Immersive theater

Immersive theater differentiates itself from traditional theater by removing the stage and immersing audiences within the performance itself. Often, this is accomplished by using a specific location (site-specific), allowing audiences to converse with the actors and interact with their surroundings (interactive), thereby breaking the fourth wall. (Immersive theater and interactive theater are not necessarily synonymous; immersive theater may not have interactive elements in it at all, and interactive theater may not be immersive in the core sense.)

In choose-your-own-adventure theater, agency is given to the audience to participate in changing the narrative while the performance is taking place. Bespoke theater, invented by Fondudes, extends participation to pre-production so each show is customized per audience at script level.^[1] Modern forms of immersive theater have a wide range of definitions, all based upon the degree and type of engagement found between actors and their audience. There has been considerable debate among critics concerning these definitions of interaction,^[2] at the heart of which are concepts such as audience influence, participation, social constructs and roles, and involvement, all depending on the degree of involvement needed for the works progression. Although many critics argue that all art incorporates a certain level of collaboration between its creator and its viewer, immersive theater differs in that audience members are expected to play some level of an active role in the creative process of the work. Immersive theater can take many forms depending on the degree of involvement of the audience, ranging from open acknowledgment of the audience's presence, to the audience's complete freedom of choice in determining the narrative.