Wave Makers Creative Producers Lab 2025
Scare Acting for Immersive Theatre & Live Cinema
Unlock Your Inner Monster: Scare Acting Workshop with Francesca McCrohon
Date – 1pm-4pm, Sunday 5th October
Location – Groundlings Theatre, 42 Kent St, Portsea, Portsmouth PO1 3BS.
This immersive, high-energy workshop introduces performers, makers, and thrill-seekers to the art of scare acting—where fear becomes performance and the audience is part of the scene. Designed for those working in or curious about immersive theatre and live cinema, this workshop is your gateway into a world of visceral, interactive storytelling.
What is scare acting?
Scare acting is a unique form of performance rooted in horror, suspense, and surprise. Often found in haunted attractions, horror mazes, and site-specific shows, scare actors bring scripted characters to life while improvising, reacting in real time, and creating intense emotional responses in close proximity with audiences.
More than just jump scares, this workshop explores the psychology of fear, building character through physicality and voice, crafting believable moments of tension, and safely managing boundaries in interactive spaces.
What is live cinema?
Live cinema brings film into the real world—through immersive screenings, hybrid performances, and atmospheric events that blend storytelling across mediums. A scare actor in this context might perform before or during a horror film screening, guide audiences through narrative environments, or become part of the world unfolding around them.
This workshop will introduce you to these performance settings and show how scare acting is a powerful tool in the growing field of live and immersive cinema.
What you’ll learn:
- Core principles of scare acting: movement, timing, voice, and emotional control
- Working with space, sound, and light to amplify fear
- How to improvise in character while keeping audiences safe
- Building believable horror personas
- Understanding pacing, suspense, and the rhythms of fear
- Performing in immersive and live cinema contexts
Whether you’re an actor, performer, designer, or curious creative, you’ll leave with practical tools, confidence, and a fresh set of creative muscles.
About Francesca McCrohon
Francesca McCrohon is a professional actor and immersive theatre specialist with over a decade of experience across theatre, screen, and site-specific performance. Trained at East 15 Acting School and a member of Equity UK, she has performed in indie films, devised theatre, and immersive horror experiences. Her skill in improvisation and physical performance makes her an ideal guide into the dark art of scare acting.
Be part of something bigger…
This workshop also doubles as your audition. Participants will be given first opportunity to be cast in a brand-new immersive horror show set to take place on Halloween 2025 in Portsmouth’s historic Treadgolds Building. This is a chance to put your scare acting skills into practice in a professional, site-specific performance—where the audience walks straight into the nightmare you’ve helped create.
Limited spaces!
Photo by Alexander JT on Unsplash