ABSTRACT
Interaction and immersion are increasingly popular features of contemporary theatre, no doubt because they supercharge the inherent ephemerality of live performance, create embodied experiences, and offer unique avenues for audience agency. Though interaction and immersion have long been a part of theatre's history, few academic programs include explicit training on how to embed these elements into a contemporary production. Now, as a new generation of theatre makers explore this exciting territory, many of the discipline's current conventions for how audiences interact with performances are shifting. To harness the potential of these tools, theatre artists may need help to understand how and when to best use them. This is where game design comes in. As an artistic genre, games build systems of interaction that teach audiences the impacts of their participation and narrow down a world of infinite choices toward a specific set of interaction goals. This article distills lessons from a leading game/theatre company—Swim Pony—offering both theoretical background and practical tips to understand how game design frameworks can be used to build better audience participation in theatre.
