The New Intimacy: rihannaboi95 and Web Theatre

“The New Intimacy: rihannaboi95 and Web Theatre” provides a summary of the creation and dissemination of Jordan Tannahill’s live-streamed Internet play rihannaboi95 and contextualizes it within the broader, emergent practice of web theatre. He speaks of the play’s origin within the “sissy boy dance/lip-synch” and “confessional” YouTube video genres, the rationale for choosing live-streamed video as a theatrical form, and the unique performance and directorial challenges that arose from the form. Tannahill goes on to discuss other artists creating performances that either exist entirely within Internet applications, such as Twitter, or substantially employ Internet applications within a theatrical production. Tannahill proposes that form profoundly informs content in web theatre and that as apps and devices are created, performance creators will generate content for and about them (the danger being performances that do not transcend technological gimmickry). Through the innovative use of free Internet applications, Tannahill suggests web theatre has the potential to be an affordable form of performance that transcends geographical barriers.