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A working collection of 90+ North American participatory performances collected by Jenn Stephenson, Mariah Horner, and research assistants Derek Manderson, Jacob Pittini, Hailey Scott, Mary Tooley, Hamish Hutchison-Poyntz and Charlotte Dorey. All photography is gathered from promotional material associated with the shows and whenever possible, production information is provided. To see more information on cast and creative team, click the image in the gallery. 

If you are an artist with a participatory performance on the horizon, please connect with us through our contact page! 
4inXchange / xLq / 4 audience members. 1 table. $1000.00 in cash. Limitless possibilities
Ambrose / Single Thread Theatre Company / Solo audience exploratory ghost story in the Grand Theatre in Kingston
The Archive of Missing Things / Zuppa Theatre Co. / An audience is led on a digital scavenger hunt of a lost archive, with the help of live actor vignettes, audio excerpts, and an iPad app
The Assembly / Porte Parole / A staged debate about democracy with a final act inviting the audience to speak their piece
asses.masses / co-created by Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim / A multimedia performance game about labour, revolution and donkeys
Biidaaban: A Sonic Call to the Future / Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen / Listen to a soundscape by the water at dawn
Brantwood / Co-created by Julie Tepperman and Mitchell Cushman / An immersive and site specific musical at an old high school
Broken Tailbone / Carmen Aguirre (Nightswimming) / A salsa dance lesson with monologue about politics and sex
b side / Co-created by Molly Johnson and Meredith Thompson / A meditative act of witnessing and wandering, giving life to what is hidden in plain sight.
Ça a l’air Synthétique Bonjour Hi / co-created by Burcu Emeç, Michael Martini, Nien Tzu Weng and Roxa Hy / A satirical participatory performance where willing audience members are compensated for their participation
Café Sarajevo / bluemouth inc. / An immersive experience exploring the borders that divide and unite us, within the framework of a live podcast
Candlemaker's Game / Richard Lam / a solitaire-like experience that invites you to consider a conflict from your real life
Choir!Choir!Choir! @ foldA / Choir!Choir!Choir! / A crowd of strangers becomes a community choir, located in Kingston, Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal connected digitally
Citation / Lisa C. Ravensbergen / Audio walk meets ritual around Queen’s University Campus
Club Quarantine / A socially isolated queer nightclub and dance party on Zoom
The Complex / It's Not a Pivot Productions / A game in zoom and gather.town to decide upon a leader of a new society
Controller / Mily Mumford / A “choose-your-own adventure” interactive play about technology, ethics and violence
The Corona Variations / Convergence Theatre / Six live phone plays
Counting Sheep / Lemon Bucket Orkestra / Audience participates in recreated moments from the Ukranian revolution
culture.capital / Milton Lim and Patrick Blenkarn / A collectible trading card game and live art performance project
The Curious Voyage / DLT / An immersive show where the participant starts in a hotel, hops on a plane and ends up seeing a secret musical in London
Double Dribble / The Bentway / Exploration of the accessibility of public spaces through a basketball court comprised of nets of varying diameters
Draw Me Close / Jordan Tannahill / A one-one-one VR performance with an audience member and an actor in a mocap suit
Embrace / Hazel Venzon ft Sawa Theatre / An interactive zoom cooking show
Escape / PushOFF / one on one interactive performance via cell phone
Escape The Tower / Casa Loma Escape Series / An interactive escape room set in Casa Loma during World War II
Everyman / Single Thread Theatre Company / Show for one, adaptation of Everyman in a church basement where you are Everyman
FARCE / Milton Lim, Patrick Blenkarn, Laurel Green / A tabletop card game and incubator for imagining an arts ecosystem
Foreign Radical / Theatre Conspiracy / Theatre-game hybrid that explores security, profiling, freedom of expression, and privacy in the age of cybersurveillance
Future Perfect / Eric + Mia, Action Hero / New bylaws written using words from the existing bylaws are posted publicly around the city
Good Things To Do / Good Things Collective / A show for one in a camping tent, where you befriend a computer program that offers tips on self-care
Haircuts By Children / Mammalian Diving Reflex / Children give free haircuts to the public
Higher Hair / Hima Batavia / An intimate experience that invites you to contemplate the ancestral stories held in your hair
Holy Moly / Jarin Shexnider and Upintheair Theatre / Using one of several audio tracks, jazzercise, and beanie babies the audience recovers a sense of holiness
Huff / Cliff Cardinal / The story of a young man struggling with solvent abuse and the death of his mother
The Human Library / The Human Library Organisation / A library of people where you can check out one human book and converse about topics you normally wouldn't
Illuminations: human/nature / Moment Factory / Audience members explore National Parks with tools such as lights, speakers, and projectors
Imaginary Ordinary / Eric Moschopedis / A community centre meets pop-up performance space. For regular people, by regular people
Improbable Escapes Kingston / A series of escape rooms and experiences in Kingston
Inheritance / Daniel Arnold, Darrell Dennis, and Medina Hahn / A pick-the-path experience that engages the audience in a struggle over land ownership
Intimate Karaoke, Live in Uterine Hall / Dayna McLeod / Cabaret karaoke where participants are invited to sing karaoke into a mic fed into Danya MacLeod's uterus
Invisible / Aurelie Pedron / 72-hour durational, improvised dance show
It Comes in Waves / bluemouth inc. & Necessary Angel Theatre Co. / Canoeing to the Toronto Island to set up an experimental dance party
The Itinerary: Playtest / Outside the March & Sébastien Heins / An interactive real life video game that’s controlled by the audience and performed live
Justin Eddy and The Great Cosmic Crisis The Experience / DoorStep Theatre Project and Theatre Direct / An interactive AR show for kids
King of the Bootleggers / Casa Loma Escape Series / Immersive escape room set in Prohibition Era Toronto
Landline / XO Secret / Two strangers text while doing a tandem audio-walk in two different cities
Legend Has It / Rebecca Northan / An audience member is selected to be the hero in a quest to save the world
Less & More / XOSECRET / A participatory show built each night with an audience from feedback from previous shows
Long Distance Relationships for Mythical Times / Gloria Mok & 2b theatre / A personal story about long-distance relationships and immigration told through food and object theatre.
Lost Together / UnSpun Theatre / A participant shares a story of loss, Michaela and Shira make them something to remember
Lumina Walks / Moment Factory / A series of unique site specific outdoor immersive experiences
MANUAL / Christopher Willes and Adam Kinner / ​A one-on-one experience exploring the power of sound and images
The Maydee Box / Rebecca Cuddy / An AR experience exploring Cuddy's own relationship with her Métis heritage
May I Take Your Arm? / Red Dress Productions / A tactile audio experience where participants are taken by the arm through an immersive installation
Megaphone / Moment Factory / An outdoor interactive urban art installation exploring public speaking
Ministry of Mundane Mysteries / Outside the March / Week-long series of personal phone calls
Monday Nights / 6th Man Collective / Live performance meets basketball game, teamwork is the drill we're all running
Necessary Dream / Up In the Air Theatre / Participants craft dreams to help ease a dreamer’s mind
New Age Attitudes: Live in Concert / PushOFF / An at-home construction paper concert performance
New Societies / Re: Current Theatre / A game that invites players to create a utopia
Online Joy Edit / fu-GEN Theatre / 1-on-1 interactions with artists online in the name of joy during early COVID-19.
Orestes / Tarragon Theatre / A virtual interactive interpretation of the Greek tragedy for a modern audience
Play in Your Bathtub / This is Not a Theatre Company / A site-specific immersive experience taking place in your own bathtub
Plays2Perform@Home / Boca del Lupo / Four plays mailed to your door to be read by your pandemic "bubble"
POLLINATORS / The Yarrow Collective / A participatory gardening installation series that playfully invites urban humans to build an ecosystem
Pop-Up Love Party (online!) / Zuppa Theatre Co. / A Zoom conversation about the nature of love
[Queer] Blind Date / Rebecca Northan / Improv show where a clown invites an audience member on a date
Red Phone / Boca del Lupo / An audience-to-audience performance that utilizes the intimacy of a phone call and the technology of a teleprompter
Remixed / Trophy / An auditory show featuring true stories, personalized music, and a hand delivered gift that inspires people to listen and create change in their lives
Revelations / Anahita Dehbonehie, Griffin McInnes, Aidan Morishita-Miki / Your household teams up/competes with other households to survive the apocalypse
Roll Models / Kick and Push Festival / Dungeons and Dragons staged improv play
Saving Wonderland / Gamiotics Studios / A participatory puzzle game on zoom based on Alice in Wonderland
Seiji's Perfect Day / Popcorn Galaxies / Participants fill in the blanks to create a loved one’s perfect day
Shadow Sign for Bedroom Protest: What I Dare To Do In The Dark / Upintheair Theatre / A Zoom workshop/gathering to make shadow and/or voice protest signs
The Spectator's Odyssey / DopoLavoro Teatrale / An ambulatory adventure through the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts based on the Odyssey
Sensory Box / Ghost River Theatre / A tactile play-in-a-box performed live and livestreamed
Silent Scream Solstice / Radix Theatre / A walk in silence followed by a scream in darkness
Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep / Tanya Marquardt / Participants text with an artist's sleeping and waking selves
Soon, Tomorrow Maybe / Théâtre Déchaînés / A participatory phone call from between a mother and a listener
The Stranger / DLT / You are the main character in an ambulatory immersive show about being-in-the-world
Switching Queen(s) / Switch Collective / A multi-media experience that pays homage to the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale
Tape Escape / Outside the March / Escape room meets immersive performance set in a 90s video store
TBD: Liberation Through Hearing / Radix Theatre / A multi-disciplinary event using text from the Tibetan Book of the Dead to study the process of dying and re-birth
This is Nowhere / Zuppa Theatre Co / Ambient Street Performance about searching for a secret blueprint of Halifax, exploring the city's past and present, and imagining its future
This Is the Story of the Child Ruled by Fear / A Strange Victory Performance / A play to be read together live by a room full of strangers
Through my Lens / Amy Amantea / An interdisciplinary performance exploring a reciprocal collision of the visual and non-visual experience
Time for Time / compagnie marie chouinard / One by one, audience members tell dancers a wish for them to interpret through movement
To You / Cellar Door Project / A pandemic pop-up porch Birthday party
Trophy / Sarah Conn / A performance and art installation that asks: how have you changed?
Walk Walk Dance / Daily Tous Les Jours / Passers-by walk, run, roll or dance to make music outdoors.
Ways of Being / Clayton Lee and Michael Rubenfeld / An interactive performance for two different groups of audiences, in two different cities, simultaneously
What Happens to You, Happens to Me / Susanna Fournier and CanStage / a meditative audio play for the COVID-19 isolation
Why We Are Here / Nightswimming / An invitation to sing with other people with a political/social/geographical bent
Words at the Window / Audrey Desrosiers and Théâtre Déchaînés / A 1-1 poetry performance for participants with dimentia
The Zombie Syndrome / The Virtual Stage / Participants work with actors to stop the zombie apocalypse.
ZED.TO / The Mission Business / 8 month narrative told in real time through interactive events and online content
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  • ABOUT US
  • THE BLOG
  • THE GALLERY
  • THE SUMMIT
    • Summit Participants
  • PUBLICATIONS
  • CONTACT US