through a fun social activity like a tabletop
roleplaying game.

4. Creative fun and immersion can bring out past trauma.

If the Dungeon Master acts carefully and respectfully the
game can help healing and feel more confident.

5. Feeling safe and happy in the work environment (theater)

helps everyone involved.

114 115
 To conclude I’d like to add a wonderful citation from new. I don't think any of us have done
Judith Malina’s interview. Malina says that there is no reason that. I don't think the Wooster Group has
to look for anything new or shocking just for the sake of it done that, nor the Living Theater for many
being new and shocking. I agree with the statement that we years, not since we got off the stage and all
should think more about the quality, happiness and healing embraced each other. We are in a static state.
properties of catharsis that can be achieved through theater. We are in a moment of a kind of cultural
paralysis. The investigation of what will
Now we have come to a turning point again break that paralysis can't be those shocking
where what was breakthrough has become moments, because they are not shocking, and
novelty, and novelty is now the cheapest it doesn't stir. It makes us say, "That's very
thing in the theater. You can now paint interesting, that's a very brilliant effect."
yourself blue, be naked, hang by one foot, and But it doesn't change the structure and it
recite Dante backwards and it doesn't stir doesn't change the spectator's life. That's
anything. It's just another novelty figure what we have to do. That's what art has to
because, as always in the degeneration of a do. It's always done it44
new form, it becomes banal before it becomes
integrated totally. And theatrical forms
Dadaist, Surrealist, Ex pressionist, Artaudian,
Brechtian, Stanislavskian, Post Modern,
Pop forms have all coalesced now into a
series of tricks, of effects, of theatrical
moments that don't cohere. Because they
don't pierce their way, like Dylan Thomas's
"fuse in the flower," through the art work
into that shocking moment. They are just
a series of interesting and unusual forms
viewed together. As such, I think novelty
is hardly new, and therefore we can't make
breakthroughs because we can't really break
through unless we find something really

44. Richard Trousdell and Judith Malina, The Director as Pacifist-Anarchist: An Interview with Judith Malina, The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 29, No. 1
116 (Spring, 1988), pp. 22-38, p. 38
117
 ANNEX
Станиславский К.С.
Работа актёра над собой
 [A] Пущин очень хорошо говорил о пьесе Шекспира и о
роли Отелло. Но он предъявляет к ней такие требования,
на которые я не могу ответить.
Он очень хорошо говорил о горечи, изумлении,
потрясении мавра, когда тот поверил, что в Дездемоне
под прекрасной маской живет ужасный порок. Это делает
ее в глазах Отелло еще страшнее.
После ухода друга я попробовал подойти к некоторым
местам роли в духе толкования Пущина - и прослезился:
так мне стало жаль мавра.

- Что значит "верно" играть роль? - допытывался я.

- Это значит: в условиях жизни роли и в полной
аналогии с ней правильно, логично, последовательно, по-
человечески мыслить, хотеть, стремиться, действовать,
стоя на подмостках сцены. Лишь только артист добьется
этого, он приблизится к роли и начнет одинаково с нею
чувствовать.
На нашем языке это называется: переживать роль. Этот
процесс и слово, его определяющее, получают в нашем
искусстве совершенно исключительное, первенствующее
значение. [B]

- Бессмысленная беготня не нужна на сцене, - продолжал

Торцов. - Там нельзя ни бегать ради бегания, ни страдать
ради страдания. На подмостках не надо действовать
"вообще", ради самого действия, а надо действовать
обоснованно, целесообразно и продуктивно.
- И подлинно, - добавил я от себя.

120 121
 - Подлинное действие и есть обоснованное и Лишь только вопрос был поставлен таким образом,
целесообразное, - заметил Торцов. - Так вот, - продолжал наше отношение к действию - или, как потом выразился
он, - так как на сцене надо подлинно действовать, то Торцов, "внутренний прицел" - сразу изменилось: мы
отправляйтесь все на подмостки и... действуйте. уже не думали о том, как продлить игру, не заботились о
Мы не успели оглянуться, как он уже хлопнул дверью и том, как она у нас выйдет с внешней, показной стороны, а
вернулся на свое место. внутренне, с точки зрения поставленной задачи оценивали
- Это не называется закрыть дверь, - заметил Торцов. целесообразность того или иного поступка. Глаза
- Это называется хлопнуть дверью, чтобы отвязались. Под принялись вымерять пространство, искать безопасные
словами "закрыть дверь" подразумевается прежде всего подходы к двери. Мы осматривали всю окружающую
внутреннее желание закрыть ее так, чтобы из нее не дуло, обстановку, приспособлялись к ней и старались понять,
как сейчас, или чтоб в передней не было слышно того, что куда нам бежать в случае, если сумасшедший ворвется
мы здесь говорим. [C] в комнату. Инстинкт самосохранения предусматривал
впереди опасность и подсказывал средства борьбы с ней.
- Нет, это уж слишком много и трудно. Об этом [D]
мы пока не думаем. Дайте нам что-нибудь простое, но
интересное, - объяснил я. - Да, это очень хорошо, что "если бы" откровенно и
- Это не от меня, а от вас зависит, - сказал Торцов. правдиво, что оно ведет дело начистоту. Это уничтожает
- Вы сами можете любое действие сделать скучным привкус надувательства, который часто чувствуется в
или интересным, коротким или продолжительным. сценической игре! - восторгался я.
Разве тут дело во внешней цели, а не в тех внутренних - А что бы было если бы я вместо откровенного
побуждениях, поводах, обстоятельствах, при которых признания вымысла, стал бы клясться, что за дверью
и ради которых выполняется действие? Возьмите хотя подлинный, "всамделишный" сумасшедший?
бы простое открывание и закрывание двери. Что может - Я не поверил бы такому явному обману и не
быть бессмысленнее такой механической задачи? сдвинулся бы с места. - признался я. - Это-то и хорошо,
Но представьте себе, что в этой квартире, в которой что удивительное "если бы" создает такое состояние,
празднуется сегодня новоселье Малолетконой, жил которое исключает всякое насилие. Только при таких
прежде какой-то человек, впавший в буйное сумасшествие. условиях можно серьезно обсуждать то, чего не было, но
Его увезли в психиатрическую лечебницу... Если бы что могло бы случиться в действительности, - продолжал
оказалось, что он убежал оттуда и теперь стоит за дверью, я свои дифирамбы. [E]
что бы вы сделали?

122 123
 только запомнить их и потом формально выполнять на
- А для чего, по-вашему, артисту нужно воображение? - подмостках? Разве все это рисует характер действующего
задал встречный вопрос Аркадий Николаевич. лица, определяет все оттенки его мыслей, чувств,
- Как для чего? Чтобы создавать магическое "если бы", побуждений и поступков?
"предлагаемые обстоятельства", - ответил Шустов. Нет, все это должно быть дополнено, углублено самим
- Их без нас уже создал автор. Его пьеса-вымысел. артистом. Только тогда все данное нам поэтом и другими
Шустов молчал. творцами спектакля оживет и расшевелит разные уголки
- Все ли, что артистам нужно знать о пьесе, дает им души творящего на сцене и смотрящего в зрительном зале.
драматург? - спросил Торцов. - Можно ли на ста страницах Только тогда сам артист сможет зажить всей полнотой
полностью раскрыть жизнь всех действующих лиц? Или внутренней жизни изображаемого лица и действовать так,
же многое остается недосказанным? Так, например: как повелевает нам автор, режиссер и наше собственное
всегда ли и достаточно ли подробно говорит автор о том, живое чувство. Во всем этой работе нашим ближайшим
что было до начала пьесы? Говорит ли он исчерпывающе помощником является воображение, с его магическим
о том, что будет по окончании ее, о том, что делается за "если бы" и "предлагаемыми обстоятельствами". [F]
кулисами, откуда приходит действующее лицо, куда оно
уходит? Драматург скуп на такого рода комментарии. В - Если воображение играет для артистов такую важную
его тексте значится лишь: "Те же и Петров" или: "Петров роль, то что же делать тем, у кого его нет? - робко спросил
уходит". Но мы не можем приходить из неведомого Шустов.
пространства и уходить в него, не задумываясь о целях - Надо развивать его или уходить со сцены. Иначе
таких передвижений. Такому действию "вообще" нельзя вы попадете в руки режиссеров, которые заменит
поверить. Мы знаем и другие ремарки драматурга: "встал", недостающее вам воображение своим. Это значило бы
"ходит в волнении", "смеется", "умирает". Нам даются для вас отказаться от собственного творчества, сделаться
лаконические характеристики роли, вроде: "Молодой пешкой на сцене. Не лучше ли развить собственное
человек приятной наружности. Много курит". воображение? [J]
Но разве этого достаточно, для того чтобы создать
весь внешний образ, манеры, походку, привычки? А текст
и слова роли? Неужели их нужно только вызубрить и - .....................19......г.
говорить наизусть? - Мое смущение от неудачи домашнего мечтания
А все ремарки поэта, а требования режиссера, а его было так велико, что я не выдержал и все рассказал Аркадию
мизансцены и вся постановка? Неужели достаточно Николаевичу на сегодняшнем уроке, происходившем в

124 125
 малолетковской гостиной. пассивное воображение. [H]
- - Ваш опыт не удался потому, что вы допустили
ряд ошибок, - сказал он мне в ответ на мое сообщение. - Вы знаете, что не сам объект, не лампа, а
- Первая из них была в том, что вы насиловали свое привлекательный вымысел воображения притягивает
воображение, вместо того чтоб увлекать его. Вторая на сцене внимание к объекту. Вымысел перерождает
ошибка в том, что вы мечтали "без руля и без ветрил", как и его и с помощью предполагаемых обстоятельств делает
куда толкнет случай. Подобно тому, как нельзя действовать объект привлекательным. Окружайте же его скорее этими
лишь для того, чтоб что-нибудь делать (действовать - красивыми, волнующими вымыслами вашей фантазии.
ради самого действия), так точно нельзя и мечтать ради Тогда назойливая лампа преобразится и сделается
самого мечтания. В работе вашего воображения не возбудителем творчества.
было смысла, интересного задания, необходимого при Наступила длинная пауза, во время которой я смотрел
творчестве. Третья ваша ошибка в том, что ваши мечтания на лампу, но ничего не мог придумать для обоснования
были не действенны, не активны. Между тем активность своего смотрения. Наконец Торцов сжалился надо мной.
воображаемой жизни имеет для актера совершенно - Я помогу вам. Пусть эта лампочка явится для вас
исключительное по важности значение. Воображение его полураскрытым глазом спящего сказочного чудовища.
должно толкать, вызывать сначала внутреннее, а потом и В густом мраке не видно очертаний его гигантского
внешнее действие. туловища. Тем страшнее оно будет казаться вам. Скажите
- - Я действовал, потому что мысленно летал над себе так: "Если бы вымысел стал действительностью,
лесами с бешеной скоростью. что бы я сделал?" Совершенно так же задумался бы над
- - Разве когда вы лежите в курьерском поезде, таким же вопросом какой-нибудь сказочный царевич,
который тоже мчится с бешеной скоростью, вы прежде чем вступить в поединок с чудовищем, решайте
действуете? - спросил Торцов. - Паровоз, машинист - вот вопрос по простой человеческой логике, с какой
кто работает, а пассажир пассивен. Другое дело, если бы стороны целесообразнее нападать на зверя, раз морда
во время хода поезда у вас был захватывающий деловой его направлена в вашу сторону, а хвост находится далеко
разговор, спор или вы составляли бы доклад, - тогда можно сзади. [I]
было бы говорить о работе и о действии. То же и в вашем
полете на аэроплане. Работал пилот, а вы бездействовали.
Вот если бы вы сами управляли машиной или если бы вы
делали фотографические снимки местности, можно было
бы говорить об активности. Нам нужно активное, а не

126 127
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