Is Cosplay a Type of Theater?

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Blind Hemingway

Blind Hemingway

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Tens of thousands of fans will fill convention centers, stand in endless lines, and many will even dress up as their favorite fictional characters. Why, you might ask, do people cosplay? Well, they cosplay to celebrate a character, to make an awesome costume, to be awesome, and for some, maybe even to become the character. This embodiment of a character is essentially a performance, so does that make cosplay theater? Can theater exist without directors, scripts, or even a stage?
 
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It's definitely performance art, but not everybody does it to be artistic or to tell a story; a lot of folk just think it's fun!
 
I'll be honest, I cosplay because I enjoy making costumes.

Also, I am kick ass ripped and this is just an opportunity to show that off when I normally wouldn't.

Also, I'm enough of a pig to enjoy the female eye candy - this is always a plus to me.

But could it be theatre?

<shrug>

Wouldn't know. I was in the set construction part of things in high school.
 
Minibit said:
It's definitely performance art, but not everybody does it to be artistic or to tell a story; a lot of folk just think it's fun!
Click to expand...

He does address this in the video, but it still counts. ;)
 
I guess it would be considered an art very similar to street performance :/
 
I'd call cos-playing an art, but I don't think it would be a type of performance art, or theater like street performers practice, unless the person involved role-plays as the character for a long time. Street performers, like the ones I saw when I went to Las Vegas two years ago, dressed as Jack Sparrow, Woody from Toy Story, the standard Elvis, and Marlyn Monroe were really good at imitating the people they were pretending to be, and didn't break character while interacting with anyone for any reason.
Some of their outfits, like the guys dressed up as Master Cheif and Iron Man, had extremely intricate costumes that were works of engineering in their own right. Full range of motion, lights, moving parts... These people were few and far between, but they definitely turned cos-playing into a form of theater.
 
I'd like to keep an open mind and say that it could be theater, but I don't really know, I've never cosplayed before so I can't really say.

I would love to cosplay some day, likely as a Vocaloid, or maybe even as my own character, however I think I lack the confidence to do so.
 
The nice thing about cosplay is that the vast majority of people you're around don't know you personally, so who cares if you're dressed funny?
 
In my opinion.. [ trying to be all nice and not b!*ch about it ]

It is not a form of Theatre purely because they are normal people dressing in all sorts of costumes and actually interact with each other's without any specific Role or Lines which they have to say.
Plus I doubt it they get paid. [ in theatre people get paid mostly ]

Cos-playing is a form of Art in the ways of an normal person trying to be something that He/She is not. Or something they wished they Were xD like a favourite character from Final Fantasy or dressed as an Maid from 'x' Anime ..

I don't find it to be any form of Theatre.

It's different.
 
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