Duæl

An immersive, one-to-one, binaural experience where you walk toward your own duel, discovering who you are and what brought you to this moment along the way.  

The basics of the experience

You enter the performance space, someone meets you at the door, puts a pair of headphones on you and a different world opens up; the sounds of horse drawn carriages careen past you—you can literally feel them as they rush by. The stranger taps your shoulder, showing you a box with two shining pistols, eager for their debut of destruction. You begin walking to your own duel. “What is happening? Who am I and where am I going?” you may ask. The pivotal act that will answer these questions is up to you, for you must decide, once the die are all cast, if you will duel or if you will not.

The Structure

For now, this project is designed to be a one-to-one, moving (as in audience members are physically walking) experience where two level of sensory experience will take place. The audience member will walk along a path toward his/her own duel. Along the way he/she will experience another world through binaural audio in a series of flashbacks that will unveil how this duel has come to be so.

Currently being developed by: Tierra Izzo

Calling All Collaborators

If you're interested or know someone who is, please contact me below! 

Sound Designer / Foley Artist 

Binaural audio will be the main conduit of storytelling for this project. I'm currently looking for a sound designer who ideally has experience with binaural audio/foley design and who can work in a collaborative devising process. 

Performer/Devisers 

For the first iteration of the devising process, I'm looking for performer/devisers to can attend weekly devising sessions. Experience in devising is a plus. You'll be jumping into a highly collaborative process that involves structured as well as improvised creation of original material. Be prepared for a wild ride and know that you will be called upon as an artist to be part of developing characters and storyline. This is not the kind of process where you'll be given a script and asked to act it. 

Producer

Though this project isn't quite at the stage of being produced, I'm very happy to know of any producers who are interested in the future development of this piece. 

Experimenting with...

Sensory Dissonance | As an experiment in sensory dissonance, this project aims to explore the back-and-forth movement between the imaginative space and the present reality. How far can a person be transported and, what happens when what you see and what you hear don't necessarily add up? 

Audience imperative & invitation | A central part of this project is that the audience member, in the end, will make the ultimate decision to duel or not to. This imperative of participant decision-making is a tricky thing to navigate as a theatre maker. The balance between guiding the story while leaving enough space and invitation for the participant to feel that he/she actually has a choice is a delicate thing that can really only be worked out in process. 

Development Plans

This project is on the 2021 creation docket with a first round R&D in the fall.