"7 Tips & Tricks For Your First Immersive Theater Show"

In order to get the most when going to an immersive theater production, one needs to be familiar with how a show works. As this is a fairly niche artform, not all are familiar and some people may be scratching their heads at the end in confusion. Immersive shows are some of the most intimate forms of artwork due to the nature of blurring participation and perception. This is a list to prepare you for your first show to get the most out of the runtime and hopefully seek out other similar experiences.

Note: This is a generalization and while I personally have been to multiple shows, the creators of each production aim to make a show their own. Not all tips will be applicable for all shows but the tips listed below are a good starting point if this is a new industry for you.

1. There is no proper way to see the show.

   1. It is all about what you want to do in the production's runtime. When you see a theatrical production, all of the action happens on stage and the actors, with their dialogue, convey the story all while the set changes around them and you remain stationary. In an immersive show, you are integrated with the set and the actors move around you and the space. Some experiences can be large, spanning multiple floors, others are a limited ever changing set.

2. You will most likely not come close to seeing everything that is offered on a single viewing.

   1. Take the show as your own journey. If you are looking to see what is behind every doorway and passage, go for it. If a character comes across your path and is intriguing to you, follow them.

   2. Think of it like you are walking down a city street at night and each and every person there has their own story of what brought them to that street. Immersive theater lets you keep walking and explore each section of the street with its own beauty or observe a person, or group of people, and follow their story.

3. Follow where the action is happening...

   1. It can be easy to get lost in the world the designers and creators set up for you. Usually the most engaging and immersive portions of the show deal directly with the actors and watching their choreography during the production. There will usually be a crowd that forms around them but every once in a while if an actor is roaming the halls, you might be lucky enough to get a one on one experience with them. A scene that only you have seen and will be one of the few people who ever get to witness it.

4. Or don’t...

   1. Due to the nature of this artform, it is left to be interpreted by each and every person differently because each and every person has seen a “different” show. If you are the type of person who wants to get lost in the atmosphere and possible labyrinthian construction of the set, do so. There are notes to find and read, details on desks, possibly active phones that give auditory backstory. All bits are put into place for the audience to find and explore to make it seem as if it is their own story.

5. Everything can be explored.

   1. Immersive theater seeks to break boundaries, it allows you, the individual, to see a show on your own terms. Be on the lookout for nooks, crevices, alcoves...If it is not blocked off then feel free to interact with each area. Are you not enjoying a plot line from one character, no issue, instead of “tuning out” during those scenes you can walk around and find a new plot/character to follow or one could even find notes and details hidden throughout the set that explain the world you are in. This is a show about how you want to make it and experience it.

6. Discuss with others after the show.

   1. One of the best parts of the evening is when your group has returned from the show, (some shows deliberately separate the group you came in with) and everyone can discuss their favorite scenes, interesting sets, confusing portions, intense visuals just to name a few topics. It is a conversation with your friends about how the story plays out as well as a method to fill in the gaps of the story that the director of the show was trying to portray.

7. Keep an open mind.

   1. An actor lights a candle and walks in a manner that you perceive as stealthy. Do you follow their movements to see what they are up to? There is a stairwell up ahead and you have no idea where it goes. Do you ignore that actor and go up the stairwell for other possible interactions? As you make your choice, someone else comes running towards and past you. Now do you go and see why they were running? Running to something...or from something? Continue up the stairs? Continue following the stealthy actor?

All of those questions can come up within a minute. No matter what choice you make, remind yourself, this is your story, do what intrigues you the most. Immersive theater is a show that tells us to live in the present. I urge you, when you are in the show, don’t focus on the things you didn’t see. Reflect upon the show that YOU saw. Once the show has completed, it turns into a collective story with your friends and other audience members about each and every person's show. It’s a unique feeling, but one that hopefully will get you to seek out this unique and budding artform time and time again.

Immersive theater blends very closely with escape rooms and below are some examples of shows and rooms that seek to fade the line between real and imaginary.

Escape Rooms:

• "Servant’s of Slight" - The Exit Games

• "Puppet Heist: The Hand of Life" - The Bureau

• "Frost Base Z" - Rabbit Hole Recreation Services

• "Storyteller’s Secret" - Boxaroo

• "Project Minotaur" - QUEST ROOM

• "Heresy: 1897" - Doors of Divergence

Immersive Theater Shows:

• "Sleep No More" - The McKittrick Hotel/ Punchdrunk

• "Reaper’s Remorse" - Delusion

• "The Clown Academy" - Intruder Escape

• "The Burnt City" - Punchdrunk

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