What "interPLAY" Means To Me:

If you have looked at my professional blog, if I have ever handed you a business card, if I have ever had a conversation with you about libraries, you've seen or heard this word, interplay. Or, how I like to write it, interPLAY. I am far from the first to use this word, which means how two different entities interact, to focus on how gaming affects us. But it is something few others bring to the world of libraries.

I grew up taking interactive theater for granted. I thought everyone knew about it, because I was constantly bringing people to Renaissance Festivals and role-playing away my Sunday afternoons. My friends and I would go to the Museum of Science and Industry and learn, but we would learn while also running around pretending we were the Sailor Scouts, protecting this knowledge from the Negaverse, and that information became much more valuable.

I have never lost that sense of play, but I remember watching the love of play fade from my peers in school. We live in a society that worships Hollywood celebrities, but also belittles playing pretend when you're becoming a grown up. I was made to feel lesser than many of my fellow IB students in high school because I spent just as much time playing D&D as I did studying on the weekend. No one wanted to hear about the public speaking skills I gained as I went from shy introvert to can-talk-to-strangers introvert, or how my confidence grew, though my creative writing teacher loved the influence on my writing as I learned to polish it for the creation of in-game documents. When I studied games for groups - what each game taught and fostered - teachers told me I was wasting my time. Shortly after, I used those games for one of my favorite jobs, assistant directing an interactive theater show for a couple of years. Now, I use them to easily create aspects of programs that can range in age from children to teens to adults.

No matter our age, we can still learn from play.

One of my primary goals in my library career is to bring awareness of interactive theater to libraries, especially to librarians and paraprofessionals in charge of creating programs. I began this quietly, by creating these programs in my library so I had solid examples to show others. I began it in my own journey, as I found a new interactive hobby that has increased by awareness of the benefits of play and its dangers. I have even been able to begin it professionally. I presented a well-attended program on the subject with my best friend, at the FLA 2015 Conference. While I will include a little more about interactive theater in several more paragraphs past this, I am including my PowerPoint as a video with my presentation as my background. (This is a thirty-five minute video, however, so I understand anyone who skips past it for the too long, didn't listen summary!)

There are two huge benefits to using interactive theater as a tool for programming. The first is price. When you give permission to use imagination as a major aspect of a program, you can get away with a small budget. I have a shoe string budget at my library. Most of the money gets spent on food for programs, or fun prizes. My very first Harry Potter program gave 48 kids a number of knick-knacks, cupcakes, butterbeer, and an unforgettable experience delving into the world of Hogwarts for two hours, forgetting much of the outside world. The program cost the library about $150. $3 per kid for two hours. There are a number of programs that I have spent nothing on - just found items around the library and the homes of staff members and created a fun escape that taught a number of skills, gave them nothing tangible, but let them walk away with memories they still talk to me about.

The second is harder to explain. It has a name, temenos, but that alone means nothing to a good number of people. I wrote this earlier blog post about it, if you would like to read more in depth about the concept. The basic is this: interactive theater needs to provide a safe play space, where actors and players alike can make mistakes in order to grow, and do things correctly and still grow. It is also in this space that your librarians and paraprofessionals are no longer themselves. They are Harry Potter, or Twilight Sparkle, or a samurai or Jedi or any number of people they normally can't be. And patrons respond to that, young and old. I have had teens tell Ron Weasley things they would never tell Samma. I have had adults chat with an Oddish, even when Oddish could only respond with its name, and feel better after venting.

Theater is a magical place, no matter where you put theater.

#interactive #samma #larp #library