| In this project, my primary objective is to explore the impact of immersive theater on audience engagement and reception, while also assessing its potential as a tool for exploring and addressing societal issues. Initially, I examined the relationship between the audience and the characters in the performance. This analysis set the stage for a comprehensive discussion on the origins, evolution, distinguishing features, and inherent limitations of immersive theater. Furthermore, I introduced forum theater as a complementary genre that integrates art with social and political dimensions. In the creative practice, I designed and staged an immersive theater production titled Seeing Them which focuses on destigmatizing depression, and conducted a Chinese-language performance on campus. Subsequently, I employed a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the effectiveness of immersive theater, involving direct observation of audience reactions during performance as well as analyzing pre-and post-show questionnaire results. Through these measures, I aim to provide an assessment of immersive theater’s capacity to provoke meaningful societal change. |
