Ruyuan Zeng
After completing my undergraduate study in International Politics, I decided to change my discipline to design and then became a Master student in GSA. With my interest in set design, my work focuses on different forms of theatrical experience. I enjoy exploring the structures, installations, and lighting on the stage and always try to discover the secrets of set design. After watching several immersive theatres, I was impressed by this kind of intimate and attractive performance and started to think about the future form of theatre and what else it can provide to audiences. These questions became the start of my exploration of set design.
SALOME/ Immersive Theatre
This project is an immersive theatre with the theme of Oscar Wilde’s play Salome and the style of Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations for the play. The purpose of this project is to explore the differences in media use between immersive theatres and traditional theatres and to show author’s understanding of immersive theatre through the design of Salome. The main methods are case study, text analysis, and model making. Through case studies, the author compared immersive theatres with traditional theatres and took the results as the basis for the design of Salome. The essential scenes, space layout, and key metaphors in Salome were found by text analysis. In this project, model-making plays an important role. The final outcome will be presented in an interative model to help audiences better engage with the project.
This project concludes that immersive theatre focuses more on the involvement of all senses. In addition to seeing and hearing, touching, smelling and tasting also play an important role. These elements work together to give audiences a more personal and intimate theatrical experience.
