Immersive and interactive theatre have become massive trends in the arts and entertainment industry world over. With companies such as Punch Drunk and You Me Bum Bum Train in the UK and US creating huge budget wonderlands submerging audience members in a theatrical space, they have paved the way for artists, performers, directors , filmmakers and even corporate businesses to create their own alternate theatre worlds. 

In these performance spaces the audience members are privy to intimate interactions with characters and at times placed in a decision making  role capable of changing the course of the shows entire journey. Suddenly the invisible fourth wall is dropped and it is up to the audience to use their curiosity to navigate this space. This is an exciting prospect for audience and performers alike, some of my most memorable, challenging and significant experiences as a performer has been in immersive spaces the variables are endless.

This form of theatre allows ones dreams to become hallways others can physically walk through. From Shakespeare to Faust, from acrobats exploring connection-technology and Alice in Wonderland trash cities, immersive theatre is opening our eyes to different uses of space and place. We are no longer confined to the small doors of the theatre and if we so wish pour creativity onto the streets, into apartments or disused buildings.

I invite you to join me in this introduction to immersive/interactive theatre and discuss possible tribulations and logistics that may come with developing ideas. Lets begin to open a space of narrative, themes and the benefits of audience’s amount of participation. What will the roles of audience members be if any? How will they know how to behave? How will the space itself dictate certain rules? Together We will begin to devise ideas and unlock the mysteries of the immersive and interactive theatre world after which it will up to you to bring new elements and create your own work.

About the facilitator :

Andrea Spisto is a London-based theatre maker, poet, performer and producer. Whilst pursuing a postgraduate degree in Devising Theatre and Performance at LISPA, she became inspired by alternative uses of space in performance. Whilst exploring the immersive nature of interaction and its effect on audiences, she joined a group of performers in London interested in experimenting on these very themes, together under the leadership of Laura Reeves, formed immersive and interactive arts company Infinite Experience. For three years the company explored the use of various spaces from disused warehouses to the construction of a wooden wonderland in a car park, they created a mobile set up that could pop up at venues and arts festivals around the world. The show always keeping its original name Welcome Home moulded and shifted with each landscape. Using various forms of physical theatre and installation pieces they worked on concepts surrounding our journeys as humans towards utopic and dystopic worlds . The audience’s participation was a crucial part of our exploration, each time pushing boundaries between audience and performer opening up interactions that for some audiences will last a lifetime.

Immersive and interactive theatre have become massive trends in the arts and entertainment industry world over. With companies such as Punch Drunk and You Me Bum Bum Train in the UK and US creating huge budget wonderlands submerging audience members in a theatrical space, they have paved the way for artists, performers, directors , filmmakers and even corporate businesses to create their own alternate theatre worlds. 

In these performance spaces the audience members are privy to intimate interactions with characters and at times placed in a decision making  role capable of changing the course of the shows entire journey. Suddenly the invisible fourth wall is dropped and it is up to the audience to use their curiosity to navigate this space. This is an exciting prospect for audience and performers alike, some of my most memorable, challenging and significant experiences as a performer has been in immersive spaces the variables are endless.

This form of theatre allows ones dreams to become hallways others can physically walk through. From Shakespeare to Faust, from acrobats exploring connection-technology and Alice in Wonderland trash cities, immersive theatre is opening our eyes to different uses of space and place. We are no longer confined to the small doors of the theatre and if we so wish pour creativity onto the streets, into apartments or disused buildings.

I invite you to join me in this introduction to immersive/interactive theatre and discuss possible tribulations and logistics that may come with developing ideas. Lets begin to open a space of narrative, themes and the benefits of audience’s amount of participation. What will the roles of audience members be if any? How will they know how to behave? How will the space itself dictate certain rules? Together We will begin to devise ideas and unlock the mysteries of the immersive and interactive theatre world after which it will up to you to bring new elements and create your own work.

About the facilitator :

Andrea Spisto is a London-based theatre maker, poet, performer and producer. Whilst pursuing a postgraduate degree in Devising Theatre and Performance at LISPA, she became inspired by alternative uses of space in performance. Whilst exploring the immersive nature of interaction and its effect on audiences, she joined a group of performers in London interested in experimenting on these very themes, together under the leadership of Laura Reeves, formed immersive and interactive arts company Infinite Experience. For three years the company explored the use of various spaces from disused warehouses to the construction of a wooden wonderland in a car park, they created a mobile set up that could pop up at venues and arts festivals around the world. The show always keeping its original name Welcome Home moulded and shifted with each landscape. Using various forms of physical theatre and installation pieces they worked on concepts surrounding our journeys as humans towards utopic and dystopic worlds . The audience’s participation was a crucial part of our exploration, each time pushing boundaries between audience and performer opening up interactions that for some audiences will last a lifetime.

Audience Responses

Very good and interactive. Well run and informative workshop.