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What if the audience didn’t just watch the story, but became part of it?
Combining theatre, game design, and experience design, the interdisciplinary BA in Immersive and Interactive Theatre program prepares students to imagine and build new forms of storytelling that blur the boundaries between performer, audience, environment, and game.
A Different Kind of Theatre Degree
There are few programs like the BA in Immersive and Interactive Theatre. At Illinois, theatre meets game design and experience design in an interdisciplinary program built around participation, play, and audience interaction. Rather than preparing you for just one role in traditional theatre, IIT gives you the flexibility to explore how storytelling, design, performance, and games can come together to create entirely new kinds of experiences.
What to Expect
Immersive and interactive theatre puts the audience at the center of the experience. Instead of watching a story unfold from a seat, audiences might explore an environment, make choices, interact with performers, solve puzzles, play a game, or influence what happens.
These experiences can take many forms, from immersive theatre and escape rooms to theme park attractions, tabletop games, live-action role-playing, virtual reality, and interactive entertainment. At Illinois, you’ll learn how to devise and perform in experiences that make audiences an essential part of the story.
Is Immersive & Interactive Theatre Right for You?
- Do you love theatre, but want to do more than one thing?
- Are you fascinated by games, immersive experiences, escape rooms, theme parks, or interactive storytelling?
- Do you want to combine theatre with design, technology, writing, game development, or other creative fields?
- Do you enjoy making things, experimenting, collaborating, and figuring out how to make an experience more engaging?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, IIT might be for you.
Choose Your Own Adventure
One of the strengths of IIT is flexibility. Through electives, you can pursue the areas that interest you most.
Customize your education through electives in…
- Performance
- Scene, Lighting, Costume, and Sound Design
- Game Design
- Writing
- Leadership & Management
- Technology
You can also explore courses across Theatre, Game Studies & Design, and other disciplines within the University of Illinois.
Make. Test. Play. Repeat.
IIT is a hands-on program. As a maker, you’ll collaborate with other students to develop, prototype, test, and refine interactive experiences.
Students have opportunities to…
- Build and test live, interactive experiences in collaborative studios and practicum courses
- Gain production experience through Illinois Theatre productions involving immersive and interactive work
- Create experimental productions in the Armory Free Theatre
- Collaborate across theatre, games, design, and other disciplines
- Learn through experimentation, iteration, and feedback
- Access creative maker spaces across campus through the CU Community FabLab and Siebel Center for Design
Your classroom isn’t just a classroom. It’s a laboratory for figuring out what happens when you invite people into the story.
Where Can This Take You?
The skills you’ll develop in IIT can lead to careers across entertainment, design, games, and experiential media.
Immersive & Interactive Theatre – Create and perform in live experiences that invite audiences to participate.
Experience & Narrative Design – Design how people move through stories and experiences in entertainment, museums, and other environments.
Game & Interactive Media Design – Create tabletop, live-action, digital, XR, or hybrid games that combine embodied storytelling and play.
Themed Entertainment & Experiential Marketing – Develop audience-centered experiences for attractions, brands, events, and destinations.
Museum & Exhibit Design – Create interactive experiences that engage audiences with stories, ideas, and information.
Escape Room & Location-Based Entertainment – Design puzzle-based, story-driven experiences that bring people together in physical spaces.
