Making medial immersive theatre : mobilising intermediality and transmedia storytelling

Abstract

This study aims to create a framework for creating a hypothetical medial immersive theatre production that will make use of aspects of intermediality and transmedia storytelling within the confines of the UP VR cylinder and equipment. Theatre is traditionally viewed as a live medium. Liveness in theatre is seen as a face-to-face engagement in the ‘here and now’ or in ‘real time’, with audience and performers together in the same temporal and spatial frame. However, the increasing mediatisation in/of theatre problematises this interpretation. Arguments as to the ways in which new media may produce liveness increasingly surface. Mediality can be interpreted as an abstract theory, as clusters of communicative forms and as a way of approaching media that emphasise the modes and means in which information is communicated (Kattenbelt (2008:21). Modes of mediality, such as transmediality, multimediality and intermediality can function independently, but they can also operate together, as they intersect. Mediality in the context of immersive theatre raises questions about the nature of immersion and liveness. Research on immersion appears in many academic discourses, but the conceptual and terminological clarity of the term remains dubious. In the context of theatre, immersion relates to an interrelationship between spatial, medial and performance aspects, as well as the presence and participation of the audience. Immersive theatre can thus be seen as an experience that interweaves production, perception and reception in a multi-sensory manner (Freitag, Molter, Mücke, Rapp, Schlarb, Sommerlad, Spahr & Zerhoch 2020:n.p.). Immersion in modalities that use new and digital media technologies refers to a sensory experience, or a perception, of being submerged in an environment that is mediated by technology (Vanhoutte & Wynants 2010:47). In considering the above, this study aims to interrogate how immersion and liveness manifest across the selected media, in order to create a hypothetical framework for vi medial, immersive theatre. The study demonstrates that elements of intermediality and transmedia storytelling can hypothetically be used to create a framework for producing a medial immersive theatrical production that may allow audience members to experience different levels of immersion and presence within such a product