PlayOn! Bulletin, Issue One, June 2022

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PLAYON! PARTNERS & SPOTLIGHTS ON PRODUCTIONS
During PlayOn! the partner theatres go through three production periods: In phase 1 they developed new forms of storytelling, building on
narrative structures used in the gaming sector. In phase 2 they merged these new forms with a variety of immersive technologies creating
innovative and impressive productions out of these working processes.
THE THEATRES are now preparing for the third phase of the project. They will leave the stage and look for immersive
outreach applications. In order to exploit all the opportunities offered by the new story-world-building, they will experience how to engage the
audience with points of intervention and participation in the public urban space. Immersive technologies offer a kind of flexibility, which enables
theatres to exceed limits of space and time. Thematically they will further explore the topic of concrete utopias in the digital age.
http://obando.pt/pt
https://www.landestheater-linz.at
https://www.pilot-theatre.com
https://kolibriszinhaz.hu
Teatro O Bando | Palmela/Portugal
Landestheater Linz | Austria
Pilot Theatre Company | York/United Kingdom
Kolibri Színház | Budapest/Hungary
Est. 1974
17 permanent team members
Shows per year: 120
Spectators per year: around 20 000
We are working as a collective future-oriented theatre; the focus of our projects
are freedom, territories and minorities.
FUTEBOL
(co-production with Teatro Montemuro) is a theatrical reflection about the ancestral and the anthropological
roots of the relationship between a human being and a ball. Joining two different teams
on stage we pretend to mix the well-known codes of modern football with the historical research of
Portuguese writer Álvaro Magalhães. Published in 2004, the author’s The Natural History of Football
is a multidisciplinary essay which delves into the most intimate aspects of the game to discover its
essence, exploring the motivations inherent to it and its essential categories. Following the PlayON!
challenge, we developed an app (developed by Ben Kirman, more info on page 2) with specific
contents to captivate the audience and to allow them to become an active “supporter” of this
theatre game, following the results of the season of the show through videos and other types
of media contents.
Est. 1803
Size of the team: around 1000
Shows per year: 800-900
Spectators per year: around 320 000
Departments: Opera, Dance, Musical, Drama and Theatre for Young Audience (TYA)
5 stages (90 to 1 200 seats) + online “netstage”
ALIENATION
Nikola is hiding in her room avoiding expectations to conform, while trying to connect to others
online. The outside world is only present via smartphone videos, sounds and written chats, while she
tries to manifest an utopian society in a video game world. The audience can interact with each other
via reaction.link emojis (https://www.reactionlink.de) and help build the gaming environment
through their decisions.
Alienation builds upon our first experiments with live theatre online, ranging from very little interactivity
to the audience being responsible for progressing the story, a development we feel is vital for
the audience-performance relationship in online theatre. For the gaming worlds we teamed up with
students of the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria.
Est. 1981
Size of the team 4 full time, 3 part-time + many freelancers
Spectators per year: around 15000
As a touring company, we make theatre and art with and for young people and
inspire and champion creativity. Think harder, feel more!
MONOLITHS
in collaboration with One to One Development
Three women. Three voices. The northern landscape.
They are monoliths – standing stones – powerful and influential forces.
In Monoliths, three stories open the world of the northern English landscape in virtual reality, what
it means to come from it, live in it and belong to it.
Monoliths is a VR experience that combines the soundscapes of real locations in the north of England
with the stories of three northern women. The piece is an exploration on how landscapes can be
radical spaces for expression and reflection. Premiering at re:publica, 2022.
Est. 1992
81 permanent workers + over 30 freelancers
Shows per year: 550
Spectators per year: around 50000
“We grow up together!” – This motto conveys our mission to offer each age
group high-standard productions that are suitable for their mental and emotional
development, and to accompany children through the stages of artistic experience.
WATERGATE
is an interactive theatre game about the negative effects of climate change. The story takes place in
two similar Time Crypts, that come from an imagined future, an age when humanity’s drinking water
supply has decreased drastically. Our audience are active participants of the game, revealing some
details of the impending social and climate catastrophe themselves with the help of messages from
the future. Whether their mission succeeds, whether they can prevent a forthcoming danger, depends
on them. The future is in their hands.
You can hear an interview with the director and designer of the production by scanning the QR code.
https://re-publica.com/
de/session/monoliths
https://youtu.be/
eNIpsOrpOe4
Teatr Ludowy | Krakow/Poland
https://ludowy.pl
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=MmfcApcI9E8
Est. 1955
96 permanent employees
Spectators per year: 101 000
Shows per year: approx. 580
A theatre that expands its operation and creates new fields of art.
Teatret Vårt | Molde, Ålesund/Norway
Est. 1972
Size of the team: 40 permanent + 30 freelance
Spectators per year: 35 000
Shows per year: approx. 270
Teatret Vårt is an ambitious and innovative theatre touring the north-western
region of Norway with home base at theatre houses in the towns of Molde and
Ålesund producing a broad range of plays for audiences of all ages.
The production DREAM GAME is using an interactive stage created by microcontrollers that
provides an unusual theatrical experience for a young audience aged 8+.
https://www.teatretvart.no
1984 MINISTRY OF LOVE
Decide! Accuse! Judge!
In 1984: Ministry of Love the audience become part of the jury who will pass judgement on the accused.
The audience have access to a unique mobile application reaction.link and court files. Pressing a
button to change somebody’s life.
The performance, whose starting point is the novel by George Orwell, 1984, places the audience, as
a judging body, they are able to decide, along with the course of the interrogation, which of the four
perspectives of the story they want to see. They will democratically vote on whom to grant or whom
to take away the right to vote. The performance asks what the power of audience responsibility becomes
in the oppressive situation of the invasion of someone's memory.
Elsinor Centro di Produzione Teatrale | Forlì,
Florence, Milano/Italy
Est. 1999 as three theatre companies, active from the 1970s, merged together
15 permanent staff members + around other 140 per year involved in projects
Shows per year: 363
Spectators per year: 50500
Elsinor’s driven commitment is focused on the exploration of contemporary theatrical
prose, and the exchange and synergies inspired by traditional and new approaches.
FRANKENSTEIN
https://www.elsinor.net
This production is a feminine interpretation of the famous book, which tells of an era in which being
women and artists was much less than an exception, in which one could feel "monstrous" if she gave
birth to books instead of children, in which a Creator confronts herself with the fear of being such and
with the genius of her Creature: a masterpiece that has transcended its time creating one of the greatest
topos of the contemporary age. A dreamlike journey into the novel and the emotionality of its author,
and at the same time a technological immersion in a dramaturgy with an interactive component.
Theater Dortmund | Germany
Est. 1904
700 permanent employees + freelancers
Shows per year: 680
Spectators per year: 220 000
Theater Dortmund is one of the largest theatres in Germany with over
500 employees. It is divided into the six divisions (drama, opera, ballet,
Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy for Theatre and Digitality, KJT - Theatre
for Young audience), each of which has its own artistic direction.
THE FUTURE
https://www.theaterdo.de
Our main idea is to develop a play that refers to the current situation of humanity. Young people
are facing a future that looks to be chaotic, dark, overwhelming and disturbing. Due to the Coronavirus
we extend further into digital worlds without structures and ways to connect. The production
is a collage of voice, body, sound, and surroundings in order to depict the immediacy of digital
environments but also to explore strategies to face the future with courage and joy.