Step into action

By Kwon Mee-yoo

NEW YORK — Live theater performances can provide audiences with unforgettable joy and thrills, but sometimes the onstage action can feel remote because of the distance between the seats and the stage. But a new type of theatrical experience invites audiences to become part of the performance. Audiences are encouraged to interact with actors, to make their theatrical experience more enjoyable and more engaged.

Sleep No More: Macbeth in noir

“Sleep No More,” which arrived in New York in 2011, started a new trend of immersive theater. Produced by British troupe Punchdrunk, “Sleep No More” is based loosely on Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” but it is not like a traditional performance of Shakepeare’s play”.

Set in the 100,000-square-foot fictitious McKittrick Hotel in Chelsea, the performance invites the audiences into a dark, film noir mood of the 1930s. Some 25 performers act out or perform dances inspired by the play.

Ruthie Ann Miles, center, portrays Filipina First Lady Imelda Marcos in an immersive production of “Here Lies Love.” Courtesy of O&M Co.

The most attractive part of “Sleep No More” is that it provides 100 different experiences to 100 audiences who go to see it. No one’s “Sleep No More” experience is the same as the person next to him or her. Everyone sees and hears different things, making the experience totally unique.

All audiences are required to be masked and remain silent during their visit to the warehouse-turned-hotel, but otherwise they are free to explore the hotel as much as they want to. They can open drawers, examine documents or even sample candies in the delicately — and freakily — decorated six-floor hotel.

They can also follow performers encountered while exploring the hotel. Dressed in ’30s attire, each actor represents a character from “Macbeth” including King Duncan, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and the Three Witches.

The storyline is not linear. Many acts happen at the same time in several different locations in the hotel and audiences can only experience one at a time. So each audience experiences only a fragmented piece of “Sleep No More,” not an entire performance.

Conrad Ricamora plays Ninoy Aquino, President Ferdinand Marcos’s political opponent, in “Here Lies Love.”

At the end, all members of the audience are led to the ballroom where the characters have a banquet and watch the tragic end of Macbeth. But this too is not a uniform experience for the audience because each audience member, or participant, saw and experienced different things and this influenced their perception of Macbeth.

Running up and down the vast hotel makes audiences extremely absorbed in each performance, often with one-to-one interaction with members of the cast. It is totally different from just watching actors perform the tale of “Macbeth.”

For more information, visit www.sleepnomorenyc.com.

Here Lies Love: discoing with Imelda Marcos

Another immersive theater experience can be found at “Here Lies Love” staged at the Public Theater in Nolita. The David Byrne-Fatboy Slim musical enjoyed a successful limited run last year and returned to the same venue due to popular demand.

The sleeper hit of the season revolves around Imelda Marcos, the wife of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos during the 1980s. Ruthie Ann Miles, who plays the Filipina First Lady, is a Korean-American and impeccably portrays Imelda from her rise as an ingenue from a small town to an extravagant First Lady full of desire for power.

Upon entering the theater, audiences can see stages in front of and behind them and moving platforms in the center of the theater. They are encouraged to dance and are guided by ushers in neon-colored jumpsuits whenever they need to move to make spaces for the transformation.

Audience members wandering though “Sleep No More” might encounter performers covered in blood during their visit to the McKittrick Hotel in Chelsea, New York.

Directed by Alex Timbers, the musical touches Philippine politics in a rather light, superficial way. Seeing it on a traditional proscenium style stage might have ended up as an Asian version of “Evita,” but genius staging beyond imagination imbued a new life into “Here Lies Love.”

Actors pop up into the theater from everywhere. W­ hile discoing to the catchy tune, Imelda and her husband Ferdinand (played by Jose Llana) join the audience smoothly. Audience members also become a part of their election campaign when Ferdinand shakes hands with them and experience the mood of the political euphoria that swept the Philippines when Marcos was first elected President.

The audiences travel the fierce political situation with the actors in an elated mood, but when Imelda and Ferdinand is forced to leave the country at the end of the show, suddenly all neon lights and ear-piercing electronic music is gone and a DJ sings the song “God Draws Straight,” inspired by speeches from the participants in The People Power Revolution of 1986.

For more information, visit www.herelieslove.com.

Bringing in audiences

Engaging audiences more in a theatrical production is a current trend in New York.

“The generation we live in, we’re constantly entertained — we turn our heads this way and there’s something else to entertain us. Sitting down in one seat for two hours may not be enough anymore,” Miles said in an interview with Broadway.com.

“Here Lies Love” director Timbers also helmed “Rocky” this season. In this Broadway musical revolving around boxing legend Rocky Balboa based on the movie of the same name. He believes in audience participation and made the front-row audiences step up to the stage for the last 20 minutes of the show and cheer the boxer in a more intimate way.

Some Korean productions are making similar attempts, though not as bold as the trend in New York.

In the musical “Murder Ballad,” currently staged at Daemyung Culture Factory in Daehangno, select audience members can sit in on-stage bar and tables.

The stylish rock musical revolves around a deadly love triangle and those who sit close with the actors have more intimacy. Sometimes actors offer them a glass of beer or speak to them as if they were guests of the bar owned by the show’s protagonist Tom.