Talking about Immersive Theatre: Conversations on Immersions and Interactivities in Performance

Description

How do theatre makers in Britain produce immersive, participatory experiences for audiences? How are productions designed and rehearsed, and how can the experience of different companies inform your own practice and understanding of this burgeoning craft? This collection of original discussions with some of Britain's leading immersive and interactive theatre makers explores their processes, methods and practices, offering a behind-the-scenes tour of how they make their work. It provides new material addressing a range of previously undisclosed topics including approaches to casting and rehearsal strategies, through to more concrete concerns such as funding and finance models. They reveal the discrete nuts and bolts of building audience-experience, and candidly discuss their own position to the term ‘immersive’ and how they perceive their place within the wider experience-centric cultural landscape. This collection combines perspectives from practitioners across the spectrum of immersions and interactivity in performance to showcase working methods across a variety of forms; from one-on-one, to gamified, playable experiences. The diversity of conversations captured in this volume reflects the polyphony of the immersive and interactive landscape in Britain, introducing readers to the work of Les Enfants Terrible, Parabolic, Colab Theatre, The Lab Collective, Cross Collaborations, and Zu-UK. Makers participate in frank dialogue that reveals the ways in which they employ scenography, design, game and structural mechanics, approaches to stage management tactics, as well as the development of audience relationships, the role of intimacy and agency. Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Figures Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: Underground adventures with Oliver Lansley and James Seager from Les Enfants Terribles Chapter 2: Playable worlds with Owen Kingston from Parabolic Theatre Chapter 3: Gamified experience with Bertie Watkins from COLAB Theatre Chapter 4: Socially engaged interactions with Natalie Scott, Joseph Thorpe, Antigoni Spanou and Joe Iredale from The Lab Collective Chapter 5: Intimate encounters with Ruth Cross from Cross Collaborations Chapter 6: Post-immersive interventions with Jorge Lopes Ramos and Persis Jadé Maravala from ZU-UK Chapter 7: Possible futures round-table discussion with Joanna Bucknall, Oliver Lansley, Persis Jadé Maravala, Jorge Lopes Ramos, Joseph Thorpe, Ruth Cross, Bertie Watkins, Owen Kingston and James Seager Conclusion References Index