Experiential Theatres is a collaboratively edited and curated collection that delivers key insights into the processes of developing experiential performance projects and the pedagogies behind training theatre artists of the twenty-first century.
Experiential refers to practices where the audience member becomes a crucial member of the performance world through the inclusion of immersion, participation, and play. As technologies of communication and interactivity have evolved in the postdigital era, so have modes of spectatorship and performance frameworks. This book provides readers with pedagogical tools for experiential theatre making that address these shifts in contemporary performance and audience expectations. Through case studies, interviews, and classroom applications the book offers a synthesis of theory, practical application, pedagogical tools, and practitioner guidance to develop a praxis-based model for university theatre educators training today’s theatre students.
Experiential Theatres presents a holistic approach for educators and students in areas of performance, design, technology, dramaturgy, and theory to help guide them through the processes of making experiential performance.
Author(s): William W. Lewis, Sean Bartley
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 297
City: New York
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Acknowledgments
Author Biographies
Editors
Section Curators
Essay Contributors
Experiential Theatres: An Introduction
Experiential Theatres: Experience is Everywhere
Interactive Technologies and Experiential Practices
Mediatized Learning = Experiential Knowledge Making
Interdisciplinary Education as Structural Framework
Structure of the Volume
Note
References
Section 1: Collaborative Experience Making and Interactive Performance Practice
1. Frameworks for Making and Performing in Experiential Performance
Collaboration and Easing Institutional Silos
Historical Training Paradigms: Expanding the Form
Devising/Collaboration/Interdisciplinarity
User Experience/Game Design/Play: Frameworks for Interactivity
Survey of the Section
Note
References
2. Designing Play: Game Techniques in Experiential and Interactive Performance
Introduction
Defining What Makes a Game a Game
Transforming Narrative from Linear Progression into a Landscape of Choice
Fostering True Agency and Holding Your Audience in Care
Centralization of the Subjective Experience
Enhancing Embodiment through Interaction, Immersion, and Roleplay
A Final Call to Action
References
3. Framework Design: A Curatorial Approach to Teaching Participatory Performance
Introduction
Curatorial Pedagogy and Larp Design
Searching for Methods in Relational Learning Spaces
Reflexivity and Rituals in Larp Practice
Conclusion
Notes
References
4. Intimacy in Play: Training Actors for Agentic Symmetry in Unscripted Interactions
Introduction
Virtue of Reality: Production Context
Immersive Acting: A Framework for Facilitating Play Through Unscripted Interactions
Dramaturgical Grounding: Worldbuilding, Lore, and Cores
The Art of the Invitation: Learning as Actor and Audience
Establishing Boundaries: Self-Care Cues and the Sting/Reward System
Rehearsing As Audience
Conclusion
Note
References
5. Experiential Theatres and the Value of Rethinking Theatre Education: A Conversation with Performers and Interactive Theatre Makers on Developing Methods for Collaborative Experience Making
Panel Participants
6. Facilitating Narrative Agency in Experiential Theatre
Facilitating Narrative Agency in Experiential Theatre
Conceptualizing Agency
Facilitating Agency
Practical Implementation
Preparation
Types of contribution
Facilitating levels of agency
Participant playing style
Exercise
Critical Reflection
References
7. Training the Actor for Roleplay and Other Improv-Based Interactive Theatre Forms
Introduction
Exercises
1. Hot Seat
2. Hot Seat Variation: Public/Private
3. Expert/Find Your Lane: Group Hot Seat
4. Hide the Monologue
5. What's My Line?
Conclusion
8. Standardized Patient Experience: Reframing Pedagogical Approaches in the Acting Studio
The Experience
Proficiencies
Reframing the Planned Improvisation
The Exercise
Connecting the Links
Conclusion
9. The Significance of "Role-Play" and "Instruction-Based Performance" as Modes of Teaching, Collaborating, and Performing with/for Participating Audiences
Introduction
Framing Role-Play
Game-Play & Instruction-Systems
Exhibit A: Speed-Game Making (Stage 1)
Exhibit B: Speed Game-Making (Stage 2)
Conclusion
References
10. Collaborative Development Workshop: Approaching Conceptualization through Audience Affordances and Experiential Trajectories
Introduction
Foundational Knowledge Building
Experiential Theatre Concept Project Assignment
Concept Formation
Structural Mapping and Implementation
Notes
References
11. A Postdigital Response: User Experience Design, Interactive, Immersive, and Mixed Reality Performance
Postdigtial Response
References
Section 2: Narrative and Dramaturgy for Experiential Forms
12. Models for Experiential Training in Playwriting and Dramaturgy
Introduction
Recent Practices in Playwriting Programs
Recent Practices in Dramaturgy Programs
Alternative Training Models
Reference
13. Mapping Narrative in Pig Iron Theatre Company's Pay Up and Franklin's Secret City
Introduction
Pay Up
Franklin's Secret City
Notes
References
14. The Dramaturgy of Tabletop Roleplaying Games
Introduction
Basic Preparation
Identifying and Addressing Structural Problems
Identifying and Managing Controversial Game Elements and Content Boundaries
Modeling a playful dramaturgy
Notes
References
15. Rasa in This Is Not a Theatre Company's Experiential Productions
References
16. Reconfiguring Narrative and Experiential Dramaturgy: A Conversation with Professional Educators and Dramaturgs on the Future(s) of Storytelling
Panel Participants
17. WildWind Performance Lab: New Play Development through Abstraction
WildWind Performance Lab
Notes
18. It's Okay to NOT be "Right": Incorporating Creative Thinking into Theatrical Partnerships
Introduction
Using a Creative Approach
Exercise #1: Brainstorming and Beyond
Exercise #2: Team-Based Analysis
Exercise #3: Large-Group Analysis
Final Thoughts
References
19. Theatrical Immersion within Alternate Reality Games
Introduction
Alternate Reality Games as Mediated Drama
References
20. A Postdigital Response: Experiential Dramaturgies of Online Theatre, Cyberformance, and Digital Texts
Postdigital Response
Preparing Ourselves
Conclusion
Notes
References
Section 3: Performance Technologies and Design Thinking
21. Pedagogies for Design Thinking and Experiential Technologies
Design Thinking and Histories of Aesthetics
The Twentieth Century and New Perspectives on Aesthetic Experiences
Pedagogies for Design Thinking and Technological Implementation
Survey of the Section
Reference
22. Storyliving: A Creative Process
The Call to Create
Inspirational Drivers
Storyliving
Moving From Telling to Living
Classic Storytelling
Contemporary Storyliving
Storyliving: A Creative Process
Shark-Train
Storyliving Development
Workflow and Tooling
Finding Inspiration
Choreography of the Guest Journey
Reflections
Reference
23. Theatre Majors and Immersive Technology: An Interview with HP's Joanna Popper
References
24. Interaction and Extended Somatechnics
Soma and the Extended Choreographic
Actor Objects and Entanglements
Virtual Immersive Embodiment
The Mouth Looking for You
Notes
References
25. A Design Roundtable: The Creative Process of Experience
Panel Participants
26. Playing with the Past: Pirates in the College Classroom
Introduction
Theoretical Framework: Living History
Overall Methodologies: First-Person Composite Characters
Pirate Spaces: Designing an Environment
"Playing" With Knowledge
Hands-on Skills
Focusing on Specific Learning Outcomes
Public Performance
Pedagogical Outcomes
Reflections
References
27. Unlocking Formal Qualities to Discover the Iconography in Visual Design
Introduction
Formal Qualities and Relevance
The Tempest
Iconography and Visual Design
28. Designing an Interactive Production: A Practical Walkthrough
First Things First
Working Definitions
Essential Form and Theatricality
Answering Questions of Time and Space
Collaborating with the Audience
Getting Unstuck
Final Thoughts
Designing an Interactive Production Project
Concept Statement (25%)
Production Plan (25%)
Prelim Design Presentation (25%)
Demo (25%)
Note
29. A Postdigital Response: Performance Technologies and Design Thinking
The Postdigital?
Device Technologies of the Postdigital: Invisibility, Comfortability, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality
Postdigital Language for Experiential Design: Immersive, Guest Experience, Respond and Responsive, and Social Contracts
Education in the Postdigital: Social Conventions, Creative Roles, Academic Departments, and Creative Pitches
References
30. An Afterword: Experience and Theatre Education
Evolving Viewpoints
Primed for Experiential Practices and Products
Expanding the Frame/Inviting New Collaborations
A Challenge
Note
References
Appendix 1. Glossary of Experiential Terms
Affect/Affective
Affordance
Agency
Alternate Reality Game (ARG)
Attention Economy
Audience-Centered
Augmented Reality Game
Boundaries
Contract
Distribution
Embodied
Encounter
Engage/Engagement
Environment/Environmental
Escape Room
Experiential
Experience Design (XD)
Experience Economy
Extended Reality (XR)
Facilitator
Feedback
First-Person
Flow
Framework
Games
Gamification
Geotagging
Geocaching
Guest
Immersive/Immersion
Installation
Interactive
Interface
Invite/Invitation
Iterative
LARP
Locative Media
Ludic
Ludology
Magic Circle
Meatspace
Mechanics (as "In-Game")
Mediatization
Mixed Reality
Narratology
Nordic LARP
Open-World Game
Orchestrator
Paidic
Participatory/Participation
Performance Conventions
Platform
Play
Postdigital
Presence
Response
Role Play
Role-Playing Game (RPG)
Sandbox
Sensory
Site-Specific (Site-Based, Site Responsive)
Space/Spatial
Storyworld
System
Table-Top Role-Playing Game (TTRPG)
Themed Entertainment Design
Throughput
Trajectory
User
Virtual Reality
Wearable
Appendix 2. Companies, Organizations, and Ensembles
The Bezark Company
Blast Theory
Byerley Experience Studio
Candle House Collective
Coney
Design and Performance Lab
Fabula(b) Theatre + New Media Lab
Hobo Theatre
Intramersive Media
Meow Wolf
New Paradise Laboratories
Nocturnal Fandango
Optika Moderna
PGAV Destinations
Pig Iron Theatre Company
PowerPlay Interactive Development
Punchdrunk
Shunt
The Speakeasy Society
Spellbound Theatre
Swim Pony
Tender Claws
Thinkwell Group
Third Rail Projects
This is Not A Theatre Company
Vertical City Performance
WET Design
WildWind Performance Lab
ZU-UK
Index
