D&D satellite: What can role-play gaming and theatre learn from each other?

      

We are Chloe and Chris (together, we're Adventurers Wanted) - two people with backgrounds in theatre, a love of tabletop role-playing games, and a belief that something brilliant can be made when the two are combined. Some of the most engaging, surprising and heart-stopping performances and theatrical moments we've ever seen have been in friends' living rooms whilst playing games - from vivid descriptions of near-death experiences to beautifully acted confessions to stunning improvised songs.

We love the kind of power dynamics and group interactions that games like Werewolf can provoke. We love the rich, character-led storytelling that games like Dungeons & Dragons can facilitate. We love the genuine stakes and threat that games like Dread can create. And we love how at the centre of tabletop roleplaying games is a group of people creating and telling a story together - so we want to work out how we can build on the storytelling at the heart of such games to find new ways of creating performances both with and for audiences.

How can we take games and make them more theatrical without losing what's special about games? How can we make theatre structured using gaming mechanics without losing what's unique about theatre? And how on earth do we describe whatever the end result of this mash-up is?

Love theatre but hate games? Love games but hate theatre? Come along and let's talk about why - and see if we can make something new entirely.

This Open Space event will be the second half of a day-long event: join the Adventurers Wanted team beforehand for a taste of Dungeons & Dragons! Whether you'd like to play in a game, be shown how to create your own personal character complete with backstory, or pick someone's brains about how to write up adventurers and run games yourself, we'll have plenty of experienced Dungeon Masters and knowledgable players to give you a friendly and easy intro to this world of role-play, improvisation and communal storytelling!

Let's play games. Let's make up some stories. Let's have fun. And then let's figure out how to do it all in the biggest, boldest, best way possible.

This Devoted & Disgruntled satellite includes a morning of playing games with Adventurers Wanted, and an afternoon of Open Space. You can come to both parts of the day, or just one, and you can change your mind once you're there. To help us get an idea of numbers, please register your interest by booking places for what you think you'll be coming to, in the knowledge that they are not mutually exclusive and you can come and go as you please all day!

Thanks to Shoreditch Town Hall  & Adventurers Wanted for making this event possible.

This event is fully wheelchair-accessible via a platform lift from the street to the main foyer. Shoreditch Town Hall welcomes assistance dogs and has gender-neutral, accessible toilets with baby changing facilities; and a nearby loading bay which allows up to 3 hours parking for blue badge holders. We welcome neurodivergent participants to all our events. BSL interpretation is available on request. Contact us at [email protected] or call 020 7240 4556 for this, or for any other access requests and queries.

More details about access provision at Shoreditch Town Hall can be found here.