Larp with Audience?

Community Larp discussion
#1

First up, here’s the premise: You can obtain Creative NZ funding for performance art that has an audience.

So, is it possible to hold a larp where there are two classes of attendee - larper and audience ? Would it still be a larp ? Would it matter if proceeds could be channelled into more pure larp forms ?

At present, our larps tend to encourage active participation. But what if there was a setting where it was typical to have non-participative roles ?

For example:

A larp is set in a mansion with many rooms and a central dinning room. The Lord or Lady of the house has invited a number of guests along for the unveiling of a Magnificent Discovery. Some guests will be larpers and all house staff will be larpers. The audience will be able to follow the action, which takes simultaneously in many rooms. Thus, each audience member will have their own unique experience of the larp.

I think this would work well if the game included dinner.

There could be props that allow the audience to investigate the situation, and they can interact with the larpers, but since they have no motivation of their own, they will likely not try to intervene directly in the events (and if they did, we could just work them in). They could, of course, take a larper aside and change the course of events by giving them some pertinent information.

I think this idea has potential both as a way to fund larps and as a way to recruit larpers.

#2

Interesting - I initially thought that audience => not larp. However, on reflection, I’d say that parts of ‘Whose Line is it Anyway’ could count as LARP (Party Quirks, for example) and they have audience.

However, in your example, I’d say its still a traditional LARP, although your ‘audience’ just dont have any character background and motivation. By my definition, its still 100% players, 0% audience. I’d say an ‘audience’ is people who do not exist as far as the actors/players are concerned, and cannot affect the outcome of the story/game.

IE, the existance of an audience implies a 4th wall, which your scenario does not have.

#3

I got the idea from a discussion I had with an actor at the weekend. He talked about a play that had an audience turn up at a mansion. The play was entirely scripted and characters interacted in various rooms and then there was a dinner in the dining room where everyone got back together and the audience could compare notes.

The audience had to follow cast members. They could enter a room by following a cast member, and could optionally leave that room with a different cast member. They had to leave a room with the last cast member in that room.

Apparently it worked well, and I would say that the audience were non-participative viewers (and still an audience). I would also say the the 4th wall was non-existent.

From a CreativeNZ perspective, I think we could argue that a kind of separation exists between the “actors” (larpers) and the audience, in-as-far as the “actors” are scripted (well, have a scripted background) whereas the audience don’t. Not that I’d argue with you position, but I think we could justify a claim to having an audience from a CreativeNZ perspective.

#4

Ah, but what would Creative NZ consider an audience? That may be the question at hand.

I can imagine a game I have already imagined, working with an audience. It’s called RPM and it’s somewhere between May Day, No Man’s Land and Executive Decision. It’s quite “gamey” in that there are winners and losers, and while there could be “audience participation” there’s a definite “I am watching you entertain me” thing going.

This could be done in a theatre (originally imagined in the Nibelungen) which is pretending to be an underground silo. This is a near-futuristic war-time meeting between heads of state fighting to take control of the war-torn New America. The meeting is held in a locked room with no security guards and there is an agreement that no records will be kept. It is a very secret meeting with a chance to end the war.

The audience would play the part of populous feedback (yelling) and later, voting. They’d be aware that there was no script, and be given all the same background as the players.

Brave people could perform ‘Couples’ in front of an audience, theatre-style with just black walls.

#5

[quote=“Mike Curtis”]There could be props that allow the audience to investigate the situation, and they can interact with the larpers, but since they have no motivation of their own, they will likely not try to intervene directly in the events (and if they did, we could just work them in). They could, of course, take a larper aside and change the course of events by giving them some pertinent information.

I think this idea has potential both as a way to fund larps and as a way to recruit larpers.[/quote]

I like your idea. The way you describe it sounds almost like it’s a no-pressure form of participation, but with ability to interact, should it take the audience’s fancy. It sounds like a great way to get people in, a no-pressure way to experience larp and decide if it is their cup of tea or not.

I think this idea would be worth exploring further.

#6

I’d probably be happy to helm the setting if you wanted to run this particular idea.

#7

I haven’t been to the Taupo Joust, but looking at the forum records, didn’t you guys have a Robin Hood larp there with crowds of audience around? Would it be similar kind of thing?

#8

Similar, only the format Mike described I reckon would work better. (The Robin Hood thing kind of failed on the audience interaction thing, people just looked bewildered)

#9

but the audience didnt expect or understand what was going on…

#10

Probably why they looked bewildered. :wink: Oh well, live and learn.

On the topic of having an audience again, I’ve heard some larpers say that having an audience puts them off or distracts them (usually in reference to film crew) I’m not sure how many people in the community share this sentiment, I’ve never really had a problem with an audience, but it’s another factor to take into account anyhow.

#11

[quote=“Anna K”]

On the topic of having an audience again, I’ve heard some larpers say that having an audience puts them off or distracts them (usually in reference to film crew) I’m not sure how many people in the community share this sentiment, I’ve never really had a problem with an audience, but it’s another factor to take into account anyhow.[/quote]

Me No Like Audiences

#12

it’s because LARPers arent generally actors and become very self concious quite quickly

#13

Yup, right.
That needs to be clarified than that what larpers are doing there is having fun and allowing others to watch and join if they feel like it, but not actually [color=blue]entertaining[/color] the audience. The whole idea is to have fun and let others do the same, not to perform the job of actors.

#14

Yah. This would also prove a problem with attracting an audience. Some larpers are watchable in their improvised interactions, but mostly it’s enjoyable because you’re playing a part in it and can affect it. Take that away and from the outside it tends to look like a lot of amateur acting. Which people tend to only go to watch if their children are doing it.

You could hire in a bunch of improv actors to play parts, to pull the overall watchability up. But then I’m not sure if you’d really be promoting the sort of larp that actually happens at the moment.

Mike, what about this idea: forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=305263

In brief, a big public larp that’s a fairytale-themed family-oriented outdoors faire where the public are “visitors” (they could be seen as an audience) and the larpers are locals at the faire. The big advantage of this is parents would bring their kids along, so you’d get whole families. And people are more relaxed about make believe if it’s “for the kids”. The kids could dress up as fairies and princesses and knights and wizards and so on. And be drawn into the interaction between the larpers, helping them and moving information and items around, maybe taking on challenges, and so on.

You could go for mass numbers and have a gold coin admittance, and/or sell stuff at the faire. You could provide “audience” members with some stuff like Fairy Money or magic beans that they can use in the Faire, giving them reasons and means to interact. The Fairy Shop in Ponsonby might be in a position to help with it.

#15

The kids could dress up as fairies and princesses and knights and wizards and so on. And be drawn into the interaction between the larpers, helping them and moving information and items around, maybe taking on challenges, and so on.

You could go for mass numbers and have a gold coin admittance, and/or sell stuff at the faire. You could provide “audience” members with some stuff like Fairy Money or magic beans that they can use in the Faire, giving them reasons and means to interact. The Fairy Shop in Ponsonby might be in a position to help with it.[/quote]

The danish are doing this allready i think and with great sucksess. We are talking 1000 kids for a long weekend i belive. It requires a lot of planing, but as a comertiall venture, it has been quite succesfull. It has been nicknamed ‘scout larping’ by scandinavian larpers.

Personally i think this idea goes outside the realm of LARP and what characterises LARP mostly is improvosation without an audience. This does not mean its not a good idea.

And when i comes to recruitment making great LARPs ushally works the best.

Hansi

#16

I think my suggestion above was quite different. It’s an one-day interactive faire that whole families can attend. It would have old-fashioned carnival attractions, worked in together with a fiction played out by larpers. The idea is that the public can “walk through” it, choosing to interact as they like. The carnival feel would encourage them to at least try the challenges, which would be designed to draw them into the fiction.

Wheras the Danish kiddie larps seem to be big generic fantasy larps for hordes of 12-18 ye olds, with lots of fighting with foam swords. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s quite different and requires a big growth in live-combat fantasy larp for youths here first. My idea could be run right now, although it would be a big ask to organise.

#17

I don’t know about you guys, but we always have audiencesa. We have to use the fourth wall to bring them into the game. In fact it was one of the major complaints we received from at least one Aucklander was that there was an audience.

#18

Are they interested passersby, or do they turn up with the intent of watching the game ? Passersby sometimes get interested in Skirmish games (which is OK), whereas the Mordavia games I ran or attended were largely organised to reduce contact with the public as this improves the immersive experience.

BTW, I have a friend at creative New Zealand, and he indicated that and audience can participate to a minor degree (such as my suggested game that involves a meal in the middle of it), as long as they aren’t participants per se. Which means the idea has legs, just need to work out how to do it successfully and how to apply for funding.

#19

Audience is always a problem especially tourists. When I play my role, I don`t want to answer questions like: “Where did you get this…”, “May I hold your sword for a moment…” and so on. Once we rent a tavern and had to place a sign outside with the following words on it: “The brawling is NOT real.” :smiley:
Two weeks ago, we made a ‘public relations convention’ where audience was welcome. All the players were volunteers and could attend for free, as well as the audience. It was no real larp, it was intended to show the people what larp is like. The general feedback from both, the players and the audience was great! The local press wrote a nice article about larp and even local TV was there.
You can have a look at the TV report here:
http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=6302207391866694722&hl=de
(unfortunately all in german…)

#20

There are some forms of theatre which border on larp - I’ve been thinking for a while how one could run a Theatre of Cruelty style larp. Theatre of Cruelty is a theatre form where the actors interact with the audience, even form a part of the audience. It can be quite terrifying for the non-actors involved, which is the entire point. It’s supposed to make you confront your innermost fears, rather than ‘spook you out’.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_Cruelty