Immersive Theatre

Georgia-based theatremaker Corey Bradberry reflects on lessons learned after creating an immersive murder mystery play in a four-story historical theatre, and muses on how large institutions sharing resources with smaller companies can lead to new and innovative creative partnerships.

For Orientation at the UChicago 2017, an alternate reality game was created by faculty, designers, and students that engaged social media, virtual reality and real life to encourage students to explore campus and build relationships with one another.

Precious Yamaguchi takes part in Take Them Into the Dirt, a participatory production at OSF about legacy, storytelling, memory, and identity.

Jonathan Mandell looks at the Future of Storytelling festival in Staten Island, New York, which featured exhibits, productions, and performances using virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality techniques and technology.

Thomas Schmidt talks about the recent protest at the Berlin Volksbühne over the change of leadership and immersive theatre in Germany.

Clarie Glubiak talks with several theatre companies at the forefront of the inclusive theatre industry asking about sustainability.

Emily Cordes considers how Siobhan O’Loughlin’s immersive solo show Broken Bone Bathtub is a vehicle for audiences to find each other’s common humanity in a collaborative bath.

Cherry Lou Sy reflects on Lukumi Arts’ immersive production of La Sirene: Rutas de Azucar (The Siren: Sugar Routes), which explores the black history of Cuba through José Antonio Aponte’s book of paintings.

The process of creating two works, as part of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television’s participation in Google's Glass Creative Collective, that use audience's and actors' locations, identities, and choices as pivotal elements of their storytelling structures and investigating the simultaneous processes of dramatic writing/devising and writing code.

Jonathan Mandell reflects on what makes immersive theatre, through the lens of Inside the Wild Heart, Group .BR’s immersive show about the late Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector.

Rachel E. Diken on Aglio e Olio, a “kitchen theatre” piece written and performed by Meg Persichetti and produced and directed by Laura Gilkey in Maplewood, New Jersey.

Rob Oronato on Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, a “communal, intelligent, erotic, participatory, spectacular performance art concert; a marathon survey dedicated to destroying through exposure the racism, patriarchy, supremacy, and fascism suppressing the fabulosity of all our country’s different beleaguered Others over the years.”

Rosa Schneider reflects on history plays, history, and pedagogy in Undergound Railroad Game created by Jennifer Kidwell and Scott Sheppard with Lightning Rod Special playing at Ars Nova in New York City.

In this second installment, Megan Reilly discusses her participation in Ascension, the second phase of The Tension Experience, and reflects on agency for audience members in this immersive experience.

Talya Kingston on These Rooms, devised and directed by David Bolger and Louise Lowe, at the Dublin Theatre Festival.

In this first installment, Megan Reilly shares her experience with the first phase of The Tension Experience, a project that’s a cross between immersive theatre and an Alternate Reality Game.