Beloved : An Immersive Theater Experience
Date of Award
5-2020
Document Type
MSU-Only Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
College/School
College of the Arts
Department/Program
Theatre and Dance
Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair
Elizabeth McPherson
Committee Member
Kyle deCamp
Committee Member
Apollinaire Scherr
Abstract
As a veteran immersive theater performer, I recognize the field has been rapidly evolving over recent decades. The research for this thesis traces the American roots of immersive theater as it currently exists in the United States, acknowledging the Canadian and British influences that have shaped the genre since the 1980’s. As the term immersive theater becomes a broad catch-all phrase to describe any form of theater or dance theater that may utilize environmental, site-specific, or interactive performance, I consider a stricter definition of the term to understand the roots of the genre.
Beloved, a 60-minute immersive work developed for this thesis, investigates an audience-centric model of immersive theater where the audience not only inhabits the created world but also is a necessary entity that drives the work forward. The work stemmed from my 2019 production Of Others that served as a workshop for this larger endeavor. Because of the outbreak in New York of the COVID-19 global pandemic, my collaborators and I were unable to complete Beloved, but I describe the creative research in anticipation of a future premiere.
File Format
Recommended Citation
Dutton-Reaver, Caitlin, "Beloved : An Immersive Theater Experience" (2020). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 487.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/487
PDF file of thesis
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Comments
The performance video is restricted to the Montclair State University community but the PDF file of the thesis, which is located at the bottom of the screen, is available to anyone interested in reading it.