Immersive Everywhere – led by Olivier Award-winning producers Louis Hartshorn and Brian Hook – and Butterfly Theatre are combining their expertise and experience in all aspects of immersive theatre to launch the first bespoke Immersive Acting School.
Courses will launch in January 2022 at West End venue Immersive LDN, the home of The Great Gatsby and Doctor Who Time Fracture, and are built on a new method of actor training -The Gonsalves Method, which is rooted in The Meisner Technique, and has been developed exclusively over 10 years by Butterfly’s immersive industry professionals. It is led by Aileen Gonsalves – RSC Director and Artistic Director of Butterfly Theatre.
There are 3 part time courses on offer that will run over a 6-week period. A Foundation Immersive Acting Course (for non-professional actors), A Specialist Immersive Acting Course (for Graduate level professional actors) and an Intensive Immersive Acting Course (for experienced immersive actors).
These courses will bring professionally trained, conventional theatre actors into a different world of acting, as well as giving an opportunity for newcomers to the industry, to get a taste of immersive theatre acting, in a real, functioning west end immersive theatre venue.
A free taster day will be held 2 – 4.30pm on Monday 13 December for prospective students – sign up here
Aileen Gonsalves said, “Immersive Theatre is the new way of doing theatre and is more popular now than ever before. From Punchdrunk to The Great Gatsby, more and more companies are creating immersive productions and are constantly developing new ideas and better ways of immersing audiences into storytelling.
Immersive theatre comes with added risks that differ from conventional theatre, due to the increased proximity and interaction with the space and the audience. It requires skilled, brave, reliable and open minded actors. For this reason, immersive companies look for immersive experienced actors when casting their shows. This training will give you all the skills you need in order to be a great immersive actor, will enable you to build on skills you already possess and gain confidence to use them in this new fast-growing area of theatre.”
Louis Hartshorn and Brian Hook said “we are so excited to be partnering with Aileen and Butterfly on this unique new venture. When we launched Immersive LDN in 2019, it was the first West End venue dedicated to developing and staging theatre-led immersive experiences, and we think it’s the perfect environment for the new and existing generations of immersive acting talent to hone their craft. We can’t wait to welcome them in, and to support them in their professional development and future careers”
