At this moment, theater has an opportunity to redefine how stories can be told and how audiences might be invited into the telling. Young audiences have been weaned on choice-based, participatory and socially networked artwork and entertainment. Through scholarship, creative work, and play testing, this course will explore the emerging fields of participatory theater, interactive performance, social gaming, and system-based story telling. We will study the basics of game design, the fundamentals of physical and social gaming, ritual, and the history of interactivity as a theatrical device.