Engaging Audiences in the 21st Century: A Case Study for Immersive Theatre

This project seeks to explore and understand the levels of engagement with audiences through immersive and interactive theatre compared to traditional theatre. Since COVID, theaters have struggled to maintain audience retention, causing many nonprofit theaters to go on an extended hiatus, or shut down entirely. One solution to this problem is immersive and interactive theatre that aims to completely immerse audiences into the world of the play, and requires audiences to be active participants in the narrative. For this project, I used the nonlinear structure of the play BRIGHT HALF LIFE to my advantage by turning it into an immersive walkthrough experience in Lampasas Hall. Each scene was put on loop in a different room, requiring active participation from the audience by asking them to move from room to room in order to see the full story. To monitor audience engagement, I collected qualitative data through an audience survey, measuring their engagement with traditional theatre before the performance, and then with immersive theatre after. I will use my findings to present an argument for immersive theatre to be implemented at the collegiate, regional, and professional levels.

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Theatre, Dance, and Film

Grantor

Texas State University

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Breda, Shelby

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Nenno-Breining, Linda

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Garcia-Herrington, Yesenia

• theatre
• immersive
• audience engagement

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10877/21670

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digital.library.txst.edu:10877/21670