You’re not alone if you’re expending any energy trying to understand what makes Seattle’s growing tech community click. ACT Theatre and artist-in-residence Lucia Neare are creating a think tank and will devote six months to investigating the theatre’s relationship with evolving technologies and “geek culture.”
According to the theater, the mission of the ACTTech Think Tank includes “exploration of the local tech culture, the rise of gaming, and understanding the artistic priorities of the youth-based tech community — including gaming, cosplay, and nerd/fan culture.”
“Our goal is to innovate a new set of possibilities, practices, or, even, performance plans that will help theatre evolve into the digital age — with stories more relevant and experiences more compelling to 21st century audiences,” Neare said in a news release.
Neare acknowledges that the audience for American theater is hardly growing, and that it’s aging. The think tank will attempt to research and brainstorm ideas that generate civic engagement and compelling theater for a generation that is more prone to gaming culture.
ACTTech Think Tank will draw on creatives of all ages, backgrounds, and areas of passion, the theater says, and is being made possible by a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s “Building Demand for the Arts.”
The 21 participants in the think tank include: Ned Beebe, Lauren Brazell, Lacy Katherine Campbell, Esme DeCoster, Robert Doering, Andrew Forrest, Malie Fujii, Jasmine Kozak Gilroy, Parker Kennedy, Leicester Landon, Josh Langager, Dara Lillis, Casey Middaugh, Erin Murray, Constantin Parvulescu, Timothy J Rogers, Leigh Shaw, Ranleigh Starling, Steven Tran, Margaret Toomey, and Bronwen Williams.
