Gamers and Theatre: Is There a Connection?

[MrFilthyIke]

I'm in the B category. Drama class in 8th and 9th grade.

After that I was too busy gaming to be involved in theatre.

 

[DarkKestral]

I bet there is a higher incidence of engineer gamers than theatre gamers.

Just a hunch.

Wouldn't be surprised, but given my own experiences, a lot of theater geeks who live and breathe theater tend to enjoy role playing games, particularly if they're fans of improv theater. Improv and RPGs are similar in many respects, so people who do one often like the other when they find out about it. So while I expect the majority to not be theater-types, because the sciences, math, and engineering in total tend to have higher numbers, I won't be at all surprised if there's a high ratio of theater geeks who like D&D and RPGs in general.

 

[awayfarer]

I think the poll could use a little more granularity. As an english major I've read a slew of plays and even attended a few. I'm in the middle of an 100 level theatre course (intro) but thats pretty much the extent of it.

People's high schools had theatre programs? I'm not sure if my high school didn't have one or I just never heard about it. Neither would surprise me.

 

[Sparafucile]

I was very involved in theatre in high school, and did a little in college too. I minored in Speech/Theatre education. I definitely see a connection, yet almost everyone I game with now is into computers or a scientific field, and probably did little to no acting (I haven't asked them yet).

I would also wonder if peopel attracted to DMing have a higher instance of acting backgrounds than players? When I DM, I really feel the acting/improv juices. . . much more than when I'm just playing a single character.

 

[Mallus]

I was very involved in theatre...

Don't you mean opera???

 

[FunkBGR]

I was heavily involved in Theater in High School. I did none of it in college, and now I'm a Software Engineer.

Go figure.

Most of my players have no theater background. Only one has one that's similar to mine, except he really just does it on the side, and is studying to be a dentist! The rest . . . there's one that works in a Comp Sci related field, but otherwise, they're neither actors nor engineers.

I have 7 people I game with, including myself.

 

[Voadam]

Very little. I did one improvisionational drama elective in Jr. High, one drama class in high school, and acted in two student films in High School. Boy scout skits is about the extent of the rest.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I bet there is a higher incidence of engineer gamers than theatre gamers.

Professional engineers compared to professional theatrical/film people sure - but there are a lot more of those in general - and no one does a little engineering on the side in the way that amateur actors and such might work at little dinky theaters out in the sticks, or who appeared in a few high school plays and minored in theatre - like me for example. Probably a higher incidence of behind-the-scenes theatre techies than actors, I'd guess, to break it down further.

Personally, I run into more web developers than engineers. Though when I lived in California, I did have to stop game midway through so a couple of engineers in my group could turn on the TV and see if the test flight of the missile they were testing went well.

"Cool, it worked! The last one just spun around and rammed into the ground!"

 

[mmu1]

No theatrical background whatsoever.

I've had almost uniformly bad experiences with people with "acting backgrounds" and RPGs. Most of the ones I'd run into were a bunch of drama queens (no pun intended), attention hogs and borderline solipsists...

Though to be fair, virtually all of those were the kind of people who tell you (even though you didn't ask) that they're actors, despite the fact they temp for a living and their body of work consists of a couple of amateur theatrical productions and a commercial.

A friend of mine who actually does make a living as an actor never seemed to have those kinds of issues.

 

[Jhaelen]

So it made me wonder...is there a theatre/RPG connection? How much theatrical experience and/or training do you have, if any? (EDIT: I am interested in all types of theatrical training: costuming, sound and light design, set design, direction, and management...not just acting.)

Unless you're talking about Live action RPGing there's zero connection between RPGs and theatre.
'Acting' in character at a rpg table is very different from acting on stage. I've found that people interested in theatre tend to dislike pen & paper RPGs but they sometimes enjoy the Live action RPGs.