Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
6-2026
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
Theatre and Performance
Advisor
Peter Eckersall
Committee Members
Claire Bishop
Bertie Ferdman
Subject Categories
Contemporary Art | Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory | Other Theatre and Performance Studies | Performance Studies | Theatre History
Keywords
Ableism, Undoing, Dramaturgy, Relaxed Performance, Disability, Neurodivergent
Abstract
This dissertation investigates Relaxed Performance (RP), an accessible theatre practice that originated in sensory-friendly screenings for autistic audiences in the 1990s and has since evolved into a model for inclusive creative practice. By contextualizing RP in contemporary performance, I investigate the notion of “relaxed” and how it is applied to and operates across four areas: creative production, spectatorship, physical space, and cultural space. This trajectory reveals four anti-ableist practices—friction, refusal, rest, and failure—through which RP communicates, negotiates, and rehearses inclusive relationships in and beyond theatre for neurodivergent bodies.
Drawing on slow dramaturgy, global disability studies, and audience studies and spectatorship, I conduct a critical ethnography from 2023 to 2026 involving interviews with neurodivergent artists and multi-sited fieldwork at U.S. and East Asian regional theatres. I propose to understand the term relaxed in two ways: undoing and doing. By undoing, I mean to interrogate, loosen, and dismantle the conventions of ableist performance-making and theatre etiquette. By doing, I mean to reconstruct inclusive social relationships by centering the lived experiences and embodiment of neurodivergent bodies as access knowledge.
This research intervenes in and contributes to three urgent conversations: first, by reimagining anti-ableist spectatorship and inclusive creative practices within theatre and performance studies; second, by advancing a global framework within the dominant Anglo-North American disability studies; and third, by offering practical tools for structural change in theatre beyond tokenistic diversity.
Recommended Citation
Peng, Hui, "Undoing Ableism: The Dramaturgy of Relaxed Performance and the Making of Neurodivergent Bodies" (2026). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6693
Included in
Contemporary Art Commons, Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, Other Theatre and Performance Studies Commons, Performance Studies Commons, Theatre History Commons
