Objective
Guide trainers to lead a session to educate theatre-makers and performers with a practical framework for applying narrative design in immersive virtual environments (XR, VR, hybrid). This session guides participants in adapting storytelling principles to spaces where audience presence, agency, and spatiality reshape narrative conventions. 

1. Preparation (10 minutes)

• Objective: Set context and readiness for immersive narrative thinking. 

• Steps: 

1. Prepare a visual overview of narrative shifts from traditional to immersive performance. 

1. Gather short excerpts/examples from immersive or virtual theatre projects. 

1. Ensure tech setup for XR demonstration (if available) or show digital walkthroughs. 

Checklist: 

• Presentation slides on dramaturgy in virtual spaces 

• Visuals/video examples ready to screen 

• Whiteboard, pen and paper, or digital board for mapping story elements 

 

2. Rethinking Narrative: Core Shifts (15 minutes)

• Objective: Explore how traditional storytelling evolves in virtual environments. 

• Steps: 

1. Discuss how in virtual performance spaces the audience moves from observer to participant and how things change when the audience is placed within the story. 

1. Introduce key concepts: embodiment, agency, narrative spatiality. 

1. Contrast passive vs. participatory dramaturgies. 

1. Highlight the differences for performers and audiences when working in virtual environments: the audience isn’t just watching; they’re being and live performers become navigators, not just narrators 

1. Question: Who is the protagonist? The user, the performer, or the world? 

Trainer Tip: Use spatial metaphors (e.g. story as terrain to be explored) to clarify complex ideas. 

 

3. Design Tools and Story Structures (20 minutes)

• Objective: Translate narrative theory into practice for immersive design. 

• Steps: 

1. Present modular story design: building with narrative nodes and emotional anchor points. 

1. Guide participants to sketch scene layouts where movement = story progression.  

1. Encourage to apply story structures to non-linear, fragmented, or user-driven narratives. Think beyond linear monologue: responsive dialogue trees, improvisation with live audience cues, subtle environmental reactions 

1. Explain and consider spatial writing techniques, taking unique characteristics of virtual spaces into account. 

1. Facilitate group analysis of agency types: first-person, third-person, omniscient. 

Activity Example:
Divide participants in groups and ask each group to turn a simple linear scene into an interactive, spatial experience with at least two user choices. 

 

4. Applied Practice & Feedback (15 minutes)

• Objective: Develop a working narrative for a virtual performance piece.  

• Steps: 

1. Break into small teams to draft a story segment using different virtuel storytelling elements. The following building blocks can serve as inspiration (Source: Thomas More Research): 

1. The User (audience) as Protagonist 

1. Position the audience as the hero of the story. 

1. Define the strengths, weaknesses, and potential blind spots of the hero and outline their environment. 

1. Goal and Transformation 

1. Identify the desire or need of the hero. 

1. Visualize the desired transformation the hero can undergo and how this will improve the hero 

1. Conflict and Obstacles 

1. Introduce the challenges that hinder the hero’s transformation. 

1. Create a clear contrast between the current situation and the desired goal. 

1. The Journey Beyond the Everyday 

1. Motivate the hero to embark on the challenge and introduce companions or resources. 

1. Design a unique virtual environment that differs from ‘normal’ life. 

1. Create an immersive climax where the hero triumphs. 

1. Reward and Consequences 

1. Contrast life before and after the transformation. 

1. Consider alternative outcomes if the hero does not succeed. 

1. Share drafts briefly and receive peer insights. 

1. Collect feedback 

 

Post-Training Support 

• Offer follow-up resource list: articles, platforms, tools 

• Optional: invite participants to a virtual “show & tell” of prototypes 

Trainer Tip: Emphasize possibility over perfection. Virtual space opens new languages. Encourage participants to discover, not just translate, narrative forms.