For four years, the theatre network PlayOn! has been exploring how traditional theatres can use new storytelling to expand their scope and possibilities. How audience can become co-creators of stories? What immersive technologies on stage demand from theatre artists and enrich audiences?
The PlayOn! consortium consists of 9 European theatres and as many tech universities. Together they have so far produced almost two dozen theatre performances that combine new storytelling and immersive technologies.
The key objectives of PlayOn! are
- to develop new forms of creative storytelling building on narrative structures used in the creative game sector;
- to merge new storytelling with a variety of immersive technologies;
- to use this new format to extend theatre towards the public urban space with relevant stories.
“Concrete Utopias in the Digital Age” is the theme, which guides us towards a serious artistic exploration of vital issues in 21st European society including the challenges and potential for the future. It combines the interactive, immersive and democratic aspects of theatre and immersive technologies. PlayOn! creates an artistic journey into a digital future to initiate public debate on the social issues and outcomes of new technologies on different aspect of our lives.
Lucy Hammond and Dirk Neldner report on the successes of this cooperation, but also, and even more importantly, on the challenges of such an undertaking. How traditional theatre companies explore the Digitality. What kind of difficulties have to be overcome when two different worlds of storytelling meet.