Immersive Theatre Conference SANDBOX
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We at Immerse 101 had a consultant present at every session of this immersive theatre conference. By exposing our company to the wide range and huge variety of work and techniques being created under immersive theatre’s wide umbrella we have enriched our research substantially. We got to actively participate in workshops that immersive theatre practitioners use to create work which was useful as a lot of these companies currently have no written record of their work available to the public.
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Some of the types of immersive work currently being created within the immersive theatre scene includes:
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Immersive festivals (e.g. Boomtown)
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Immersive performance art for the community
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Immersive dining experience (e.g. Gingerline)
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Immersive gaming within timed environments (e.g The Game Is Now)
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Immersive activities within museums and historic sites. (e.g The People's Revolt)
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Immersive theatre being used to include untraditional theatre audiences (e.g. ZU-UK)
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Immersive theatre combined with technologies such as VR. (e.g In My Shoes)
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Immersive experience at the conference
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At the conference there was only one immersive experience where Michelle McMahon from Coney positioned herself as a representative from a digital data company which enabled her to get us to use our phones for her workshop. She transported us to an alternative world by representing a company different to Coney, she created a narrative by getting us to use our phones to answer a quiz whilst there was agency in how or if we chose to answer the questions.
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Asking Questions
Our researchers did find it difficult to ask questions that related to our research as questions were asked via a twitter feed which meant they had to be direct and to the point. This made it hard to ask a wide range of questions to a wide range of people and also meant that we couldn’t ask follow up questions very easily. The theatre companies and individuals that we encountered were not keen to talk about brand collaboration which may have been because they didn’t know much about it but could also stem from a lack of interest in the subject.
Examples of questions asked via Twitter by one of our researchers
About the conference
Sandbox generally addressed immersive theatre practitioners and provided them with knowledge that would help inform their practice. This meant that there was a lot of discussion about the mechanics of immersive theatre, audience safety and creating immersive worlds.
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There was a heavy focus upon gaming theatre which was useful as we didn’t know much about this industry however we would have liked to have heard more from practitioners who were creating immersive plays rather than gaming.
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Immersive gaming as a genre can sometimes feel very different to immersive theatre and attracts quite a specific audience who have a different attitude to performance compared with an immersive theatre audience. There are also gaming events such as escape rooms which some would argue are not true immersive theatre as they often do not contain actors or a narrative, instead the objective is to solve clues and puzzles regardless of whether you are immersed or not.
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Whilst this event was full of companies and individuals discussing their immersive practice their was very little critical discussion of specific works or objective conversation. Instead each discussion was biased towards the practice of each company and individual and what they believed to be true so we didn’t gain any unbiassed viewpoints. As with the interviews it was important not to take any data gathered here as the definitive answer to any immersive theatre questions we may have had. Instead all the qualitive information we gained gave our company a wide range of rich information that once contextualised against other sources helped build up the huge and varied terrain of what immersive theatre is.
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LARPs
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One of our consultants spoke at length to some LARPs (Live Action Role Playing) which was interesting. Our consultant doesn’t feel they have a complete understand or appreciation for what LARP’s do but it is not immersive theatre and the practice is related more to game cultures such as Dungeons and Dragons.
Immerse 101 have discounted all LARP related content from our research as it is a separate culture to Immersive Theatre, as LARPs themselves and immersive practitioners would say. The LARPs were attending to find out how to create more realistic worlds for their events. If you would like to know more about LARPs this site gives a good overview.
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A simple reason that LARPing is not theatre is because it is not created by theatre makers. Instead anyone can be involved in creating their worlds. There are also no audiences or actors, instead a LARP is a character in the world and commits fully to being that character for the length of the event.
The immersive world of a LARP event can be a huge scale heavily detailed location but it can also rest within the minds of a group of LARPs or be a location they find themselves in for the event. This is probably where the greatest level of overlap between LARPs and immersive theatre is.