Open Call for a NARRATIVE DESIGNER as an Expert in Residence at the Academy for Theatre and Digitality in Dortmund for the theatre production “Rabbit Hole” from De Toneelmakerij
Time frame: between October 2023 and February 2024
Deadline for application: Wednesday, July 5th 2023
To support the team of the Amsterdam based De Toneelmakerij within the ACuTe project in an
exciting process on how to truly use the personal mobile phone as an extension of the stage world
we are currently looking for a narrative designer with experience in interaction and immersive live
performances to do a research residency with the Academy for Theatre and Digitality in Dortmund
in cooperation with De Toneelmakerij in Amsterdam.
The performance “Rabbit Hole” from ACuTe-partner De Toneelmakerij tries to make the mobile
phone a narrative partner of the story. Here, the phone is an interactive tool for worldbuilding. By
specifically asking the audience to use their own mobile phones, the world of the play invades the
(online) world of the audience members. Almost like location-based theatre, where the location is
forever altered by the play that has just taken place, the phone is now complicit and forever part of
the story.
To make this all work, the technical aspect needs to be smoother than usual. Any interactive
(technical) production that is looking for a high level of immersiveness, benefits from a smooth
trajectory with a low number of tutorials and explanations for the audience. Non-diegetical content
will break the worldbuilding and will in this case reduce the phone to a piece of tech instead of a
piece of set design.
The research should be done on multiple levels: From a technical point of view, through audience
research and testing, but also through a theoretical approach. A lot has been written and researched
about worldbuilding on the stage and worldbuilding in games, and the role of the audience/player,
both individually as well as a group, has been interpreted as well. By looking into these theories and
combining them with the “Rabbit Hole” production, there is a possibility to not just improve the
production itself, but to define a better language for seamless narrative worldbuilding on the stage
and the personal screen at the same time. At the end of the residency an article should be published
about the findings of the research.
ACuTe is a pioneering, large-scale European innovation project supported by Creative Europe. The
goal of ACuTe is to revolutionize productions and performances in theatres and performing arts
through new technologies and cultural collaboration and skills development. Along the main contentrelated themes of the project – new dramaturgies and narrative forms for the theatre, creation of new environments and stage spaces as well interaction with the audience – the 13 partners from 10
different countries are developing theatre forms of the future that put artists, spectators and
technologies in a sensory context and at the same time support the theatres in the profound
integration of technologies into their everyday working environments.
The Academy for Theatre and Digitality (Dortmund, Germany) is a globally unique pilot project for
digital innovation, artistic research and technology-oriented training and further education for all
areas of the performing arts – on, in front of and behind the stage. It was founded 2019 as the sixth
department of the publicly funded Theater Dortmund. Central to the work of the Academy are artistic
and technical research, prototypical development, application-related testing, practical advice,
cultural-political structural formation and networking at regional, national and international level
between actors from culture, science and business.
If you want to be part of this project, please send us your CV and a letter of motivation until
Wednesday, July 5th 2023 to acute@theater.digital
We offer:
• A lively international research laboratory (research, development, production) in a versatile
multi-discipline theatre company
• Working with new technologies at the intersection of art and science
• An open and diverse field of work (between numerous institutions from art, technology and
science)
• Dedicated teams in the various theatre departments
We aim to further increase our percentage of women and strongly encourage women to apply. We
see ourselves as family-friendly and promote the compatibility of work and family. The Academy for
Theatre and Digitality can be reached barrier-free. There is free parking available, an elevator, and a
bathroom for people with disabilities. An individual office can be provided.
We look forward to hearing from you!
The team of the Academy for Theatre and Digitality