Infinite Identities: Staging Fandom and Diversity in Geek Theatre

In this dissertation, I demonstrate that geek theatre is creating a model for diversifying representation, attracting new audiences, and balancing sociopolitical content with entertainment. While a subcategory of genre theatre, I reserve the term “geek theatre” for products of geek self-representation, relying on fandom audiences’ ability to recognize and understand tropes, references, and inside jokes of media culture as a form of communication and critique. Geek theatre not only has the ability to draw fandom audiences into the theatre, but also draws attention to bold representations of LGBTQIA+, women, and racial minorities, often in deeply intersectional ways. Moreover, the plays examined represent an overlap of the critical discourse of fandom with the critical discourses of theatre studies and academic theory. As case studies, I examine Kitty Keim’s Crabbe & Goyle Are Dead, Crystal Skillman’s Geek!, and Jon Carr’s The Wrath of Con through the lens of fan studies; Qui Nguyen’s She Kills Monsters and Matt Cox’s Kapow-i GoGo saga through queer theory; Qui Nguyen’s The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G and Inda Craig-Galván’s Black Super Hero Magic Mama through intersectionality; and Qui Nguyen’s Fight Girl Battle World, Elaine Lee’s Starstruck, and Christopher Kidder-Mostrom and Sasha Warren’s A Klingon Christmas Carol through posthumanism.