From circuit to body: reconfiguring performer training in interactive sustainable theatre

This article examines how interactive energy scenography reshapes performer training within the growing discourse on sustainable theatre. Using Before Fading Away (premiered in 2023 at the National Taichung Theatre, Taiwan) as a practice-led case, the study analyses piezoelectric floor panels and hand-crank lamps that compel dancers to recalibrate kinaesthetic perception, regulate affect, and redesign movement strategies in response to unstable technological feedback. Framed by Zarrilli’s psychophysical training and Latour’s actor-network theory (ANT), the article argues that such technological ecologies foster co-agency, as performers negotiate bodily power within distributed networks of humans and devices. Semi-structured interviews with three core performers indicate that the performer’s body functions as an energy regulator embedded in an adaptive, eco-responsive system. The article proposes a reframing of training in green theatre as an adaptive, relational, techno-ecological process, and discusses curricular and creative implications.