Designing Audience-Interactive Performance

Designing Audience Interactive Performance: The Theatre Engine Approach to Meaningful Interaction aims to amplify and encourage collaborative interplay in performance by unpacking the research methods, concepts, and adventures of Theatre Engine productions.

A framework for meaningful interaction in performance is provided through an examination of the research inquiry, successes, and challenges of five longitudinal Theatre Engine projects. Integrating theatre, music, dance, media arts, and technology, this book offers behind-the-scenes analyses of audience interactive performance. It identifies the need for human connection amid current societal shifts towards isolation and artificiality. This exposition introduces performing arts traditions, innovations, and trajectories that impact the field. Tools for iterative design are presented, including the key concepts of intention, invitation, play, and scaffolding. The approaches and content are customizable for various individual artistic practices and endeavors.

This text is written for college students and practitioners who have an interest in interactive, interdisciplinary, and experimental arts production. Artists, designers, and scholars will find useful perspectives and anecdotes from our laboratory-style investigation of participatory design. Readers are invited to implement and adapt the methods and tools for their own creative pursuits.

Alexis Bacon is an Associate Professor of Music Composition at Michigan State University. Her research interests include participatory music and theatre, acousmatic and real-time electronic music composition, and sound spatialization.

Michael S. Kraczek, is an Associate Professor of Theatre Design and Technology at Brigham Young University. While specializing in lighting and scenic design his favorite role is working as a creative director on experimental performance projects.

Kori Wakamatsu is a Teaching Professor of Dance at Brigham Young University. She is the Dance Education K–12 Program Coordinator and her research inquiry includes interdisciplinary performance, belonging and inclusion, and teaching methodology.

Alison C. Dobbins is Professor of Theatre and Chair of Music, Theatre & Dance at Christopher Newport University. She is a media designer focused on integrating elements of dance, media, music, theatre, and computer science in performance.