Students in Dr. Nicole Pfannenstiel’s summer Games and Writing class crafted blog posts exploring play theory. Over the next several weeks, we will share their theory posts in this space to offer a variety of perspectives on play, games, and writing, written by current graduate students in the MA and M.Ed. English programs.
_______________________________
What Is Play?
by: Megan E.B. Poff
What is play? When I asked my ten-year-old son this question, he responded with, “Play is when someone is on a set and the person acts it out.” This answer shouldn’t shock me, because I’m married to an actor after all. However, it did make me ponder the way we approach and define this word. As a musician, I have a tendency to automatically go to my respective wheelhouse and define play as something related to what I do for a living – like playing an instrument. While this application of play is appropriate to my everyday life, I can see how it is transferable to someone else’s form of livelihood as well. Play is still a function of being.
Therefore, one could surmise that play is the extension of oneself through thought, activity, and purpose.
There must be an acknowledgement made that play is manifested within the realms of thought (imagination), activity (physicality), and purpose (why). A demonstration of this is apparent in my son’s response. In the case of his working definition, he is making a connection of play with the player. The player embodies thought by using the mind, using the body, and thus demonstrates the response – the why. All circle back to the idea that play is an extension of oneself because play cannot exist without the player.
To consider the extension of oneself through the mind, thought must be applied because it informs the player. Huizinga so aptly puts, “Acknowledging play you acknowledge mind, for whatever else play is, it is not matter” (3). There are examples of this through imaginative play, and as with my son’s working definition as it is applied for actors. In classical training, actors are required to take an improvisatory class. This equips them with the ability to create characters, establish behavior, and think quickly. This process is called play acting. The actor’s extension of self is embodied through play. Therefore, thought process is used. Play is not separate from thought, nor is it separate from the player.
As with the previous example, actors use thought when they play a part – they also use action. It is in the word! Their physicality is an embodiment of self because it extends into the physical. Their physicality requires action. “That which is enacted, or the stuff of action is drama, which again means act, action represented on a stage” (Huizinga, 14). This further confirms an extension of self and the relationship to the player. There is a physical requirement of the player for the play to take place. Play is the embodiment of self through activity and the player must act.
The purpose if play is inevitable because it is created by the thought and action of the player. This seems ironic because we normally associate purpose as a result of reasoning and reasoning is a serious endeavor. This outcome however is not separate from play. When defining play in the traditional sense we separate it as something not serious. “To our way of thinking play is the direct opposite of seriousness” (5). The player makes purpose with the play because there is a why behind it – whether it be to entertain, win, or just have fun. Sutton-Smith makes the case that “Obviously the word play stands for a category of diverse happenings” (298). Each instance creates a purpose of the play because play requires an outcome. In its completion, it is defined by its being.
So, while there is much to ponder with my son’s working definition of play, I cannot argue with his perception of it. He has confirmed that play is no longer limited to active enjoyment or recreation – because both my husband and I technically “play” for a living. We use thought, physicality, and require a purposeful outcome. Play is associated with the function of being. It is rightly fixed within the realm of thought, activity, and purpose. Therefore play is an extension of oneself because without the player, there is no play.
Works Cited
- Huzinga. Homo Ludens Ils 86. Routledge, 1998. EBSCOhost.
research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=bcdd159c-ceac-3b7f-bca1-9ba4488065bc.
Sutton-Smith, Brian. The Ambiguity of Play, Harvard University Press, 1998. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/millersville- ebooks/detail.action?docID=3300549.