👂The Dramaturgy of Activating the Audience

Wayfinding: Taxonomy > Interactive & Gamified Theatre > The Dramaturgy of Activating the Audience

Interaction design is a component of UX/UI design that is useful for game designers as it considers not only the narrative, but visual placement, hardware, and other components; this can be useful for Interactive and Gamified Theatre makers, too [See also: Spotlight-User Interface]. the struggle of designing audience interactions: ‘If we give the interactor complete freedom to improvise, we lose control of the plot. But if we ask the interactor to pick from a menu of things to say, we limit agency and remind them of the fourth wall’. However, with Interactive and Gamified Theatre, it is important for the performers to have enough control over the show that the audience has a cohesive experience while remaining safe. :

Creating a sense of agency for participants doesn’t emerge by simply offering a massive buffet of options, but instead comes from homing in on meaningful decisions that have an impact within the larger narrative structure. These decisions are focused on things they care about and help them feel autonomous. Finding the right balance between curation and freedom is key.

interaction design a form of dramaturgy:

The orchestration of probability and causality is the stuff of which dramaturgy is made. By manipulating probability, the playwright shapes the dramatic world, the plot, and (indirectly) the audience’s involvement with it. Similarly, probability can be deployed by designers of human-computer interaction to shape what people do and feel in the context of a particular virtual world.

Theatre makers have the dramaturgical choice to make their audiences sit and absorb an event before them; the plot can also be designed so the audience chooses which order they see the plot points in; and their interaction can be designed so that they can completely change the show.

Natasha Rickman of Creation Theatre pointed out that ‘some shows (though not all) demand more interaction with the audience from the production, than it might have in-person’. Creation Theatre specifically tested new methods of audience engagement in their Zoom shows, and other digital works, starting in 2020; the company typically creates site-specific, immersive works, and when the first lockdown began in the United Kingdom, they shifted their focus to immersing their audience inside a digital platform. Their Zoom Shakespeare performances involved audience creating sound effects, speaking lines, and even becoming ‘dinner guests’ through the magic of virtual production. Rickman herself created an interactive Romeo and Juliet, in which the audience chooses whether to side with the Capulets or Montagues, and even had the power to change the ending so the lovers survive – a point Rickman told me was important during the early months of the pandemic, giving the audience the ability to affect positive change when their normal avenues were denied. : ‘One of the primary differences between the more conventional forms of “passive” spectatorship and experiential spectatorship is an emphasis on the audience member’s sense of control over the encounter’. This form of control gained popularity before the pandemic, but allowing audiences to control the emotional arc was especially salient during early lockdowns around the world.

Since traditional theatre, television, and film do not typically offer direct interaction, you will need to consider how to : ‘When working with an established text, you will need to find a moment outside of the published script to train the audience. This could be done through the use of a pre-show or other extra-performative device’ [See also: Spotlight-Preshow; Spotlight-Audience Onboarding]. In videogames, this type of player ‘training’ is part of level design in a tutorial level; regarding tutorial levels in games: ‘If you are very clever with your level design, you can train players on how to play the game by having them... play the game’. Theatre audiences, though, likely require a different approach that begins by encouraging interaction.

This example of Creation Theatre’s work approaches one method of : ‘“casting the audience”; giving them a distinct role that fits inside of the narrative structure’. This process allows the audience to learn their ‘parts’ within the performance, which would involve more direct interaction than laughing or clapping, but which still defer to the main actors as the guides of the unfurling narrative. For many theatre makers, interactivity became crucial as it helped the performers receive audience feedback during their live shows, which they missed from in-person performing.