Explore
Forget Me Not
Patrons could start the Forget Me Not experience even before coming to the performance’s secret location. One of the main characters from Forget Me Not, known as The Protector of She, Keeper of The Lost Words sent one covert message each day for 9 days to followers on The Cultch’s social media platforms(#FMN). Embedded in each message was a unique obscure symbol, as well as the show’s signature symbol, the hand emoji for the ASL sign “I love you”. Once all messages were transmitted, they were gathered together on a single website page, to allow patrons to view them all together, or see any they had missed during the initial social media release timeline. Ticket holders were also alerted to these messages as part of an emailed performance reminder. The video and website design style reflect the underground nature of the communications.
Audience members who viewed some or all of the 9 videos were able to enter into the story world of the show before they even left home. Patrons attending the interactive show became participants in an underground ceremony, and the messages they received via these videos beckoned them to the ceremony and began their journey to the mysterious dystopian setting of the performance.
Creators
Tools Used
Kris Boyd, David Mesiha, Ronnie Burkette
Project Reflections
In Forget Me Not, we exercised a technically simple approach to effectively extend the story world beyond the walls of the theatre and the time of the event and into a world that has the impression of scope of the stories existing in the real world.
Carefully selecting a set of symbols and designing specific video messages allowed us to engage audiences in new ways using familiar and readily available tools through aggregation of various social media platforms. All while making the dramaturgical connections between the play’s world and the real world imminently present and tangible to audiences of the show and the public at large.