This book focuses on experimental theatre company, GAle GAtes, credited as "the true innovator" of the contemporary immersive movement.
The Immersive Theatre of GAle GAtes is a case-study of this little-known but visionary company, with a focus on its development and dramaturgy. Through rare archival and primary research, as well as historical context, the text chronicles company narrative and celebrates the artistic impulse. The book employs descriptive-narrative and dramaturgical analysis and is composed of historical research, rare archives, and primary source interviews. Chapters focus on the trajectory of the avant-garde leading up to the climate in which the company formed, company formative years, and major works and a discussion on the interdisciplinary and theoretical frameworks critical to its understanding.
This study will be of great interest to students and scholars in theatre and performance studies and essential reading for theatre artist and historian alike, with a focus on the experimental theatre landscape.
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Foreword by Rachel Bowditch
Introduction
Chapter 1. GAle GAtes Formation And Early Works
Chapter 2. The DUMBO Warehouse
Chapter 3. Field of Mars
Chapter 4. Tilly Losch
Chapter 5. 1839
Chapter 6. So Long Ago I Can’t Remember
Chapter 7. Montage and the Visual Arts Influence
Chapter 8. Series, Festivities, and Closure
Chapter 9. Landscape Opera + the Immersive Work of GAle GAtes Et Al.
Chapter 10. Sustainability
Conclusion: ~"This Has Been Very American"
Index
Biography
Daniella Vinitski Mooney is a PhD artist-scholar with an emphasis in physical, classical, and experimental theatre. She has been published with Routledge, Bloomsbury, Theatre Survey, Theatre Journal, IJPADM, Ecumenica, and Theatre History Studies and is a former lecturer for the University of Pennsylvania.
'GAle GAtes was among the most innovative and ambitious performance groups in New York in the closing years of the twentieth century, and it anticipated much of most interesting work in immersive and mixed media production which dominated the American avant-garde in the years which followed. A detailed production history of this influential group is much needed and Daniella Vinitski’s engaging study provides just such an introduction.' Dr. Marvin Carlson'This in-depth record of GAle GAtes's influential and ground-breaking work is a major contribution to the field. Vinitski's writing and research is so vivid and detailed, as a reader, I felt immersed in these productions that I've never seen.' Aili Huber, co-author of Cutting Plays for Performance: A Practical and Accessible Guide (Routledge)
