Making Sense of Space

4

Theatre in the virtual day and age

Abstract:

This chapter investigates the effect digital technologies have on theatre, reconfiguring its aesthetics and challenging conventional audience–performance interaction. It analyses virtual reality as a space for theatre-making and attempts to answer the question of how the use of technology and artistic creativity can be balanced, in order to prevent the storyline from disappearing behind the ‘new media decorations’. It is argued that technologies of computation offer a vast range of powerful tools for experiencing the art of theatre; however, it is emphasized that theatre-makers should identify the desired level of interactivity to maintain the feeling of the spectators’ immersion and engagement ...