Once in a while, someone reaches out with a variation on this question:
“Help! I want to make some immersive theatre, but I haven’t done it before. The idea of testing something over and over kinda freaks me out. We’ve got talented actors and craftspeople to work with, but none of us are familiar with the process. Do you have any advice on how to get started?”
When that happens I send back some variation of this:
—
This is the quick and dirty advice, aside from “if you’re stuck while trying to come up with an immersive, then don’t do it. Half-baked immersive is worse than none.”
But if that doesn’t dissuade you…
First, think of the immersive pieces you’ve seen and write down what works. Why you liked them. What moments moved you. Why those worked. You won’t be replicating those, but reserve these notes for later. If you haven’t seen any immersive: stop. Go see some immersive. There are shortcuts around this, conceptually, but honestly: it’s a bad idea to cut this corner. Especially if you’re looking to not spend a lot of time doing trial and error testing.
Then find a work in the public domain. Anything you like, but preferably not Alice in Wonderland because that’s been done to death. That is not an excuse to crack open Through The Looking Glass.
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Have your actors read that work, then come together over a weekend to make experiential scenes out of moments from the book/whatever. Use your favorite theatre games and devising techniques to craft the scenarios. Remember that you are making scenes not staging them. Pretty stage pictures are great, but you’re not going to have the frame of the proscenium arch or the penumbra of a stage light to shape perception. You’re going to have to get the dramatics on point.
Someone needs to direct. The temptation will be there to act in the piece. Resist that. If you’re strapped for cast members: then two should share directing responsibility. Someone needs to be able to jump out of the frame consistently, for the sake of the performers and the participants.
Always remember that the center of gravity of the scene should be between the audience and the performers. That and that the audience must always have a reason for being there: something that the characters need from THEM. And not just attention/adoration. The audience should matter to the world they’re in. Doesn’t mean they have to be the protagonist, just that it wouldn’t be the same without them there. There’s a lot of room to play with in that notion.
Don’t get too heavily invested in exposition or lore. It’s great if it’s there, but it should be a reward, not a requirement. The vast majority of your potential audience isn’t hoping there will be a pop-quiz during the show. On that note: puzzles are fine, but you have to test those to make sure they work and that everything the participants need is discoverable in the play space.
Test what you’ve made against your notes about other shows from the start of the process. Adjust and tune. If you haven’t been working on flow from scene to scene as you’ve been devising, get on that next.
I wouldn’t try a sandbox style piece on short notice as a first-timer. Those have all kinds of complications, and come in more flavors than you might think at first. Suffice it to say: the more agency you give your audience, the more responsibility your cast will have to co-create the work with them in real time. Get your feet wet with a dark ride format instead. A sandbox that hasn’t had a lot of work put into it feels empty — and lazy.
Above all else, remember that you’re also directing the audience. You’re shaping their experience. The more you can do that through the situations you create for them, the more wondrous the whole thing will seem. Avoid having a big litany of rules, the more rules you have the easier it is to forget them in heated moments of play. The play, after all, is the thing.
Do not treat this advice as Gospel or The Tao. Different processes produce different results. We want those different results. We want endless variations of theme, agency, scope, and traversal. We want you to find your method, and discover what unique experiences result from its application.
But in a pinch, with hungry guests and an itch to make something, this should help you get started. At least on the creative side.
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