Immersive Theatre Series

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.