This paper evaluates the development of performative theories inspired by practice in the evolution of Lizbeth Goodman's research and SMARTlab's fifteen-year oeuvre. In this piece, Goodman outlines the methodology of ‘performing in the wishing tense’, analyzing the development of her own practice from television to live theatre to broadcast and multimedia to telematics and online learning ‘stages’, to radio, and then to web presence. As the subtitle of the article suggests, Goodman has evolved a methodology for her team that has been influenced by the work of one of her academic mentors, the late Clive Barker, author of Theatre Games, and that has been extended in parallel explorations of play, time, space, and voicing in the work of women, people with disabilities and disadvantaged groups worldwide, here discussed from earliest stages to current collaborations. This work has been extrapolated to show how those with disabilities that prevent free movement and speech can benefit from interactive screenic or telematic performance tools that empower a sense of movement and play: a ‘theatre games’ rubric translated into multimedia performance modes, using technology tools created by the team. She discusses the place of the (damaged or fractured) body of the theorist in relation to the bodies of the people she directs and whose words and movements she choreographs. Written specifically as a ‘response’ to Barker's work, this piece maps the journey of SMARTlab's performances around the globe and through the recent history of multimedia, ending with a postscript describing a collaborative game based on the role-play theories of Barker and on the ‘liveness’ of what Goodman calls ‘the wishing tense’ of lost languages, including body languages. Much of the performance material referred to is available online, and DVD versions can be provided upon request.