Process

Figuring out how to effectively set up the projector and the backlight was difficult, especially in order to avoid washing out the projection too much against the sheet. This also led us to choose a simpler projection - rather than casting a complex scene against the sheet, we kept it to easily-understandable text.

In addition, we had to decide on a medium for audience participation.. We considered having audience members text their decisions, but we wanted to keep the duration of “choices” relatively short, thus keeping audience members more engaged in the performance. We chose “cards” instead with one side for yes, the other for no. We also limited the size of our participation pool to only five audience members, so that we could have a quick decision and not require large counting of votes.

Below is an image of our voting cards.

The script also took careful decision-making. We toyed with ideas of switching conversations so that Ariel would be texting with Scuttle at the beginning, and then switch to Ursula/Eric. However, this switching process proved to take too much time, and would ruin any immersive experience the performance provided. We ended up telling the story as a conversation between Ariel and Sebastian, as it was the best way to describe the plot without too much confusion.