Things I've Learned About Immersive Theater (so far) (Patreon)

Working on this show is teaching me a LOT and my last post got much longer than I expected. So here's a less TL:DR bullet point list of what I've learned about doing immersive theatre.

Workshop a lot, as cheaply as possible. There was a workshop in august but even then, it took us about 3 performances to really get this show into good shape. That's a perfectly reasonable amount of preview time, but only one of those performances was a preview. The rest had crowds that were paying $50 to be there and they weren't happy about paying that much to see a show that wasn't good yet. They voiced that unhappiness online, which probably hurt our ticket sales a lot.

One on ones should be extraneous information or standalone performances.

If there is a plot, it needs to be a story that people are lead through (ala And Then She Fell) or one that they already know (ala Sleep No More)

It is probably better to have experience that run along themes rather than a specific, concrete, plot. I'm still trying to figure out how to put those experiences together in a way that creates a satisfying emotional journey.

Script yo' shit! I saw an immersive show (won't name it) that I HATED and a lot of that had to do with big emotional scenes that should have been scripted and obviously weren't. It SHOWED. There's also a lot of stuff about our plot that I just don't know, which my character should. Things like the names of my coworkers. If I had a script I could say "Hey, if you want some cheap hooch to take home you should talk to Jim." But I don't actually know which character is bootlegging, or what their name is. It might be the character I know as "The Carney" but there's no way my character would be traveling with someone for years but only refer to them as The Carney or The Madam or The Faded Star.

Basic acting rules still apply. There is too much unnecessary whispering in this show and it's driving me bonkers. The show which shall not be named also had a cast made up largely onf the creator's friends. It SHOWED.

If possible, have first performances few and far between so the show has time to build word of mouth.

Alcohol helps. For real, all of our 10pm shows have done way better than our 7pm shows.

FUN IS NECESSARY