Sound Design for Interactive Mini-Theatre

The challenge to reinvent the stage for theatrical design has resulted in more interactive and immersive experiences. The selections below represent a wide range of work and these examples, part of a body of work presented at Hive in Vancouver (a unique offering of mini-pieces in the same warehouse space and rotating small audiences) represent one future of theatre and are a prototype for crossdisciplinary research opportunities.

At Home With Dick and Jane

An Electric Company Theatre collaboration, the video of At Home with Dick and Jane provides the audience member’s POV as if they were watching a film unfolding…rolled along a track through an interactive room as in the picture below. I had many little concealed speakers and wireless speakers attached to a rolling cart. We went old school with playback devices including CD and minidisc.

Box Opera

A Felix Culpa collaboration, these photos represent a different idea of theatre in the round. Audience members become characters unto themselves observing the antics of two ‘normal’ people living in a box.

Rendition

A collaboration with Western Theatre Conspiracy, this chilling and highly experimental work provided theatre-goers with a visceral experience of being detained prisoners, complete with uniform, shielded goggles, binaural mix and a freight container to provide them with a sense of isolation, and the uncomfortable feeling of an experience that might just last a little too long.