Immersive Theatre

Immersive Theatre

1. Augusto Boal

   • Boal's problem with Brechtian Theatre was that he said the actors weren't taking as many risks as the audience
     • This created Forum Theatre, which modelled and acted social problems based on audience suggestions. The idea in forum theatre is to allow people to formulate their own solutions, rather than the play presenting solutions. Boal’s work has continued to evolve in response to emerging situations.
   • Boal suggests he was inspired partly by Brecht. He sees this German Marxist playwright as the first to break with classical Aristotelian conventions. Like Boal, Brecht opposed the use of empathy.
     • While Boal praises Brecht’s approach, he also tries to move beyond it. Boal’s main criticism of Brecht is that the division between actor and spectator is still in place. The actor or director is still in a position of telling a story to a passive audience, even if the story reflects what the director takes to be reality. This means that there is still only one way of thinking allowed.

2. Dreamthinkspeak

   • Brighton based site-specific theatre company. Since it was founded in 1999, the company has played a bit part in the evolution of site-responsive theatre.
     • They interweave live performance with film and instillations to create many interesting visual layers.
       • The Guardian Observer writes: These days, 'site-specific' is a label often slung around any play enacted in an uncomfortable space. dreamthinkspeak's marvellous work is different. It truly draws on a particular place to conjure a subject.

3. Shakespearen Theatre

   • By 1600 London theatres, like the Globe, could take up to 3000 people for the most popular plays. With several theatres offering plays most afternoons, this meant between 10,000 and 20,000 people a week going to London theatres.
     • Some of the audience went to the theatre to be seen and admired, dressed in their best clothes. But these people were not necessarily well behaved. Most didn’t sit and watch in silence like today. They clapped the heroes and booed the villains, and cheered the special effects. Pickpockets sometimes joined the audience and in 1612, magistrates banned music at the end of plays at the Fortune, saying the crowd had caused ‘tumults and outrages’ with their dances. We have very few accounts of how the audience behaved, and most of them are about ‘bad’ behaviour.
       • To attract the crowds, these plays often re-told famous stories from the past, and they used violence, music and humour to keep people’s attention. This was vital because, if audiences didn’t like a play, they made their feelings known.

4. References/extra resources

   • dreamthinkspeak
     • https://contemporaryperformance.com/2017/03/31/10-immersive-theater-companies-to-discover-dreamthinkspeak-london/
     • https://dreamthinkspeak.com/productions
   • Boal
     • https://resource.acu.edu.au/siryan/Academy/theatres/boal,%20augusto.htm
     • https://ptoweb.org/aboutpto/a-brief-biography-of-augusto-boal/
     • https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/augusto-boal-brecht-boal-method/
   • Shakespearen Theatre
     • https://teach.shakespearesglobe.com/fact-sheet-audiences
     • https://www.bard.org/study-guides/shakespeares-audience-and-audiences-today
     • https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z2wp34j/revision/1
     • https://shakespeareandbeyond.folger.edu/2018/09/25/elizabethan-theater-etiquette-audience-expectations/