NICHOLAS S. ORVIS
Dramaturg, Scholar, Director
Scholarship
As a scholar and critic, I engage with both the public and other scholars to discuss what theater is, what it could be, and what new modes of performance mean. My current research project - a doctoral dissertation titled Contemporary Game-Based Dramaturgies - develops a category I call "gameful theater" to refer to postmodern theatrical forms that invite the audience to play them alongside (or instead of) professional actors. My other research interests include immersive theater, participatory drama more broadly, and early modern European drama.
Scholarly Publications
If you would like to discuss these further, or you lack access to them through your own institution, please contact me: nick.ruizorvs [at] yale.edu.
Queer Utopian Time in Gameful Theatre
Forthcoming, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism. Essay analyzing chronological models from queer theory and gaming as applied to gameful performance.
Between Theater and LARP: Dialectical Dramaturgy in César Alvarez’s The Universe is a Small Hat
Under review (abstract accepted), TDR. Essay discussing the LARP-informed structure of Alvarez’s participatory musical.
Theater 52.3. Essay review examining three performances from 2021-22 that incorporate playful/game structures into their dramaturgy and discussing the importance of game studies to such performance.
Review: Reflective Affective Dramaturgies of Participatory Theatre: Larping Audiences into Performance
Reflective Affective Dramaturgies of Participatory Theatre: Larping Audiences into Performance. Sarah Hoover, Palgrave Macmillan (2024). In Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism (forthcoming).
Playing Real: Mimesis, Media, and Mischief. Lindsay Brandon Hunter, Northwestern University Press (2021). In Journal of American Drama and Theatre 37.1.
Public Scholarship and Criticism
Dungeons + Drama Nerds (2020-present)
Publicly accessible podcast exploring the intersection of tabletop roleplaying games and theater, including actual play demonstrations with theater artists, dramaturgical analysis of game structures, and interviews with theater and game creators. Co-creator, producer, and frequent contributor with Todd Brian Backus and Percival Hornak.
With Ran Xia. 3Views on Theater, May 21, 2024. Dual-perspective review/essay on the off-Broadway performance of Dungeons and Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern at the Stage 42 Theater.
Theater 51.3. A short artistic reflection on a year spent quasi-deliberately without traditional theatre work during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the benefits of being removed from the constant production cycle of American theater.
Time Capsule: Artists Reflect on a Pandemic (co-editor)
Co-editor with Lily Haje and Ashley M. Thomas. Theater 51.3. Special section collecting reflections, artwork, and provocations dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic from a wide array of theater and performance artists, including Ernesto Pujol, Fake Friends, and Diana Oh.
With Todd Brian Backus, Percival Hornak. HowlRound, September 29, 2020. Essay exploring initial findings from Dungeons + Drama Nerds podcast and their implications for theatrical practice.