fbpx mgarver | HowlRound Theatre Commons
Profile picture for user mgarver
Mikhael Tara Garver

Mikhael Tara Garver is a Brooklyn-based, Chicago-bred immersive theatre director committed to new work development. She is the Managing Artistic Director of Woodshed Collective. Her work includes: Experiment (Boston Institute of Contemporary Art); Gloryana by Andrew Gerle (The Public Theater, York Theater); Fornicated From the Beatles (American Repertory Theater); The Drinking Play by Sarah Gubbins (The Goodman Theater, Playwrights Center); an immersive Black Snow by Keith Reddin; Eyes for Consuela (Profile Theatre); 2013 & 2014 large-scale theatrical immersive AMC upfronts; among others. She was the Artistic Director/Founder of Uma Productions; the Staff Director-Sleep No More (A.R.T.); an Artistic Associate of SITI company; and is currently an adjunct professor at Columbia University and Playwrights Horizons Theater.  She is currently under commission for #revolution by the New Work Initiative at Montclair State w/Bisno Productions and for a new immersive work for the Kennedy Center Youth Program.www.mikhaeltaragarver.com.

On Immersive Theatre
Essay

On Immersive Theatre

The Senses to Take the Wall Down—Part 6: Memory, Sight, Edgar, and What is Next?

4 March 2015

In this last installment of her series, Mikhael Tara Garver explores sight, memory, and what happened to her when a literal wall came down on her.

On Immersive Theatre
Essay

On Immersive Theatre

The Senses to Take the Wall Down—Part 5: Estimation and Taste

17 January 2015

Mikhael Tara Garver explores the difference between taste and estimation, and the responsibility an open-frame theatremaker has to an audience who is unsure what to expect.

On Immersive Theater
Essay

On Immersive Theater

The Senses to Take the Wall Down—Part 4: The Gentle Touch of Fantasy

26 October 2014

Touch has an important place in open-frame work. It is our most powerful resource—but we must craft it with the care we craft each other element. In fact, with more care, because we are stepping into a world where audience members need to grant true permission for it to be impactful. Touch is a sense we may turn off to function in our day-to-day lives. Are you aware of the smooth texture of your keyboard or the hard wood of your seat? Are you processing the feel of your jeans against your skin?

On Immersive Theater
Essay

On Immersive Theater

The Scent of Imagination

3 October 2014

Smell can instigate imagination because it sparks multiple visceral possibilities. Our brain takes in a smell, and connects it to a collage of memories logged from the past. And in that collage of memories the audience member’s imagination is set off.

On Immersive Theater
Essay

On Immersive Theater

The Senses to Take the Wall Down—Sound and Common Wit

18 August 2014

Sound design alone is not immersive performance. Immersive performance is reliant on the audience experiencing related sensory stimulation to the performer and a multi-sensory design. The experience of sound can be the most recognizable and common part of our otherwise foreign immersive experience.

On Immersive Theater
Essay

On Immersive Theater

The Senses to Take the Wall Down

8 July 2014

Within the bigger picture of "openframe", I define myself as an immersive storyteller. My text is that of playwrights, space, and senses. I am adamant about crafting the relationship between the audience and the story as specifically as the relationship between two characters. When it is built at its best, the audience’s presence is an imperative for the story to move forward.

Immersive Theatre Series
Series

Immersive Theatre Series

A six-part series on the words, challenges, craft, and zeitgeist of the immersive theatre movement.