I love theatre. That much is obvious. I am also an aspiring actress. Before I discovered immersive theatre, I wanted to do straight play-acting; then I discovered immersive theatre existed. I have seen countless shows of many genres and types. I read at least one play a month. I have been lucky to meet people and make friends within the theatre industry who I am forever learning from. Whilst immersive theatre is still arguably a niche area of theatre, it is the one area of theatre I am determined to work in and really want to be a part of. On a few occasions, I’ve been lucky enough to gain a little experience from working in a few immersive shows, but more experience is exactly what I need. I think that it’s one thing being able to act; it’s another being able to act in an immersive theatre show. Instead of reciting lines on stage, where the audience are one side and the performers are the other, the two are interlinked and there is no divide. It is this difference I need to gain experience on – how to turn straight acting into acting for immersive theatre.
I also suffer greatly from imposter syndrome. I’ve been acting all through my school years, and for as long as I can remember I did amateur dramatics too, all the way up to my final year of college. I have no official drama school training. This, combined with the less than supportive words from people I’ve heard over the years that remain steadfast in my memory, had convinced me I couldn’t do it. I’ve not done enough to get into acting, I don’t have enough experience, I was getting too old (I genuinely thought that based off a comment someone once said to me, HA), I’m miles behind others so I have no hope.
It wasn’t until I met the friends I’ve made through immersive theatre that I began to break down the imposter syndrome and these thoughts. Some of the people I’ve met are drama school trained, but a large number are not; some of the people I’ve met even have qualifications in completely different subjects. Through meeting these people, talking to them and hearing stories of how they got into immersive theatre made me realise: it may help to have a qualification, but it’s not the only way to get into theatre, let alone immersive theatre. Furthermore, my fear of having too little experience, being behind everyone else and being too old…the people I met quickly corrected me on this. It’s through going to immersive theatre and meeting these fantastic people that opened my eyes: everyone has to start somewhere, no matter your age or experience.
So, bearing exactly that in mind is what gave me the courage and confidence to book the Colab Theatre’s immersive theatre acting masterclass. And it was hugely valuable.
*The class was held with the covid safety measures in place – temperature checks and hand sanitiser prior to entry to the building, masks worn by all and social distancing maintained the entire time*.
As recently as 3 years ago, I’d have convinced myself that this class is not for the likes of me, I don’t have enough experience to go, I’m not good enough to go and all I’d do is waste their time. But I remembered what I’ve learnt these last 3 years – everyone has to start somewhere. I remember thinking – what’s the worst that can happen? I make a bit of an idiot of myself? I do that a fair bit as it is anyway, so nothing new there. And I’d rather make an idiot of myself and still learn something and have that experience which can come in useful, than not do it at all, and regret it. And I am so glad I persisted.
The class, hosted by Ben Chamberlain, Bertie Watkins, and Charlotte Potter, was lovely. It felt like such a safe space for everyone, where we could all pitch our thoughts and ideas. There was room for everyone, both physically and mentally, and it was a really welcoming space from both the facilitators and the fellow attendees; very much like how I feel when I’m at an immersive theatre show! There was no right or wrong, no one making you feel ridiculous or mocking. It was also made very clear this was NOT an audition which was very reassuring to hear! it was just a space to learn and improve, and of course – have fun. In terms of the content itself, it was informative, interesting and useful, but not overwhelming in the slightest.
As I said before – I’ve seen numerous shows, standard and immersive. This, combined with my work experience and what I’ve learnt from the people I’ve met through immersive theatre, has helped me gain a bit more of an understanding of how this particular medium of theatre works. As I have said before in previous posts – immersive theatre is such a broad spectrum and whilst two shows can be categorised as immersive, they can still be very different. This is something I have learnt simply by going to lots of shows, but something I do still struggle to not only get my head around, but also to try and explain and put into words.
The class covered what makes a show immersive, how different immersive theatre shows can be categorised and the ways audience members can be involved, interact, affect a show, and how these can all differ. This was all put into context of where various immersive theatre companies sit within this broad spectrum. This explanation was so concise and really helped with my understanding. The information was not only useful in understanding immersive theatre and how it works, but also in terms of acting: if you’re acting in an immersive theatre show, you will need to know what type of show it is, the ratio of story to game to audience participation, so you know how to act and how to base your character so it makes sense within this context.
The content the class provided really helped with character development – the physicality, the communication with others, as well as your own knowledge of your character. This was then built on with how to develop these characters further so they’re suitable for an immersive theatre setting. As I said before – I have done straight stage acting. But immersive theatre acting is a whole other kettle of fish. The fourth wall that exists between actor and audience is gone in immersive theatre, This means that an audience member can ask you anything about your character and you just have to have a response from the knowledge you have of who you are playing.
A lot of the points were raised in the session that really helped me think of things I’d never thought of before about developing the character; it helped me think about how to make a character a lot more real and how to develop further who they are outside the context of the show. After all, in-world, they are far more than just the person you see in the show. Adding details that may not be seen in the show but are still important and helpful to think of so you know who your character is, inside and out. I for one know that all this added detail and characterisation would not only help me get into character better when it comes to doing a show, but also make the character I am portraying feel more authentic and real, which is of course, what anyone wants when they’re portraying a role.
I really enjoyed learning in particular about how Colab use tropes as a starting point for building their characters. An alternative way to look at this is stereotypes. If you hear the words ‘copper’, ‘gangster’, ‘bully’ etc…everyone has a rough idea in their head already of who they are as a character, and these tropes can then be built on to form a character further. (Ben explained this in a far better way than I just did, but I am attempting to write it as I found it really interesting to know this is how Colab start their character building).
Something Ben said that really resonated with me is that ‘if you are confident with your character, your audience and fellow facilitators will see and respect that’. Confidence in characters is something I can do. I am not a confident person and my anxiety rears its ugly head far more than I’d like, which is why I love acting – it gives me a character I can hide behind. This is a massive reason why, when I found out about immersive theatre, I fell in love with it so quickly. I could take on any person, in any time period or world within the show, and forget myself for a few hours (also see my post here where I talk about this in more depth). But of course, confidence in characters on stage and confidence in characters in immersive theatre are on two different levels. On stage, you’re distanced from the audience. You’re not as exposed or vulnerable as to when you’re working within the audience and the audience are a part of the show you’re in. There is nowhere for you to hide. This form of acting does require you to be quite exposed and vulnerable to the audience. Colab Theatre were very transparent about this difference and the vulnerability that immersive theatre acting requires, and this is something I think was very important for them to mention.
The first thing I ever remember being taught in terms of drama is to just go with it. Whatever someone says, you either say yes, and roll further with it, or you say no but offer an alternative so it’s not shutting any of the performance down. The masterclass built upon that, particularly when we all took a shot at building a world to try out the skills and lessons we had learnt that day. Whenever anyone spoke to any of us, we maintained standard rules of performance – staying in the world, staying in character – but then we also just went with whatever anyone said and rolled with it, and made something out of it. At times it was chaotic, but it was fun seeing what everyone came out with and seeing where the almost ‘mini-scene/show’ (that’s what we’re calling the exercise anyway) ended up; none of us knew, but it worked and it was fun; I’d call that a success!
Throughout the masterclass, we did a series of activities, all of which were useful, but also chaotic. But just because something is chaotic, that doesn’t make it bad. It was nice to hear Ben, Charlotte and Bertie all say that a lot of the time – the shows themselves are chaos. But they work. They embrace and work with it to make the show good. (And every show I’ve been to has been good – to say the least). This flexibility of immersive theatre – being able to improvise, having flexibility in what you say and do, and how (especially with a lot of immersive theatre being unscripted) – is half the reason I like it so much. Because you have that level of freedom. Naturally, the chaos is going to come with that, but this aspect of the class was really helpful at explaining how Colab don’t try and keep chaos out of the equation, but embrace it and how they use it within their shows, especially to their advantage.
Something else I found really refreshing was hearing Ben admit that the first few shows can sometimes end up being a ‘hot mess’. His words, not mine. Acting, I think, is a skill you never stop developing – no matter in what format. With immersive theatre being still a relatively new format, I think immersive theatre acting is a skill, I for one, will be always learning and improving upon. Between Ben, Bertie and Charlotte, they have many years of experience. To hear all three of them admit that sometimes the show will be a ‘hot mess’ – and that is okay – was quite reassuring. What I like is that they told us this not to scare us into never going into this aspect of acting, but to share the knowledge that yes sometimes shows will be like that, and not go the way you like. That is okay, and the important thing is how you use those shows to improve for next time. Improve yourself, your character, your show, whatever.
I can be a bit of a perfectionist, and if I make a mistake I beat myself up over it endlessly, and apologise 300 times in one minute. I don’t do it to be annoying, it’s because I genuinely feel awful to have made a mistake and let people down; but mistakes make us human and it’s how we learn, develop and grow. So to have a developed company like Colab making the point that messy shows and mistakes are a part of it, and just something they use to improve, and there’s nothing wrong with that, was something I not only found really refreshing to hear, but really appreciated them mentioning.
Something that I think is a really good example to set is that at the start of the session, everyone in the class was asked if there was any preferred pronouns anyone wanted to be addressed by – something I think we should definitely normalise. Furthermore, the use of a safeword was addressed. This word was something to be taken seriously, should anyone feel uncomfortable, anxious, or just need the class to immediately stop for whatever reason. At the end of the class, Ben, Charlotte and Bertie then proceeded to dedicate a section of time to discuss personal safety and mental health regarding immersive theatre, for both audience and cast alike.
As said above, acting within immersive theatre is something quite vulnerable to do, and being in such a vulnerable position, acting with and around the audience can be quite daunting. As an audience member, my first time at an immersive theatre show was daunting enough, and I remember when I did my first work experience within an immersive theatre show – it can be quite scary to start with, and that’s from me, where this isn’t my full-time job or something I’m well experienced in.
Bearing all that in mind, personal safety and mental health is something that really needs to be taken into consideration. The personal safety covered the importance of the safeword in an immersive theatre setting for all people in the building, and the seriousness of the word (again, something we should normalise), and the relationship between that and mental health within this area of theatre. Mental health can be applied to all aspects of life and theatre anyway, but because immersive theatre is still relatively new, there has not been a great number of discussions regarding mental health in this situation. This is something Colab addressed and said they are actively working towards to change for the better so they can ensure they’re supporting their audience members and cast members alike, consistently in all they do. This is such an important issue to address and it’s really nice to see Colab really making the effort and doing work on this.
Similarly to that, the session concluded with the topic of diversity. I am someone with Turkish heritage and it’s not as often as I would like that I get to see people who look like me on stage. It is even rarer in immersive theatre. So to hear Colab discuss how they are actively trying to improve themselves in terms of their diversity – for size, gender, race – everything – is something I appreciate. There has been a lot of discussions regarding diversity in the theatre industry in the last year and I feel there is still a way to go, but to see smaller companies like Colab taking these discussions on board and trying to improve was really nice to hear. It gave me faith that there is a space for me to work within this area of theatre.
This brings me to my final point. Something I didn’t expect this class to do was inspire me the way it did. I went to this class to learn, with the hope that one day I can use these skills and work within an immersive theatre show as an actress. Ben, Bertie and Charlotte were transparent on what working in this area is like. It was hugely beneficial in the many ways I’ve just explained, but it also gave me hope. Prior to the class, the friends I’ve made through immersive theatre have not only given me work experience where they can, but also valuable advice and tips which I have more than taken on board and that have proven to be very useful as well as being very supportive, for which I am thankful. This class, however, put my dream into perspective. It made me think that maybe aspiring to act in immersive theatre isn’t as unrealistic as I thought. Maybe there’s a chance I can do it and make it happen. I know it won’t be easy and will require a lot of hard work and determination – which I am more than okay with, if it gets me even just half a step closer to my dream. But this masterclass made me realise, it is possible. I booked myself in for a class about acting within immersive theatre. The beautiful thing is, I got just that and even more.
To find out more about Colab Theatre, head here: https://www.colabtheatre.co.uk/
One Show at a Time 