Table Of ContentREFRAMING
IMMERSIVE THEATRE
The Politics and Pragmatics of
Participatory Performance
EDITED BY
JAMES FRIEZE
Reframing Immersive Theatre
James Frieze
Editor
Reframing Immersive
Theatre
The Politics and Pragmatics of Participatory
Performance
Editor
James Frieze
Liverpool Screen School
Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool, UK
ISBN 978-1-137-36603-0 ISBN 978-1-137-36604-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-36604-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016957738
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N
otes
Thanks to Jenny McCall, Paula Kennedy, April James, and Amy Jordan at
Palgrave.
Adrian Howells died while this book was being written and is greatly
missed. References to his practice have been left in the present tense.
v
C
oNteNts
1 Reframing Immersive Theatre: The Politics and
Pragmatics of Participatory Performance 1
James Frieze
Part I Participant as Co-designer: Critical Reflections 27
2 On Being Immersed: The Pleasure of Being: Washing,
Feeding, Holding 29
Josephine Machon
3 In the Body of the Beholder: Insider Dynamics and
Extended Audiencing Transform Dance Spectatorship
in Sleep No More 43
Julia M. Ritter
4 Troubling Bodies in Follow the North Star 63
Ruth Laurion Bowman
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viii CONTENTS
5 Experiencing Michael Mayhew’s Away in a Manger:
Spectatorial Immersion in Durational Performance 77
Roberta Mock
6 Integrating Realities Through Immersive Gaming 93
Lindsay Brandon Hunter
7 Negotiating the Possible Worlds of Uninvited Guests’
Make Better Please: A Hypertextual Experience 103
Elizabeth Swift
8 Outdoors: A Rimini Protokoll Theatre-Maze 119
Esther Belvis Pons
9 Immersed in Sound: Kursk and the Phenomenology
of Aural Experience 129
George Home-Cook and Kristian Derek Ball
Part II Facilitating Immersive Performance: Ethics
and Practicalities 135
10 Reflections on Immersion and Interaction 137
non zero one
11 Caravania!: Intimacy and Immersion for
Family Audiences 145
Adam J. Ledger
12 A Dramaturgy of Participation: Participatory Rituals,
Immersive Environments, and Interactive Gameplay in
Hotel Medea 151
Jorge Lopes Ramos and Persis Jade Maravala
CONTENTS ix
13 She Wants You to Kiss Her: Negotiating Risk in the
Immersive Theatre Contract 171
Richard Talbot
14 The Fourth Wall and Other Ruins: Immersive Theatre
as a Brand 193
Rachael Blyth
15 Immersive Performance and the Marketplace: The Hit 199
Sherrill Gow and Merryn Owen
Part III Where Material Meets Magic: Theories, Histories,
and Myths of Immersive Participation 203
16 Spectral Illusions: Ghostly Presence in Phantasmagoria
Shows 207
Nele Wynants
17 Playing a Punchdrunk Game: Immersive Theatre
and Videogaming 221
Rosemary Klich
18 Proximity to Violence: War, Games, Glitch 229
James R Ball III
19 The Promise of Experience: Immersive Theatre in the
Experience Economy 243
Adam Alston
20 Differences in Degree or Kind? Ockham’s Razor’s
Not Until We Are Lost and Punchdrunk’s
The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable 265
Geraldine Harris
x CONTENTS
21 Coriolan/us and the Limits of ‘Immersive’ 289
Andrew Filmer
22 Participation, Ecology, Cosmos 303
Carl Lavery
Bibliography 317
Index 335
N C
otes oN oNtributors
Adam Alston is Lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of
Surrey. His research explores the aesthetics and politics of audience participation,
immersion and productivity in theatre and non-t heatre settings, and the histories,
aesthetics, and phenomenology of complete darkness in theatre. He is the author
of Beyond Immersive Theatre: Aesthetics, Politics and Productive Participation
(Palgrave MacMillan, 2016), and is currently working on a collection co-edited
with Martin Welton titled Theatre in the Dark: Shadow, Gloom and Blackout in
Contemporary Theatre (Bloomsbury, 2017).
James R. Ball III is an assistant professor in the Department of Performance
Studies at Texas A&M University. Previously, he taught theatre history and perfor-
mance studies at the University of Maryland, College Park and New York University
(where he earned his PhD in 2012), reported on the work of the UN Security
Council for securitycouncilreport.org, and directed interactive and immersive per-
formances with his company, 2 Distinct Motions.
Rachael Blyth has performed in and produced theatre, live art, transmedia, music
videos, and films. A graduate of Central Saint Martins and the University of York,
she resigned from British theatre and film company FoolishPeople in late 2012.
Kristian Derek Ball is a sound artist, designs sound and composes for theatre,
film and multimedia. He is a professional member of the Theatrical Sound
Designers and Composers Association (TSDCA.org) and Artist Lecturer of Sound
Art at Muhlenberg College, School of Art. www.kristianderekball.com.
Ruth Laurion Bowman is a recently retired Associate Professor of Performance
Studies in the Department of Communication Studies at Louisiana State University
in Baton Rouge, LA.
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