Mascots and costumed characters often function as figures for communities to playfully project their interests, test limits of representation, and share in earnest and ironic admiration. They stand in for something larger—an idea, team, company, or nation. They are also, however, inhabited by an individual performer, whose body and labor are intentionally concealed, subsumed, by the fabric of the costume. This presentation examines the labor that animates mascot costumes as a form of sweaty theatricality that congeals in the characters themselves, opening theoretical and material possibilities for considering the work of performance.

About Eero Laine, Assistant Professor, Theatre and Dance

Eero studies commercial forms that carry implications for how we think about and approach performance and theatre. He is the author of Professional Wrestling and the Commercial Stage and is currently co-editing a volume entitled Sports Plays. He has co-edited two other volumes examining political and popular performance. Drawing on methodologies from theatre and performance practice, Eero frequently writes and researches collaboratively, working across networks developed through Performance Studies International and other organizations. He is the editor of the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism and co-editor of Lateral, the journal of the Cultural Studies Association.