This talk draws on my background as the founder of both an immersive theatre company and a research lab that is building a HoloLens adaptation of a Greek tragedy. I also draw on my doctoral research at Northwestern University, which analyzes audience participation in immersive theatre productions like Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More. I will explain how XR developers can use the secrets of immersive theatre to create (1) interactivity that feels meaningful, and (2) experiences that feel authentic. Immersive theatre is especially helpful for thinking about XR design because theatre artists have been telling stories in 360° since the dawn of storytelling. Powerful immersive theatre—that rich, communal, intoxicating energy—makes us feel more alive in our own bodies. This sensation is the kind of UX that XR can capture.

My research shows that in immersive theatre, interactions that feel meaningful generally arise out of production choices that fall into four categories, which I’ll explain by using examples from the theatre shows I analyze. Three of these categories can be used in most XR design, but the fourth kicks in only for specific kinds of XR experiences. I will describe these first three categories: (1) acknowledging the individual user’s physical body, (2) giving users identifiable tasks that have value within the economy the experience creates, and (3) to use an academic term that I’ll demystify, creating immersivity that is a simulacrum. I will also explain how (4) immersive theatre creates meaningful interactivity through the presence of a famous—canonical, even—source. This fourth category drives home a robust interactivity, and it leads me to the talk’s other main focus: creating authenticity in XR.
I do not at all suggest—whether in immersive theatre or XR— that a canonical source is required to create meaningful interactivity. However, as my research shows, an overlooked but fundamental audience (or user) dynamic is feeling like a meaningful, full-body participant in an experience we recognize as the authentic version of a story. Authenticity is important because people want to be part of a tradition, and to feel like their participation in that tradition was not just permitted, but necessary. This dynamic has been part of the human condition since the ancient Greeks went to plays at the festival of Dionysus—they understood themselves and their value as Greek citizens by being witness-participants in staged versions of the myths they all knew so well.

Today, we recognize this dynamic because we have Disney, and the master class their theme parks offer in full-body narrativized participation in the American canon—or, in plain English, the feeling that we’re immersed in the real story we know from the movies, and we matter. But “authenticity” is a tough concept to quantify. Fortunately, scholars of Greek drama talk a lot about different authenticities in staging the plays today. My talk will conclude with an explanation of how we can use these authenticities to create the robust, meaningful XR interactions that will define how people experience culture from this point forward.