What Is Immersive theatre?

 Productions that tend to operate in dynamically fluid settings, allowing the audience a more active, voyeuristic, and central role. The actors and audience members interact.

Where? 

 It can happen anywhere, examples include:

  • Old train stations 
  • Abandoned areas (houses/cinemas)
  • Shopping malls
  • Parks 
  • Whole towns 
Why? 

  • To deal with tough issues (taboo subjects)
  • To inform 
  • To promote (punchdrunk used a performance to promote a PS3 game)
  • To entertain 
  • To teach (The Salon Project in Glasgow to teach the audience about how people thought about topics in the 19th century such as technology and the arts and to create a discussion. Members are dressed up.)   

PunchDrunk
The crash of Elysium
Based on a DR Who episode and created for families.   

   
The Firebird ball
A mix of Romeo and Juliet and the myth of the firebird. Performed in a disused factory. 






It felt like a kiss 
Performed in an empty city center office block. 


The Drowned man
Inspired by Buchner's fractured masterpiece Woyzeck, this theatrical journey follows its protagonists along the precipice between illusion and reality.

Over four floors there are gloomy corridors, bedsits, shops, bars, trees, caravans, chapels, even a working cinema
Audience members - who must wear masks - are free to explore the film sets and the world beyond the studio gates.

A tragic love story - inspired by Georg Buchner's unfinished play Woyzeck - is played out by a large cast of actors and dancers. Some scenes take place in tiny spaces, where only one or two people are watching.

The Drowned Man's 1960s film studio setting,

"We're trying to remove the audience from their comfort zone and lose them in a parallel universe."

How can we use immersive theatre?
  • Not being in the typical pros arch 
  • Making the audience the character 
  • No specific Script 
  • No talking between audience members 
  • Actors talking to audience members one on one
Interesting Links: 






WHAT IS IMMERSIVE THEATRE?

 Immersive theatre can also be called experimental theatre and site specific theatre. It is a type of interactive theatre which allows actors to break the 4th wall to create a more intimate experience for the audience (by them feeling part of the story). They achieve this by taking their audience to a specific location to set out a performance (a railway track, a shopping mall, a restaurant etc.) opposed to a classical theatre. Immersive theatre can also include members of the audience becoming a character or being put in a position of a character in the performance. It is a fairly new form of theatre however it is becoming increasingly more popular due to the work of specific theatre practitioners.
AN EXAMPLE OF IMMERSIVE THEATRE

In Glasgow a group of actors text their audience to go to different parts of the town. Each different member of the audience went to different parts of the town and was met by different actors dressed as different steryotypes (an old woman, a transvestite, a teenager, a homosexual etc). The actor would then walk through the streets with the audience member so the audience member can see the types of reactions the general public would give to these other peope. The performance was based around how we see ourselves and other people. So the audience were able to see how cruel people can be due to others appearances.
IMMERSIVE THEATRE PRACTICIONERS AND HANDY LINKS
  • PunchDrunk
  • Antonin Artoud
  • Victoria Warehouse
  • immersivetheatre.com
  • nationaltheatre.org.uk
WHO/WHAT IS PUNCHDRUNK? 

 PUNCHDRUNK are the first major theatre practitioners based in the UK which are creating and spreading the word of immersive theatre. They were established in the year 2000. They have gained a valuable reputation by touring all around the world influencing the world of drama. They are known for focusing as much on the audience and the performance space as on the performers and the script. 


Who was Artaud? 
  • Artaud was a French theatre director and actor. 
  • Artaud though that theatre should be created on reality and should disturb the audience as much as possible. 
  • Artaud aimed to make the audience feel uncomfortable by using disturbing lighting effects and disturbing sounds
  • He is most famously known for creating "theatre of cruelty" 
How does this link back to our piece? how can we use some of his methods?
  • Artaud's type of theatre is the type of theatre that we are trying to create. 
  • Artaud wanted his audience to feel like they are part of the story. 
  • Improvisation was a key factor to much of Artaud's work, this we could easily achieve. 
  • Artaud wanted to put his audience right in the middle of the "spectacle" and he wanted them to come away being physically affected by it. 
What is Theatre of Cruelty:
  • A theatre practise created by Antonin Artaud.
  • In Theatre of Cruelty, Artaud intended to "unleash an unconscious response from the audience" He did not want people to escape the world by going to a theatre but to realise their worst nightmares and deepest fears by trying to provoke feelings that would force an instinct he believed was hidden in humans.
This  video is A-Level drama students preforming Theatre of Cruelty. 

How can we use his methods in our piece:
  • Artaud placed his audiences in the centre and the action would take place around them. We could use this to create a sense of them a part of the story and creating more fear.
  • Artaud insisted that all actors must be highly trained. They must be able to use their voices, faces and bodies with immense skill. We are not highly trained but we can work on using our bodies and voices to create a haunting feel.
  • Artaud often used masks,objects, costume and scenery to distort the audience and make them feel as is if they are in a dream like world. Combined with movement,lights and music- the atmosphere was haunting and terrifying.
  • There were no scripts in Theatre of Cruelty. There was a certain structure of the 'play' but words were improvised by the actors, if words would be used. 

Theatre of Cruelty was meant to hypnotise you. "Assault your senses" If should shock you into confronting yourself, your beliefs, ways of life and the meaning of all existence.


Quotes:
"To write poetry is to write oneself. To read poetry is to read oneself."
"Theatre is in reality, the genesis of creation."
"Art is life's double."
"To think is to drown in the search for what's lacking what makes life incomplete."


So week 2 has arrived very quickly, and so did the presentation of our ME project. 
This week each of us had to prepare a presentation containing 7 different photos about ourselves, the photos we had to include were:

  • A place in the world
  • A production of theatre that we had seen
  • A theatre production that we were involved in 
  • A piece of art
  • A picture of me
  • A type of theatre we had not heard of 
  • A place in the world 
This project helped me to learn loads about my friends that I didn't know before. This lesson was a fairly emotional lesson for all of us, and i feel it helped to start building trust between us. Some of the pictures that were on our presentations made each of us quite emotional. For me I found it hard to talk about certain things that had happened in my family, but everyone opened up and i think this really helped us to get to know each other better. 

Secondly this week we had to listen to a sound scape and note down words that came into our heads when we listened to it. For example, some of the words that i wrote down included:
  • Horror
  • death
  • Darkness
  • Alone
After noting down all of these words we had to then create freeze frames that represented these words, below are a few examples:
 Horror 
 Trapped 
 Trapped 2
Death 



As a way to get to know each other better, we had to find imagines of 7 things and relate this back to us and how this related to us as drama students:

  1. Me
  2. A production I've been in 
  3. A production I've seen
  4. A place in the world 
  5. Favourite piece of art
  6. A piece of you writing
  7. An unfamiliar practise of Theatre 
I found this difficult. I found it hard to open up so much. I wasn't nervous to start of with but as soon as I saw the family picture, I began to shake, it felt violent and words felt like they were just falling out of my mouth and I had no control over my words and my shakes. I was getting embarrassed so then had to apologize, but everyone told me it was fine and I willed myself to calm down. I got better as we went on but suddenly shake again. I don't know what it was, but I really hope that will never happen again. I learnt a lot about people, people I thought i knew very well, im glad we did this, I feel a lot closer and more open with my fellow students doing Drama.

Next we listened to a soundscape and were told to write down what we thought and then highlight the best 3, I picked:

  1. Lump in your throat
  2. Waiting for something
  3. Hiding 
We then chose words from each others lists and ended up with:

  1. Horror
  2. Trapped 
  3. Something Approaching
We were then asked to create freeze frames out of these words.
Horror:
horrors of warScary film Horrorfeeling horrified 


Trapped:
Physically Trapped, someone helping them out

 Reaching out for help

 Trapped in a job

Something Approaching:
Train approaching
 death approaching
 Running away from something





This week we had to present our Me Projects, this meant talking about seven photos that were important to us and linking them to how it helped us develop as drama students. The seven photos we had to talk about were:

  • A photo of Me 
  • A production I've seen 
  • A production I've Been In 
  • A place in the world 
  • A theatre practice I know Nothing about 
  • A piece of Art 
  • A piece of Writing
I found this project really interesting, as I got to learn a lot about the people in my drama group. I felt it helped us to connect as a group more. Also by sharing my own project I felt that the others got to know more about me too. At first I found standing in front of everyone and talking quite hard as I didn't feel very confident, however as I went through my presentation I got more confident. Doing this presentation has helped me gain confidence and trust with the people in my drama group. 

Our second project this week was to create a drama piece using music as our stimuli. The first thing we had to do was listen to the music and write down anything we could think of to do with the music. we then went through all our ideas and narrowed it down so we only had 3. The three words we ended up with were horror, trapped and approaching. With these words we were told to create 9 different freeze frames, 3 for each word. This was quite a difficult task as we were only given around 15-20 seconds to think about our freeze-frames. We also had issues because everyone had so many ideas we couldn't actually choose one. In the end Mr Fearnehough told us we should have one person directing each time. This probably only worked for 1 freeze-frame. I thought this was a good starting point for our group piece. 

In our last drama lesson of the week we started putting together our ideas using the freeze-frames as starting points. We came up with a few scenarios and started developing them. 
As you can see we changed the name of the group from "the cool crew" to PATS as I came up with the anagram Performing Arts Theatre Students.


This week the first thing we did was a Me Project! For this we had to find 7 pictures; 
  1. A production I have seen
  2. A production I've been involved with
  3. A piece of the world
  4. A theatre practice I'm not familiar with
  5. A piece of art
  6. Something I've written
  7. An image of me
With these photos we had to produce a presentation lasting between 10 and 15 minutes. Our presentation had to include all 7 photos and we had to explain how they related back to me as a theatre student. 
I found this as a very good thing to do because I learnt a lot of new things about people that I didn't know and I felt like people got to know me a bit better too. This has definitely helped us to develop as a group and not to be so shy in front of each other.
At times I found it hard to present infront of the group as I was talking about some deep things that have gone on in my life but I found that they really played a part in my confidence and my determination to become more confident through acting so I'm proud of myself for speaking about them. 

After we presented the second thing we did was listen to a recorded soundscape (sound effects created by actors live on the stage). We had to write down everything that the soundscape made us think of- no matter how stupid, strange or deranged it may be! Out of out list we then had to think of three things we wrote down that we found the most interesting. For me it was
  • A scary mask
  • Writing carved into a wall 
  • Trapped in a space
We had to share these with the class and then we picked the three best ideas from everyone that we were going to work with. The three we chose were
  1. Horror
  2. Trapped 
  3. Something Approaching
After this we had to think of ways to develop it into a short devised piece. I suggested that we create freeze-frames. So we did. This helped to generate lots of ideas that we may use in the piece.
IB theatre has started, my first time since year 9 studying any form of drama, this makes me feel slightly nervous especially since I am the only boy and the only one who has not done GCSE drama.

So week one we were thrown right in to the deep end and given the challenge called "the lava floor" which requires us to work as a team and have a few people touching the floor as seen below:
This task is designed to start building us together as a team, plus its good for me to begin to fit in with the other three who have been together in drama for two years already. As you can see this task really forces you to think on your feet and work together.

So after finishing the lava floor task we each had to separately create a freeze frame image that we thought represented IB theatre from our point of view, here is my freeze frame:

Whilst holding this freeze frame we each had to say a word that corresponded to our image, the word I chose was "ADVENTURE". I chose this word because that's what IB theatre is for me, its opening a new door (which is what the freeze frame is supposed to show) and is making me step outside of my comfort zone and try something new.  

After doing our single freeze frames, we each student had to create a image with all four students in it that represented IB theatre for them, below is my image: 
The reason I decided to create this image is because I am the new guy in the group and all the other three (Chloe, Meera and Emma) have worked together in drama for two years previous to IB. Personally I feel like they are superior in their knowledge and they probably feel more comfortable coming into IB drama than I do. 
The image shows Chloe, Meera and Emma huddled in a tight group and them looking back and down at me who is on the floor, this represents that I feel I am looking up to them and that it is going to take me quite a while to fit into the ensemble.

After our freeze frames where completed we each had to go and stand in a different corner of the room, where each corner represented a different part of drama (acting, directing, creating, observing). Each of us had to stand in our favoured corner. I chose acting as I like the idea of portraying and being able to get into the mindset of a character and being able to forget about your life and become the character. 
After selecting our favourite section we had to stand in our least favourite section. I picked creating, i chose this because I find it hard to come up with original ideas. I find it easier to get given something and work with it, for example being given a character and being able to develop that character I would like.  Whereas if I had to create a character I would find that difficult. 
So this week we had our first ever IB drama lesson. I was unsure about my feelings towards it, as on the one hand I was excited to finally be doing something I loved but on the other hand I knew It would mean stepping out of my comfort zone a lot. In our first lesson we started  by playing a game called 'The Lava Floor' where we had to work as a team to make sure that the least amount of body parts were touching the floor in a certain amount of time. It was really fun and I kind of felt that it helped us to 'bond' a bit more as we had to cooperate with each other a lot. The second task was to create a freeze of what drama represented to us personally.
My freeze showed 'confidence' because that's what I feel drama means to me. I also feel that Drama has helped me gain confidence massively. Our final task was to create what drama means to us personally by using others in our group and creating a freeze frame. I found this really hard as I constantly felt like I needed to do it quickly because the other people were getting annoyed  or bored. Although in reality this wasn't true it was just me over thinking things.
In the end this was the freeze frame I came up with. Emma represents shyness and being reserved while Harry acts as a wall between her and me and Chloe, who represent being open and confident. I placed Emma further back from the front to show my feeling about being in the spotlight. Her low position shows shyness and her anxious face looking over at the others shows worrying about being judged. My freeze is supposed to represent how sometimes I feel there is wall between how I am and how I want to be in drama.

During the lesson we also had to pick which aspects of drama we enjoyed the most out of acting, creating, spectating and directing. I decided to go for directing as I really enjoy being creative and imaginative. I also like being able to see progress eg. starting with nothing and creating something. After this we had to pick what we disliked about drama, all the categories were the same except a new one was added in called dramaturge. I picked dramaturge as the idea of researching drama things doesn't really appeal to me as to be honest it sounds slightly boring.    


So here it is. Finally, IB has arrived, something I've had mixed feelings about for years, being told it's great but it's hard and theres too much work! Well, these next 2 years I will make my own.

In our first drama lesson we played a little game where the floor was 'lava' and we had to have as little contact with the floor as possible. I remember doing these small activities at the beginning of Year 10 and feeling so embarrassed! This time round I felt very comfortable, only having 4 people in our drama class made it much easier and I am very close to these 3, this has given me confidence to just have fun and not to be so worried. This exercise was a team work exercise (i think!) showing that we can't go through IB Theatre on our own and we need to support and help each other through these next 2 years.


This picture represents what Drama means to me and what Drama represents. It represents Confidence. Confidence means a lot to me. The whole way through my life I've been told that confidence is key and that I have this gift of confidence. Drama is the place where this really shines through.  
This freeze frame represents how we feel about IB Theatre. It shows me (the girl in the middle) seeing a reflection of me from the past (the girl on the left) and the two students beside me represent my parents. Over the past couple of months, I have lost a lot of confidence. Almost shutting myself off from everyone. My parents are looking concerned because they see a shift in my personality and hoping that a new routine will make me return to my old, confident, fun loving self from before. The expression on my face is longing, wanting to be who I was. My hunched shoulders and closed body language shows the fear I have that IB will be too much for me, it shows my nerves and fear. My 'reflection' body language is fun and confident. 
This is how I feel about IB Theatre, I feel like it will bring back my confidence, my fun attitude, my work ethic. In the week that we have been back at school and I can honestly say, its coming back. 

Doing these frames was hard. Our teacher gave us around 30seconds to think of a freeze frame. The hardest bit was trying to convey what you were thinking into a freeze frame, trying to make it understandable to others. I also found it quite difficult because I was worried that what I was trying to convey was too personal. Something I should keep to myself and I should try to think about something else thats less personal and maybe a bit more appropriate. But thats not what drama is about. To me, drama is a lesson where you can share personal things about you, it will convey in your acting, directing, and in your thoughts. It would feel almost fake if I didn't write what I truly meant. 

We then had to pick which parts of theatre we enjoy the most between, acting, directing, designing, spectating and dramaturge. I chose acting because I am the last child of 3 and the only girl. My eldest brother is a pilot, something my dad had dreamt about, having his son being a pilot (both my parents are in love with planes) my second eldest brother is a F3 driver, which is extremely exciting and amazing, everyone who knows our family will always ask about how his career is going. And then theres me. Totally different from the rest, a little actress. Acting, preforming in general, is my thing. It's the way I made myself known in the family, instead of just following in my parents and brothers footsteps. Being on stage preforming is the way I can get all attention for a couple of hours! 
Next we had to pick what was the least interesting, I chose dramaturge because it sounds dull, something id have to put effort and time into doing something I don't want to do! 


So this week was our first week of IB Drama... It still feels strange to say IB Drama instead of GCSE, anyway;
We started the lesson with a team building exercise called "The Lava Floor" in which only two people (out of four) could be standing on the ground and the others had to cooperate to find a way to not be standing on the ground. Heres an example;
We then went on to do an exercise where we had to create freeze frames which showed what Drama meant to us and how we felt so far about IB Drama. Here are my freeze frames;
This shows that to me Drama means "DEVELOPMENT". Changing from neutral (the freeze frame pose) and developing into anything such as another character, profession etc.
This picture shows how I feel so far about IB Drama. I had to direct my group into individual freeze frames to create a big freeze frame. This picture shows that (in the middle) I feel mostly excited for IB Drama. I have expressed that I mostly feel excited by the use of levels. To the left it shows that I feel frustrated as there are so many different things we have to do in IB Drama such as more homework ontop of homework from other lessons, this online blog and our Drama journals. This point explains the freezeframe to the right which shows that I am a little scared as it's only been a week and things are really different so I'm not sure what it will be like during the two years I have in IB.

I found it somewhat hard to direct my group into these freeze-frames as I was made to think on the spot and I felt like I was taking a lot of time and people were waiting for me. I think I may have felt this way because this year we have a new drama group so we do not feel 100% comfortable around eachother but I think that we will develop a stronger bond between eachother during the course.

At the end of the lesson we were asked what we were most and least interested in doing in drama out of; dramaturge, spectator, actor, designer and director. I said that I was mostly interested in the acting side of drama as it helps me to feel more confident within myself and I feel that each time I perform I get a little better which gives me a sense of achievement. Despite this I am also interested in the designing aspect of the course as one of my ambitions when I was little was that I wanted to be a designer. The aspect I was least interested in was the role of spectator as I would rather be part of the action and not left to observe and criticise.

im here now!!
i am here everyone
Hey it's Meera, the best drama student
FIRST POST ON THE BLOG!!

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