Mixed Media Encounters: Finding the Future of Immersive Work Through the Pandemic

During the pandemic, immersive creatives were faced with an impossible question: How can we create work that largely depends on experiential, atmospheric environment and direct performer-to-spectator engagement when we no longer can convene in communal spaces or even be safely near one another? Immersive creators began experimenting, taking risks, and making strong choices (and sacrifices) to keep the work alive. As work progressed and the pandemic persevered, immersive creators were stuck working within constrictions of a slew of platforms that were not made for them, trying to piece together the best way to evoke feelings of exciting engagement and intimate inclusion akin to those from legendary immersive productions like Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More and Third Rail Projects’ Then She Fell. Artistic integrity was forced to bend to the circumstances, and as the field found its way the question arose: What actually makes a theatre experience immersive?