Seats, Stages, Threshold: Mapping Power in Theatrical Form

Abstract

This thesis project explores narratives of spatial justice and Arendtian action in the polis by envisioning a democratized theatre space that fosters a shared, interactive experience of theatrical exchange. The research section (Act 1 – Act 3) interrogates the socio-anthropological aspects of performance, spectatorship, and power – more specifically, how power is performed through the actor-spectator relationship and further legitimized and amplified through modes of display. This inquiry is then contextualized through an examination of distinctive architectural typologies and their organizational instruments, mapped and expounded as spatial mechanisms of demarcation and control. The design section (Act 4 – Act 5) grounds the theories in concretized forms by adaptively reusing a vacant paper mill in Holyoke, MA as a multi-stage performance complex. Through a cross-section that traverses five stage types with varying functions and capacities, the complex radically embodies unified multiplicity as a conscious mode of being. By redefining access as openness and freedom as collective agency, the universal theatre reimagines the use of performance space as inclusive, participatory, and accessible to all.