Kindergarten truck: Participatory play in public

What is it about?

Kindergarten Truck was an experimental street theatre project conducted in New York City inside of a box truck. To maximize playfulness and minimize psychological danger, one key to success appeared to be using the familiar narrative frames and structures of a Kindergarten classroom. The author describes and reflects upon the process from conception to completion, and explains how he ethically blurred the lines between education, psychotherapy, activism, and entertainment.

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Why is it important?

In a typical commercial theatre, we generally remain passive spectators. Yet when producers create active and immersive encounters, the stakes rise considerably: participatory drama manipulates our personal and social sense of reality, emotion, narrative, and the body. Gaines unpacks the difficulties and solutions he discovered by applying a theory of "aesthetic distance." Through detailing his choices, the author offers practitioners insights they could transfer to other participatory projects.