Theatre Topics

Lance Gharavi
Of Both Worlds: Exploiting Rave Technologies in Caridad Svich’s Iphigenia
Theatre Topics - Volume 18, Number 2, September 2008, pp. 223-242

The Johns Hopkins University Press

Project MUSE - Theatre Topics - Of Both Worlds: Exploiting Rave Technologies in Caridad Svich's Iphigenia Project MUSE Journals Theatre Topics Volume 18, Number 2, September 2008 Of Both Worlds: Exploiting Rave Technologies in Caridad Svich's Iphigenia Theatre Topics Volume 18, Number 2, September 2008 E-ISSN: 1086-3346 Print ISSN: 1054-8378 DOI: 10.1353/tt.0.0031 Of Both Worlds: Exploiting Rave Technologies in Caridad Svich's Iphigenia Lance Gharavi Only ten years ago, at the end of the last century, the inclusion of digital media into a live theatre event still provided a relatively novel spectacle. In the United States, the important work by groups within academia like Mark Reaney's Institute for the Exploration of Virtual Realities (i.e. VR) at the University of Kansas,1 David Saltz's Interactive Performance Laboratory at the University of Georgia,2 and, outside of academia, the George Coates Performance Works,3 Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre,4 and, in the United Kingdom, Steve Dixon's Chameleons Group5 (among several others6) became models of startling and exciting innovation, their productions revealing the rich possibilities that digital technology and media held for the art of the theatre. It seemed a brave new world for these pioneers, heady days before the dot-com implosion, the iPod revolution, the ubiquitous cell-phone camera, and the itchy, social scourge of "CrackBerry" addiction. But from our current perspective in this country, as we...