The implementation of VR and AR into immersive theater is happening globally, and in many ways. The immersive entertainment industry as a whole was reported as being valued at more than $60 billion dollars in 2019, with immersive theater contributing just over $28 million dollars to the total. One of the leaders of VR integration with immersive theater is the National Theatre in London. The National Theatre is known for its cutting edge and boundary pushing productions, such as its performances of the VR musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” titled “Wonder.land” by Damon Albarn in 2016. The National Theatre is not only producing fully fledged productions in this vein. It also launched an artist support project entitled “alt.barbican,” which encouraged theater makers who had creative ideas that blended VR and AR with immersive theater performance in 2017. More recently, however, in 2019, the National Theatre received a Sundance nomination for its VR production of “All Kinds of Limbo” by Raffy Bushman and Nubiya Brandon.
Though the National Theatre has made notable strides in this realm, it is not the only theater to see success. In a collaboration between Piehole, a theater company in Los Angeles, and Tender Claws, an L.A. game development company, “The Under Presents” was born. This immersive theater experience utilizes the VR technology of Oculus Quest, powered by Facebook, to create a video game meets live cabaret adventure experience. Though this is a largely individual, game driven experience, there are actors, live interactions, and even elements of advanced puppetry that make this an extremely unique immersive theater experience. Although this project was originally developed in 2016, the unusual circumstances that surrounded life in 2020 lead to its revitalization and widespread success, obtaining a nomination and win for “VR Experience of the Year” in 2020 by The Virtual Reality Awards. This success is a strong example of how immersive theater has been influenced by the addition of VR and AR into performance in just the last year, and represents the indicators of change in the field.
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