PLAYON! - New Storytelling with Immersive Technologies
University of York
Cooperation Projects
England
2019
Total project grant (euros)
2,000,000
Sub-programme
Culture
Funding scheme
Creative Europe
Call number
EACEA 34/2018
Location
York
Number of partners in project
10
Lead organisation
Mittetulundusuhing Vat Teater, Estonia
Partners
As Regionteatret I More Og Romsdal, Norway
Cooperativa De Producao Artistica Teatro Animacao O Bando Crl, Portugal
Elsinor Societa Cs, Italy
Kolibri Gyermek-Es Ifjusagi Szinhaz Kiemelkedoen Kozhasznu Nonprofit KFT, Hungary
Huparoo Theater Und Orchester GmbH, Austria
Teatr Ludowy, Poland
Theater Dortmund, Germany
Pilot Theatre Ltd, England UK
Today’s present is becoming a synthesis of reality and virtual. Immersive technologies create new experiences for users with augmented or enhanced environments. In theatre, new digital opportunities are constantly emerging enabling different ways of audience communication. The use of immersive technology can enhance storytelling in theatre with interactive components. This corresponds to an audience which demands more than ever an experience instead of passive consumption. PLAYON! was initiated by nine theatres with experience in the use of digital technologies and a university with high digital expertise. Eight universities from the creative digital sector are associated partners in order to facilitate access to technical knowledge. Dedicated to the theme “Concrete Utopias in the Digital Age” PLAYON! is designed to understand, learn, test and apply immersive technology in theatre in order to shift classical storytelling to interactive narrative formats. Within four years PLAYON! aims to:
- develop new forms of storytelling, building on narrative structures used in the creative game sector
- merge these new forms with a variety of immersive technologies
- use this new format to extend theatre towards the public urban space with relevant stories and the involvement of young adults as co-creators.
PLAYON! focuses on professional training in digital technologies and three European summer-academies will expand local education for theatre employees as well as 27 productions in total. After 4 years new links will be established between the artistic, professional training and industrial sectors. Results will be disseminated at 3 huge conventions: Re:publica, Ars Electronica, York Mediale. The most visible legacy will be the “conceptual tool-kit”, an open source manual for theatres using immersive technology.





