Take the audience somewhere else
The audience should feel they’ve been taken somewhere else. To a different place. Even if that place is in the same time frame and aesthetic as the world they live in, it’s still a different space to the everyday and the ordinary.
There should also always be a strong sense that this new world expands beyond the part of it that the audience are witnessing, as Owen Kingston says “If you want to deliver a mind-blowing experience…you have to not be able to see the edges and every time you approach the edge it has to feel fuzzy.”[1]
Simplicity
The great thing about immersive worlds is that it doesn’t take much to transport you there. Punchdrunk’s Felix Barrett also argues in favour of simplicity: “Say you need a dining room for narrative, you could establish that with one table and a single plate on it, while the floor and the ceiling are creating the experience around it.” [2]
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Many theatre companies make use of the landscape around them to create the setting for their immersive shows such as Parabolic Theatre’s Land of Nod[3] which staged an “immersive theatre production staged around the streets of Croydon.“[4] Members of the public who were not involved with the show may not have even noticed that a performance was happening but were still in effect “extras” during the performance.
Pre-show contact
Another method employed by many immersive theatre companies is to contact visitors before they attend the event via emails, phone calls, letters, social media or public announcements[5] as this can help set the scene before the event takes place. Again Parabolic’s Land of nod used this technique by contacting“One person (audience member) every night…before the show we would deliver…a flower with a note that we would leave on a doorstep or in a porch.”[6]
Surrounding
area - specific
or sympathetic
The area around your experience is important. You must work with it. Punchdrunk talk a lot about their designs being “site sympathetic” [7] rather than “site specific”. Site specific often works with the surrounding elements of an environment but the production can feel imposed upon the landscape. Site sympathetic is when “the place participants are taken to ‘sympathises’ with the place they have left.”[8]
How do people get there?
It is also important to consider how people might journey to your experience as it will affect their mood and how they interact with the work you present and how noticeable your work is. Felix Barrett at Punchdrunk says “we think about the whole journey, about the fact that the way in which you get there is the show, not simply what you see when you get there. How you build the initial impact on arrival at the entrance.”[9]
Who witnesses the experience?
It is also important to consider how your experience might impact the surrounding area and those that inhabit it as you don’t want to receive bad press from upsetting locals with a noise pollution or by getting physically in the way.
If the immersive campaign is to spread across cities and communities the marketer should consider how it will impact those who are not involved with the narrative and respect that some people may not want to be involved. People can forgive a weekend interruption but if your experience permanently makes it difficult for people to get to their local Tesco’s they will rightly be angry.
Portals
In Punchdrunk’s The Lost Lending Library [10] a secret bookshelf door appears in a school a week before the immersive experience arrives there, transforming a mundane school corridor into a place with magical portals.Whilst this idea of a moment of change might work for some experiences as a kind of portal that separates the real and immersive world this may not be essential for your experience or your brand.
Momentos
Punchdrunk writes that one of the most important elements of their immersive enrichment shows is the token that the audience takes with them from the immersive world out into the real world.
This token acts as a reminder of the world left behind and connects the audience with the experience and creates the possibility of returning to the experience. It also serves as a talking point with others outside of the event, especially if you position it as something that could be used by audiences in the everyday.
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However there is no point giving people stuff they are just going to throw away or doesn’t properly represent your experience.
Finding a space
Punchdrunk has provided a list of questions they ask themselves when considering the space around where they plan to execute their experience which we have included as this exercise may help to inform our company’s research.[11]
Where would you sit?
To whom does the space belong?
Is it public or private?
Key points about the space?
What is interesting about the architecture?
How does the space make you feel?
How could you accentuate these points?
How would you feel if you entered the space?
Describe the owner's dreams, fears, loves etc.
Who might live here?
What would you do in this space?
What is missing from the space?
How could you make the space secret?
[1] Lynch, E. Kingston, O [2019] Interview with Owen Kingston, Artistic Director of Parabolic Theatre Company.
[2] Machon, J. 2019. The Punchdrunk Encyclopaedia. 1st edition, Routledge, Abingdon.pg 83
[3]Parabolic Theatre [2018] Land of Nod [Online] Available at: https://www.parabolictheatre.com/land-of-nod [Accessed on September 19th 2019]
[4] Dugdale, J [2014] Parabolic Theatre Company – Land of Nod [Online] Available at: https://www.croydonites.com/parabolic-theatre-company.html [Accessed on September 19th 2019]
[5] Tims, C [2016] DOORWAYS a review of Punchdrunk Enrichment projects 2013- 2016 [Online] Available at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5595a402e4b0d1b573e6d6e2/t/5825ad3a46c3c4a876b8df41/1478864193016/DOORWAYS.pdf [Accessed 3rd August 2019]
[6] Lynch, E. Kingston, O [2019] Interview with Owen Kingston, Artistic Director of Parabolic Theatre Company
[7] Tims, C [2016] DOORWAYS a review of Punchdrunk Enrichment projects 2013- 2016 [Online] Available at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5595a402e4b0d1b573e6d6e2/t/5825ad3a46c3c4a876b8df41/1478864193016/DOORWAYS.pdf [Accessed 3rd August 2019]
[8] Tims, C [2016] DOORWAYS a review of Punchdrunk Enrichment projects 2013- 2016 [Online] Available at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5595a402e4b0d1b573e6d6e2/t/5825ad3a46c3c4a876b8df41/1478864193016/DOORWAYS.pdf [Accessed 3rd August 2019]
[9] Machon, J. 2019. The Punchdrunk Encyclopaedia. 1st edition, Routledge, Abingdon.
[10]Tims, C [2016] DOORWAYS a review of Punchdrunk Enrichment projects 2013- 2016 [Online] Available at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5595a402e4b0d1b573e6d6e2/t/5825ad3a46c3c4a876b8df41/1478864193016/DOORWAYS.pdf [Accessed 3rd August 2019]
[11]Machon, J. 2019. The Punchdrunk Encyclopaedia. 1st edition, Routledge, Abingdon.