DCPA Off-Center run of immersive 'Theater of the Mind' continues for a few more weeks
The Denver Center for the Performing Arts Off-Center extended run of "Theater of the Mind" continues for a few more weeks. The immersive experience was created by Academy, Grammy and Tony Award-winning artist David Byrne and writer Mala Gaonkar. It's a combination of science experiments and storytelling that challenges how audience members perceive the world.
"A lot of our perception, maybe most of our perception happens in our brains and our sensory organs, our eyes and ears and whatever are just kind of these means to get that information to the brain, but it's the brain that interprets it, and it's the brain that looks at it and says, 'That looks like something I'm familiar with,'" Byrne explained. "So our perception is kind of faulty, but it works for us."
"Theater of the Mind" made its world premiere in Denver on Aug. 31. Byrne said that he's been working on it for some 8 years.
"It started off with me wanting to reproduce a perceptual experience that a science lab was doing," Byrne said.
The audience travels through the story lead by a guide named "David."
"Everyone is given new names, and you're referred with your new name. Which I find kind of liberates the audience. They'll say things and open up in ways they would never do if it was their own name," Byrne told CBS News Colorado.
While the story unfolds around them, audience members take part in various science experiments which test the truth of perception. Each of the senses is put to the test including taste. The audience is asked to taste a distillation of an African berry called the Miracle Berry.
"When you put them on your tongue and let them dissolve in our mouth, whether it's the berry or a distillation, it changes your taste. It makes everything taste sweet," Byrne said.
"Theater of the Mind" takes place in a 15,000-square-foot historic warehouse in Denver's Clayton neighborhood, York Street Yards. As the audience passes from room to room, they go on a journey of self-reflection, discovery and imagination.
"You realize that these faulty perceptions and memories and things, it's not a bad thing, it's actually a possibility. It's a possibility that we can re-write our own story. We're not stuck with whatever beliefs and prejudices we might have accumulated over the years. We can break out of those. We can change," Byrne explained.
Byrne, who gained his fame as the lead singer of the rock band The Talking Heads, calls the extension of the show a "dream come true." He said he's thrilled to bring "Theater of the Mind" to audiences in Denver where he said that the Denver Center for the Performing Arts is becoming known for its immersive theater experiences through Off-Center. Off-Center started in 2010, and has become a national hub for immersive art.
"The immersive stuff, when it works, what you experience really becomes apart of you," Byrne told CBS News Colorado. "It becomes, 'This is something that happened to me. This was not just something I watched.' It's a big difference."
LINK: Ticket & Information for "Theater of the Mind"
"Theater of the Mind" now runs through Jan. 22 at York Street Yards.