This event is organized by the  BMO Lab at the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies at the University of Toronto. 

Note: Event details may change. Please refer to the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies events page for the most current information.

Join the BMO Lab at the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies for their Diagonal Speakers Series in Emerging Technologies. On February 11, 2026, Dr. Gina Bloom from the University of California, Davis, will present on Scaling Up Applied Theatre through an AI-Powered Video Game.

Event details:

Date and time: Wednesday, February 11, 2026 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Location: Luella Massey Studio Theatre, 4 Glen Morris Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 1J1

Abstract:

This talk examines how video games can extend a long tradition of socially engaged performance known as “applied theatre,” in which participants in a dramatized scenario rehearse responses to ethical, social, or professional issues they face in the real world. As applied theatre moves into digital and VR environments, designers too often privilege immersive realism over meaningful interactivity, sacrificing a critical component of the learning experience. This paper argues that video games, which foreground participant agency and experimentation, can be an ideal format for digitally mediated applied theatre. Taking as its case study Stay Thy Blade, a dialogue game about violence de-escalation and Macbeth that Bloom is co-developing with faculty and students at UC Davis, the paper shows how dramaturgically informed AI systems can function as ethical facilitators of the applied theatre scenario.

Bio:

Gina Bloom is Professor of English at the University of California, Davis, where she is affiliated with the PhD programs in Education and Performance Studies. Her most recent work focuses on intersections between theatre and games. She has published two open-access books on this topic: Gaming the Stage: Playable Media and the Rise of Commercial Theater (2018) and Experimenting with Shakespeare: Games and Play in the Laboratory (2024), a collaboratively-written book focused on an extended reality theatre game called Play the Knave that she co-designed. Play the Knave has been installed in theatre lobbies, cultural institutions, and classrooms around the world and is at the centre of Bloom’s ongoing collaboration with high school teachers in South Africa. Currently, she is working with faculty and students in the UC Davis’s Center for Artificial Intelligence and Experimental Futures to design an AI-driven game about Macbeth and violence de-escalation.

Co-sponsored by the BMO Lab and the Helen and Paul Phelan Chair in Drama, Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies.