Introduction

What questions did you have at the start of this project?
The very first idea was a scavenger hunt through a district of Linz, where we could narrate with actors, found objects, and settings the story of the two teenagers. Could they maybe go into an unused flat and examine it? We then focussed the idea on two separate rooms and an exit game strategy. So the questions were practical: Where do we find two big empty rooms that we can use and how can we narrate a story through them?

What technology was the focus of the work, and why?
When COVID hit, letting audience groups rummage around a room suddenly did not seem like a good idea. That is why we used Zoom, a smartphone with a good camera and a gimbal, to avoid motion sickness, which we used to lead the audience remotely through a room. Zoom seemed well established, was already tested with our production of Elektra and had the possibility of breakout rooms, which was not the case with e.g. Microsoft Teams back then.

The breakout rooms were used to split the audience into two groups, and, at certain points, to introduce an authority figure to increase pressure or give clues. If the audience find all clues, they unlock a video that shows how Lea is walking on ice, breaks in and is saved by Hasan. The audience is then lead back to the main session, where both groups tell each other about their side of the story and are lead into a discussion.

What did you hope to explore in terms of technology, form, and content?
Originally, we wanted to explore adapting a text to a gaming structure. How can you tell a story about a person through their belongings?

Creative Process

How did the collaborators work together on this project?
The collaboration was challenged by shifting timetables and possibilities during COVID. We explored multiple platforms to work remotely with the director and dramaturg up until it was time (and possible) to actually set up the stage.

The students divided into two groups, each focussing on one of the rooms/characters. We had talks about content and tested out gaming structures together. The game had fixed needs for it to work, everything else they could fill with life and their imagination. The task was unusual, as we needed to create not a stage but an actual environment that seemed to be rooted in reality but also told a story.

What forms of trial and error occurred?
The first try-outs with the gaming structure were very sketchy (all clues were made our of paper). As the production grew, we gradually invited colleagues and audience peer groups to be our test audiences.

Did you use existing software?
We used a professional account of Zoom.

Did any of your questions or goals change, over the course of this project?
At a certain point, we wanted to give the characters a social media life as well, but gradually kept them more analogue, as there were unsolved questions about platform policies and the story did not really require them anymore. We realised that we need the videos to start and end the game, to introduce the audiences into the story (like a cut scene in a video game) and the world outside the rooms the play takes place in.

What were the key milestones in the development of the production?
When we figured out that we can do the game remotely - this also solved the yet undecided question about performance spaces, as we now could use two small rooms in the theatre that audiences would have never been able to access.

When things were running and we had our first test-audiences.

Reflections

The game worked really well. We learned how to guide a audiences so that the gaming-experienced ones took more time to explore the room and the unexperienced ones were helped a little.

Especially pupils liked the gaming elements and the freedom they had to explore.

The game proved more intense in relation to people involved in each performance, as we had the “avatars” led by the audience, the actors that came in and kept the game pushing forward and a kind of stage master for each room, surveying and communicating to the other.

In what ways was the production a success?
Audiences liked the interactivity and freedom they had inside the story. We found out a lot about gaming structures and online formats – how interaction is vital to the production.

If other people were to take a similar approach, what advice would you give?
The play relies heavily on improvisation from the persons with the camera and the actors interacting with the audience. Everyone has to know the game very well and be able to monitor the process.

The actual game structure is not that complicated – you had to find four clues (sometimes put them together first, translate it, etc.), to unlock the secret. If the rooms are stuffed with “fluff” and story, this is enough to entertain an audience for an hour!

Give good instructions to teachers, if school classes are your audience:– we needed two rooms with internet, PC and a projector and one person as speaker communicating with us.