One of the most incredible events happening at the moment has to be
Secret Cinema and we have the opportunity for some of our students to volunteer at this unique, once in a lifetime experience.
The premise of Secret Cinema (if you didn’t know already) is focused on creating large scale cultural experiences in abandoned urban spaces that fuse film, music and theatre.
The difference between these experiences and other ‘immersive theatre’ is that you are very much involved, you are in it, fiction and reality are a blur (see the invite for the next performances below). I recently went to a performance from one of their rivals – Punchdrunk’s phenomenonal
‘Drowned Man’. I’m not sure that the play changed my life but it certainly changed my view of theatre…forever.
Secret Cinema started in 2007 pioneering live cinema, often breaking films and albums into their constituent parts and joining narratives with ‘play along’ action. Since then they have evolved a unique participatory ‘social’ experience that has a massive cult following and is totally oversubscribed…and they are a lot more fun than Punchdrunk’s menacing horror show.
Secret Cinema’s productions are very much the antithesis of an over indulged digital world in which the labyrinths are as frequent as the short cuts, where our insatiable appetite for new ideas and content only succeeds in taking us down into the monochrome binary of our flat screens. Instead a Secret Cinema experience offers participation, involvement, interaction and immersion.
The new production, from this London based group, is Wes Anderson’s
Grand Budapest Hotel. Taking a leaf out of Punchdrunk’s book the experience is housed in a unique tailored location, which as is often the case with their productions will only be revealed to the participant the day of their booking.
It is a ‘giddy, stylish caper set during the interwar years and is widely recognised as the Directors best work since The Royal Tenenbaums with Ralph Fiennes as a terrific lead role as a concierge on the run’.
The magic is that we have been invited to provide some volunteers for these events. You will never have a better experience of working at the cutting edge of the fusion between theatre, film and music…perhaps the worlds most participatory events.
Here is an example of what to expect…the invitation to the next performance…
“Dear all,
Thank you or booking your place in Secret Cinema 21. We are writing with important information for your journey to the world you are about to travel into. Secret Cinema 21will take place in a secret London location, 30 minutes from Central London…Communications will be sent beginning on Monday 10th March. A letter with the location, dress code and additional details will follow…Be prepared to play, to act, to explore, the more you embrace the world Secret Cinema builds the greater your part in the story.
Secret Cinema believes passionately in building a more romantic, adventurous and unpredictable world. We are fuelled by a desire for serendipity, experiences and beautiful random happenings.
Tell no-one.”
or contact Karin on info@eventcourse.com to know how you might apply.
