Playing Real is an insightful examination of how performance across media-theater, film, television, games-shapes our understanding of the 'real' world. Written in an engaging, even playful style, Hunter's core argument nevertheless packs a real punch. As we consider how thoroughly both performance and digital media have penetrated contemporary culture, this book offers an important and timely perspective for theater, performance studies, and beyond." - Sarah Bay-Cheng, coauthor of Performance and Media: Taxonomies for a Changing Field"Lindsay Brandon Hunter neatly sidesteps debates about the social, moral, economic, or cultural value of live versus recorded or broadcast performance, and the ontology of performance itself, in order to closely interrogate several instances of the two as co-existent. This alone is a significant contribution-without ignoring the importance of those debates within the disciplines of performance studies, theater, and media studies, she moves away from polemic and into real-world examples. But the work is more than just an intervention. It also uncovers or re-reads several key texts (yes, True Tori is a key text!) with nuance and rigor, expanding what the above disciplines consider performance, mediatized or otherwise." - Kirsten Pullen, author of Like a Natural Woman: Female Spectacular Performance in the Classical Hollywood Era
