ABSTRACT

Place can shape and influence audience behavior during a performance. This is especially noticeable in the site-specific immersive theatre model, where the performance occurs in a non-theatre setting and audiences have an active role. In this article, we argue that ‘place schema’ – a term from the interdisciplinary field of environment-behavior studies – provides a conceptual framework for better understanding audience behavior within immersive theatre environments. We know how to behave in a theatre building because we have codified experiences regarding the environment in our minds called place schemata. They help us process spatial information, predict what is likely to happen, and decide how to take action accordingly. However, if this spatial information does not match the ‘theatre schema’ we have in our minds, as is often the case in an immersive theatre setting, we would need to update our existing schema. In this article, we examine Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More (2011 New York production, which is still running) to evaluate how audiences carry the behavioral rules of traditional theatre schema into immersive theatres and consider how expectations, roles, and rules of place influence the relationship between the audience and setting.

摘要

表演期间，地点可以塑造和影响观众的行为。这在特定场地的沉浸式剧场模型中尤为明显，在该模型中，表演发生在非剧场环境中，观众扮演着积极的角色。在这篇文章中，我们认为“地点图式”——环境行为研究跨学科领域的一个术语——提供了一个概念框架，可以更好地理解沉浸式剧院环境中的观众行为。我们知道如何在剧院建筑中表现，因为我们已经将关于环境的经验编纂在我们的脑海中，称为地方图式。它们帮助我们处理空间信息，预测可能发生的事情，并决定如何采取相应的行动。然而，如果这个空间信息与我们心目中的“剧院模式”不符，正如在沉浸式剧院环境中经常发生的情况一样，我们需要更新现有的架构。在本文中，我们研究了 Punchdrunk 的Sleep No More（2011 年纽约制作，仍在上映）评估观众如何将传统剧院模式的行为规则带入沉浸式剧院，并考虑期望、角色和场所规则如何影响观众与环境之间的关系。