dancing in aladdins magic carpet sequence led kinetic spheres were used to create the illusion of a starstudded sky the shows director says the spheres moved in sync with the carpet and made it look like the stars were dancing the script must guide the way technology is to add valuemany however caution against going too far theatre is a peoples medium when technology is overdone the danger is that the audiences never fully immerse themselves in the story but get carried away by the special effects the story must itself demand the technology otherwise there is a danger of disconnect sharma saysashwin gidwani producer and md at agp world says each production has its own requirements that originate from the written word the script the author creates a vision for the director it is then up to the director to integrate all elements including technology for our production blame it on yashraj we used led backdrop for barff we showed snowfall in the finale in devdas besides 1800sqft of led walls we used several interesting devices to make the actors flyechoing the sentiment padamsee says recently indian ensemble a multilingual theatre company in bengaluru used projection mapping wonderfully yet a huge part of the theatre magic is the audiences imagination so while projections may help with backdrops one still needs the teacup or the spoon to be realthere were plays such as twelve angry jurors anand express and sing india sing which were heavily reliant on technology as a viewer i enjoyed them immensely in fact sing india sing used technology to get the audience to vote live for the winner every night however the script must determine the use of technology not the other way round my latest piece every brilliant thing is devoid of almost any technology except for the software that plays the music cues he addsthe question is technological or not how does any addition on stage enhance the narrative technologys purpose is to add value to production padamsee assertsthe alchemist directed by mahesh dattani a theatrical adaptation of paulo coelhos 1988 novel boasted of fluid sets intelligent lighting and powerful actors who brought alive on stage the symbols omens and philosophies of coelhos booknow audience wants more immersive experiencesin a world where entertainment has entered the zone of virtual and augmented reality even the theatre audience expects an upgrade gidwani says the audiences are now drawn to immersive experiences and do not relate to conventional theatre things like a teletype which allows audience to read subtitles on an led screen put up above the stage in a foreign language production draws in more audiencesharma says if used well technology allows a director to manoeuvre audiences emotions even more firmly especially while creating largerthanlife moments on stage whether it is a flying carpet that actually takes off in front of an audience or making the cave of wonders truly wondrous with the use of leds and animation technology definitely helps make these moments granderactress smita