Sarah Bay-Cheng
Biographic Data
| ID | 1256069 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sarah Bay-Cheng |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sarah |
| FAMILY NAME | Bay-Cheng |
| SIGNATURE | BAY-CHENG S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Colgate University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1789-164X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 15 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Texts and Contexts
The intersection of digital media and live performance has evolved significantly since the early 20th century, a relationship sometimes traced back to the cave drawings and rituals of early people on earth. This interdisciplinary field has since grown into a major area of research, encompassing terms like multimedia performance, cyborg theater, intermedia, and digital performance. By the 1980s, digital technologies and video became integral to pe…
What Can Scholars Do
The notion of spending a day
Visualising Lost Theatres
Reviewed by: Visualising Lost Theatres: Virtual Praxis and the Recovery of Performance Spaces by Joanne Tompkins Sarah Bay-Cheng VISUALISING LOST THEATRES: VIRTUAL PRAXIS AND THE RECOVERY OF PERFORMANCE SPACES. By Joanne Tompkins, Julie Holledge, Jonathan Bollen, and Liyang Xia. Cambridge Studies in Modern Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022; pp. 211. Over the past twenty years, practices associated with the digital humanities ha…
Digital Scholarship Roundtable
Digital Performance and Its Discontents (or, Problems of Presence in Pandemic Performance)
For at least thirty years, scholars have debated the centrality of physical and embodied presence as essential to the experience of theatre and performance. A debate that was perhaps largely academic suddenly became a shared reality when COVID-19 shuttered live venues, closed universities and moved artists of all kinds online. Suddenly, much of the theatre world began acting for the (web)camera. This article considers the changing attitudes towar…
Presidential Libraries as Performance
Reviewed by: Presidential Libraries as Performance: Curating American Character from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush by Jodi Kantor Sarah Bay-Cheng PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES AS PERFORMANCE: CURATING AMERICAN CHARACTER FROM HERBERT HOOVER TO GEORGE W. BUSH. By Jodi Kantor. Theater in the Americas series. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2016; pp. 198. Jodi Kantor has great timing. Presciently anticipating the new national attention to…
The Performing Subject in the Space of Technology
Reviewed by: The Performing Subject in the Space of Technology: Through the Virtual, Towards the Real ed. by Matthew Causey, Emma Meehan, Néill O’Dwyer Sarah Bay-Cheng The Performing Subject in the Space of Technology: Through the Virtual, Towards the Real. Edited by Matthew Causey, Emma Meehan, and Néill O’Dwyer. Palgrave Studies in Performance and Technology. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015; pp. 242. The most useful contribution from …
Digital Historiography and Performance
In the wake of the so-called digital revolution, media and technology affect not only performance practices, but also how the history of those practices can be documented, analyzed, and shared. The last several years have seen significant increases in digital research and scholarship projects, as well as more official recognition throughout the field, including special issues and edited collections dedicated to the digital humanities in theatre a…
Virtual Realisms
Virtual Realisms: Dramatic Forays into the Future Sarah Bay-Cheng (bio) The Nether. By Jennifer Haley. Directed by Jeremy Herrin. Royal Court Theatre, London. 26 July 2014. Mr Burns: A Post-Electric Play. By Anne Washburn. Directed by Robert Icke. Almeida Theatre, London. 25 July 2014. “‘Virtual Reality’ is not a computer. We are speaking about a technology that uses computer-ized clothing to synthesize shared reality. It recreates our relationsh…
When This You See
Mapping Intermediality in Performance
This volume examines afresh the impact upon acting and performance of digital technologies. It is concerned with how digital culture combines the traditional ‘liveness’ of theatre with media interfaces and internet protocols. The time and space of the ‘here and now’ are both challenged and adapted, just as barriers between theatre-makers and the ‘experiencers’ of events are broken down. Today many of us are everyday players performing the interco…
Closer
Reviewed by: Closer: Performance, Technologies, Phenomenology Sarah Bay-Cheng Closer: Performance, Technologies, Phenomenology. By Susan Kozel. Leonardo Books. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008; pp. xxi + 355. $37.00 cloth. For those interested in the intersections of art, science, and technology, the Leonardo Books series from MIT Press has provided many of the essential readings in the field. While a number of major presses have added series that …
Performing the Matrix
Reviewed by: Performing the Matrix: Mediating Cultural Performances Sarah Bay-Cheng Performing the Matrix: Mediating Cultural Performances. Edited by Meike Wagner and Wolf-Dieter Ernst. INTERVISION—Texts on Theatre and Other Arts Series, no. 8. Munich: ePodium, 2008; pp. 357. €29.00, $37.00 paper. There are few popular films in recent memory that have received as much scholarly attention as Andy and Larry Wachowski's The Matrix (1999). Since the …
Staging Gertrude Stein
Reviewed by: Staging Gertrude Stein: Absence, Culture, and the Landscape of American Alternative Theatre Sarah Bay-Cheng Staging Gertrude Stein: Absence, Culture, and the Landscape of American Alternative Theatre. By Leslie Atkins Durham . New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005; pp. viii + 182. $65.00 cloth. The last twenty years have been good to Gertrude Stein, particularly her theatrical reputation. Although she endured years of ridicule and saw o…
Translation, Typography, and the Avant-Garde's Impossible Text
Translation, Typography, and the Avant-Garde's Impossible Text Sarah Bay-Cheng Abstract This essay considers a typographical illustration in Tristan Tzara's Le Coeur à Gaz as a kind of perverse theatrical text, one that defies translation into performance and thus undermines the integrity of theatrical embodiment. Drawing on translation theory, the article argues that Tzara's seemingly unperformable, typographical mode of dramatic writing both ra…
Medea's Daughters
Reviewed by: Medea’s Daughters: Forming and Performing the Woman Who Kills Sarah Bay-Cheng Medea’s Daughters: Forming and Performing the Woman Who Kills. By Jennifer Jones. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2003; pp. ix + 123. $48.95 cloth, $23.95 paper. At the heart of Jennifer Jones's study of murdering women is the argument that theatrical representation (popular songs, television, film, and theatre) can be effective tools for the study o…
"I Am the Man!" Performing Gender and Other Incongruities
The following essay details the genesis of the performance "I Am the Man" for the First International Drag King Extravaganza. In it the authors explain both their autobiographical performances and the relationship between their drag performances and transgender theory by linking Shakespeare to queer theory and by overlapping their personal narratives
Body and Soul
It may seem odd to write here about a book that seems, at first glance, to have only limited interest in either drama or performance. In fact, given Robert Crunden's broad scope in Body and Soul—art, music, and letters—it is surprising that theatre enters his study as little as it does. For instance, he rarely mentions Eugene O'Neill as anything more than a guest at various New York soirées. And yet, despite theatre's apparent absence, elements o…
Amazon All Stars
Mapping Intermediality in Performance
This volume examines afresh the impact upon acting and performance of digital technologies. It is concerned with how digital culture combines the traditional ‘liveness’ of theatre with media interfaces and internet protocols. The time and space of the ‘here and now’ are both challenged and adapted, just as barriers between theatre-makers and the ‘experiencers’ of events are broken down. Today many of us are everyday players performing the interco…
Digital Historiography and Performance
In the wake of the so-called digital revolution, media and technology affect not only performance practices, but also how the history of those practices can be documented, analyzed, and shared. The last several years have seen significant increases in digital research and scholarship projects, as well as more official recognition throughout the field, including special issues and edited collections dedicated to the digital humanities in theatre a…
"I Am the Man!" Performing Gender and Other Incongruities
The following essay details the genesis of the performance "I Am the Man" for the First International Drag King Extravaganza. In it the authors explain both their autobiographical performances and the relationship between their drag performances and transgender theory by linking Shakespeare to queer theory and by overlapping their personal narratives
Virtual Realisms
Virtual Realisms: Dramatic Forays into the Future Sarah Bay-Cheng (bio) The Nether. By Jennifer Haley. Directed by Jeremy Herrin. Royal Court Theatre, London. 26 July 2014. Mr Burns: A Post-Electric Play. By Anne Washburn. Directed by Robert Icke. Almeida Theatre, London. 25 July 2014. “‘Virtual Reality’ is not a computer. We are speaking about a technology that uses computer-ized clothing to synthesize shared reality. It recreates our relationsh…
Amazon All Stars
Body and Soul
It may seem odd to write here about a book that seems, at first glance, to have only limited interest in either drama or performance. In fact, given Robert Crunden's broad scope in Body and Soul—art, music, and letters—it is surprising that theatre enters his study as little as it does. For instance, he rarely mentions Eugene O'Neill as anything more than a guest at various New York soirées. And yet, despite theatre's apparent absence, elements o…
"I Am the Man!" Performing Gender and Other Incongruities
The following essay details the genesis of the performance "I Am the Man" for the First International Drag King Extravaganza. In it the authors explain both their autobiographical performances and the relationship between their drag performances and transgender theory by linking Shakespeare to queer theory and by overlapping their personal narratives
Medea's Daughters
Reviewed by: Medea’s Daughters: Forming and Performing the Woman Who Kills Sarah Bay-Cheng Medea’s Daughters: Forming and Performing the Woman Who Kills. By Jennifer Jones. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2003; pp. ix + 123. $48.95 cloth, $23.95 paper. At the heart of Jennifer Jones's study of murdering women is the argument that theatrical representation (popular songs, television, film, and theatre) can be effective tools for the study o…
Staging Gertrude Stein
Reviewed by: Staging Gertrude Stein: Absence, Culture, and the Landscape of American Alternative Theatre Sarah Bay-Cheng Staging Gertrude Stein: Absence, Culture, and the Landscape of American Alternative Theatre. By Leslie Atkins Durham . New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005; pp. viii + 182. $65.00 cloth. The last twenty years have been good to Gertrude Stein, particularly her theatrical reputation. Although she endured years of ridicule and saw o…
Translation, Typography, and the Avant-Garde's Impossible Text
Translation, Typography, and the Avant-Garde's Impossible Text Sarah Bay-Cheng Abstract This essay considers a typographical illustration in Tristan Tzara's Le Coeur à Gaz as a kind of perverse theatrical text, one that defies translation into performance and thus undermines the integrity of theatrical embodiment. Drawing on translation theory, the article argues that Tzara's seemingly unperformable, typographical mode of dramatic writing both ra…
Closer
Reviewed by: Closer: Performance, Technologies, Phenomenology Sarah Bay-Cheng Closer: Performance, Technologies, Phenomenology. By Susan Kozel. Leonardo Books. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008; pp. xxi + 355. $37.00 cloth. For those interested in the intersections of art, science, and technology, the Leonardo Books series from MIT Press has provided many of the essential readings in the field. While a number of major presses have added series that …
Performing the Matrix
Reviewed by: Performing the Matrix: Mediating Cultural Performances Sarah Bay-Cheng Performing the Matrix: Mediating Cultural Performances. Edited by Meike Wagner and Wolf-Dieter Ernst. INTERVISION—Texts on Theatre and Other Arts Series, no. 8. Munich: ePodium, 2008; pp. 357. €29.00, $37.00 paper. There are few popular films in recent memory that have received as much scholarly attention as Andy and Larry Wachowski's The Matrix (1999). Since the …
Mapping Intermediality in Performance
This volume examines afresh the impact upon acting and performance of digital technologies. It is concerned with how digital culture combines the traditional ‘liveness’ of theatre with media interfaces and internet protocols. The time and space of the ‘here and now’ are both challenged and adapted, just as barriers between theatre-makers and the ‘experiencers’ of events are broken down. Today many of us are everyday players performing the interco…
When This You See
Virtual Realisms
Virtual Realisms: Dramatic Forays into the Future Sarah Bay-Cheng (bio) The Nether. By Jennifer Haley. Directed by Jeremy Herrin. Royal Court Theatre, London. 26 July 2014. Mr Burns: A Post-Electric Play. By Anne Washburn. Directed by Robert Icke. Almeida Theatre, London. 25 July 2014. “‘Virtual Reality’ is not a computer. We are speaking about a technology that uses computer-ized clothing to synthesize shared reality. It recreates our relationsh…
The Performing Subject in the Space of Technology
Reviewed by: The Performing Subject in the Space of Technology: Through the Virtual, Towards the Real ed. by Matthew Causey, Emma Meehan, Néill O’Dwyer Sarah Bay-Cheng The Performing Subject in the Space of Technology: Through the Virtual, Towards the Real. Edited by Matthew Causey, Emma Meehan, and Néill O’Dwyer. Palgrave Studies in Performance and Technology. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015; pp. 242. The most useful contribution from …
Digital Historiography and Performance
In the wake of the so-called digital revolution, media and technology affect not only performance practices, but also how the history of those practices can be documented, analyzed, and shared. The last several years have seen significant increases in digital research and scholarship projects, as well as more official recognition throughout the field, including special issues and edited collections dedicated to the digital humanities in theatre a…
Presidential Libraries as Performance
Reviewed by: Presidential Libraries as Performance: Curating American Character from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush by Jodi Kantor Sarah Bay-Cheng PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES AS PERFORMANCE: CURATING AMERICAN CHARACTER FROM HERBERT HOOVER TO GEORGE W. BUSH. By Jodi Kantor. Theater in the Americas series. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2016; pp. 198. Jodi Kantor has great timing. Presciently anticipating the new national attention to…
Digital Performance and Its Discontents (or, Problems of Presence in Pandemic Performance)
For at least thirty years, scholars have debated the centrality of physical and embodied presence as essential to the experience of theatre and performance. A debate that was perhaps largely academic suddenly became a shared reality when COVID-19 shuttered live venues, closed universities and moved artists of all kinds online. Suddenly, much of the theatre world began acting for the (web)camera. This article considers the changing attitudes towar…
Visualising Lost Theatres
Reviewed by: Visualising Lost Theatres: Virtual Praxis and the Recovery of Performance Spaces by Joanne Tompkins Sarah Bay-Cheng VISUALISING LOST THEATRES: VIRTUAL PRAXIS AND THE RECOVERY OF PERFORMANCE SPACES. By Joanne Tompkins, Julie Holledge, Jonathan Bollen, and Liyang Xia. Cambridge Studies in Modern Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022; pp. 211. Over the past twenty years, practices associated with the digital humanities ha…
Digital Scholarship Roundtable
What Can Scholars Do
The notion of spending a day
Texts and Contexts
The intersection of digital media and live performance has evolved significantly since the early 20th century, a relationship sometimes traced back to the cave drawings and rituals of early people on earth. This interdisciplinary field has since grown into a major area of research, encompassing terms like multimedia performance, cyborg theater, intermedia, and digital performance. By the 1980s, digital technologies and video became integral to pe…
Art (14 works) · Aesthetics (9 works) · Art history (9 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Literature (8 works) · Theatre and Performance Studies (8 works) · Visual arts (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Law (7 works)