Search FoST
Services
Content
Nonprofit
About
FoST Explorers Club
Felix Barrett
Founder & Director, Punchdrunk
Biography
FoST Favorite

Felix Barrett is the founder and artistic director of the theater company Punchdrunk. With shows like Sleep No More and The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable, Punchdrunk has pioneered a game-changing form of immersive theater in which roaming audiences experience epic storytelling inside sensory theatrical worlds. Blending classic texts, physical performance, award-winning design installation, and unexpected sites, the company's infectious format rejects the passive obedience usually expected of audiences. Punchdrunk has developed a phenomenal reputation for transformative productions that focus as much on the audience and the performance space as on the performers and narrative. Inspired designers occupy deserted buildings and apply a cinematic level of detail to immerse the audience in the world of the show.
Felix Barrett
Founder & Director, Punchdrunk
SPEAKER FILM
Felix Barrett — Burn the Seats: Audience Immersion in Interactive Theater
    Felix Barrett — Burn the Seats: Audience Immersion in Interactive Theater

    "It's about a heightened state of awareness," says Felix Barrett, Founder and Director of Punchdrunk, about groundbreaking productions like Sleep No More and The Drowned Man. Punchdrunk productions transform existing architectural spaces into interactive theater pieces in order to disrupt the traditional, formulaic, and passive theater model. Instead, a sense of mystery is created by getting the audience to physically move through a space and interact with it. The audience becomes a part of the setting and the show itself. By challenging the established audience and performer boundaries, Punchdrunk pushes audiences out of their comfort zone to have a more intense live experience.