AI: AN IMMERSIVE THEATRE EXPERIENCE

A culminating project for the student’s theater course of study deeply exploring the power of collaborative storytelling. Students use the breadth of their theater knowledge as well as the depth of their specific interest. In addition to project development the students will follow the project to fruition.

SketchUp, Premiere Pro, Audition, QLab

Date: 04/28/2021
Timeline: 4 Weeks

For my first capstone project, I worked with a small team to create an immersive theatre experience. I co-wrote, co-directed, and designed the scenic, lighting, and sounds of the show. I edited the video elements and other audio elements of the show as well.

DIRECTORS:

Fiona Aronson, John Corde

WRITERS:

John Corde, Katie Duerr, Francis Marty, Melissa Mendez

DESIGNER:

John Corde

THE WRITING PROCESS

This process saw four of us introducing ideas and building upon them with the input of our peers. While we were mainly tasked with writing specific sections of the story, we all helped each other’s scenes evolve. The scene I was tasked with writing was the lab scene.

TO READ THE SCRIPT, CLICK BELOW!

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00:12

Lab Model

I started by creating a rough modeling of the space we were going to use for both rooms, my professor’s office and the design studio. I wanted the lab to be extremely simplistic. The focus of the scene is the brain at the center of the room. The only obstacle of this room were the drafting tables all over the room. To fix this issue, we moved them all to the side to be less noticeable.

00:09

Office Model

The design of a room should tell a story, whether it be about the occupant, what the room has succumbed to, etc. In the office, there was clearly a struggle for power here. The crumbled up pieces of paper are letters, notes, and other information that aids in telling the story.

THE LIGHTING PROCESS

I continued using the same model in SketchUp and added some lighting units. Due to a limited budget and other restrictions, both rooms needed to be lit simply, but effectively.

CHALLENGING, BUT ADVANTAGEOUS

BUDGET AND TIME

Our budget on this project was $0. And the date of the performance was only a few weeks away. With such ambitious projects, we were all feeling intimidated. However, we ended up thinking more creatively on how to solve our problems, and we produced a better show because of it.

CLARITY

During performances, what we thought was obvious because we had been discussing and writing it for so long, was hard to understand from an outsider's perspective. People weren’t sure where to go, what to do, and what their options were. When these issued appeared, we rewrote the script, rerecorded, and remixed everything we could on the fly to help clarify things. It was such a rewarding and educating experience on what works and why things work, as well as finding the balance between holding the audience’s hand, and letting them explore

RESOURCES

The spaces we were working in were very limited in terms of what we had to work with. The lab had a light board from the early 1990s and the office had no lighting systems. Both rooms didn’t have a sound system. This allowed us to be opportunistic. We kept things simple with the lighting, leading to a more effective shot. We planted Bluetooth speakers all around the audience, which allowed for extremely immersive audio. It’s not always about what you have, but how you use it.