Julie Taymor is an American director and writer of theater, opera, and film. Her stage adaptation of The Lion King debuted in 1997 and received eleven Tony Award nominations, with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for her direction and costume design. Her film Frida, about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including a Best Original Song nomination for Taymor's composition "Burn It Blue". She also directed the 2007 jukebox musical film Across the Universe, based on the music of the Beatles.
Woyzeck is a stage play written by Georg Büchner. Büchner wrote the play between July and October 1836, yet left it incomplete at his death in February 1837. The play first appeared in 1877 in a heavily edited version by Karl Emil Franzos, and was first performed at the Residence Theatre in Munich on 8 November 1913.
Neil Vivian Bartlett, OBE, is a British director, performer, translator and writer. He was one of the founding members of Gloria, a production company established in 1988 to produce his work along with that of Nicolas Bloomfield, Leah Hausman and Simon Mellor.
David Greig is a Scottish playwright and theatre director. His work has been performed at many of the major theatres in Britain, including the Traverse Theatre, Royal Court Theatre, Royal National Theatre, Royal Lyceum Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and been produced around the world.
Thousands of performances of William Shakespeare's plays have been staged since the end of the 16th century. While Shakespeare was alive, many of his greatest plays were performed by the Lord Chamberlain's Men and King's Men acting companies at the Globe and Blackfriars Theatres. Among the actors of these original performances were Richard Burbage, Richard Cowley, and William Kempe.
It Felt Like a Kiss is an immersive theatre production, first performed between 2 and 19 July 2009 as part of the second Manchester International Festival, co-produced with the BBC. Themed on "how power really works in the world", it is a collaboration between film-maker Adam Curtis and theatre company Punchdrunk, with original music composed by Damon Albarn and performed by the Kronos Quartet.
Sleep No More is an immersive theatre production created by British theatre company Punchdrunk. Based on Punchdrunk's original 2003 London production, the company reinvented Sleep No More in a co-production with the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), which opened at the Old Lincoln School in Brookline, Massachusetts on October 8, 2009. It won Punchdrunk the Elliot Norton Award for Best Theatrical Experience 2010.
Valene Kane is a Northern Irish actress. She is perhaps best known for her performances in all three series of BBC Two's BAFTA-nominated The Fall, in which she played Jamie Dornan's first victim, Rose Stagg.
Roman Tragedies is a 6-hour stage adaptation of William Shakespeare's plays Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra, created in 2007 by Toneelgroep Amsterdam, the theatre company of Amsterdam. As of November 2012, the company continues to perform it at venues across the world. Directed by Ivo van Hove, the production has been highly praised for its acting, its innovative set, and its use of multimedia.
Shakespeare in the Park is a term for outdoor festivals featuring productions of William Shakespeare's plays. The term originated with the New York Shakespeare Festival in New York City's Central Park, originally created by Joseph Papp. This concept has been adapted by many theatre companies, and over time, this name has expanded to encompass outdoor theatre productions of the playwright's works performed all over the world.
Careena Melia is an Irish-American actress.
Sleep No More is the New York City production of an immersive work of theatre created by the British theatre company Punchdrunk. It is primarily based on William Shakespeare's Macbeth, with inspiration also taken from noir films, as well as some reference to the 1697 Paisley witch trials. It is expanded from their original 2003 London incarnation and their Brookline, Massachusetts 2009 collaboration with Boston's American Repertory Theatre. The company reinvented Sleep No More as a co-production with Emursive, and began performances on March 7, 2011. Sleep No More won the 2011 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience and won Punchdrunk special citations at the 2011 Obie Awards for design and choreography.
Shakespeare Festival Neuss is an annual theatre festival in Neuss, Germany. It has taken place in a replica of the Globe Theatre on the grounds of the Neuss racecourse since 1991.
The Drowned Man was an original theatre production by British theatre company Punchdrunk, in collaboration with the Royal National Theatre.
Jami Reid-Quarrell is a Scottish actor. He is best known for his role as Colony Sarff and the Veil in series 9 of the BBC television series Doctor Who, for which he was voted Best Male Guest Actor of Doctor Who TV in 2015. He is also a singer, physical performer and choreographer who has appeared in numerous theatre, film and TV productions, operas and musicals. In 2010 he created the role of Dr Gangle for Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies. His stage appearances include Equus with Daniel Radcliffe, Trevor Nunn's The Tempest with Ralph Fiennes and with physical theatre companies such as Punchdrunk and Frantic Assembly. He has also appeared with such companies as the Royal Opera House, Archaos and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He also choreographs and movement directs for theatre and screen, for shows such as Trevor Nunn and pop videos for Depeche Mode, Casiokids and Boy Kill Boy.
Audience immersion is a storytelling technique which attempts to make the audience feel as though they are a part of the story or performance, a state which may be referred to as "transportation" into the narrative, permitting high levels of suspension of disbelief. Audience immersion may be used to enhance learning or to create a more realistic experience. Various methods may be employed to this end, including narrative perspective in writing or technical design in the performing arts. An early example of audience immersion is from the 1846 travelogue Pictures from Italy by Charles Dickens, in which the narrator, speaking in the first person, addresses the reader using second-person pronouns, allowing the reader to "picture themselves with Dickens as he travels."
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.
Jason Ferguson is an American writer and producer mainly known for the London revival of the musical Ragtime and the immersive theatre show SXSWestworld.
Oily Cart is a London-based national and international touring theatre company founded in 1981. The company specialises in creating original, immersive, multi-sensory productions for babies and very young children under 5, and for children and young people who have profound and multiple learning disabilities, are on the autism spectrum, or are deafblind/multi-sensory impaired. The emergence of Theatre for Early Years (TEY) has been credited to Oily Cart and Theatre Kit. The company is a registered charity.
The Gyula Shakespeare Festival is a one-week to two-week long, international Festival organised annually since 2005 in Gyula, Hungary. Organizers of the Festival have been József Gedeon (2005–2016), Marianna Varga (2016–2017), and Tibor Elek (2017–present).
