LUDI Club Theatre play and VR-based pedagogy empowering young people to discover their own personal timbre
Updated: Apr 23
LUDI Club emerged from a desire to offer young people a creative space where play, imagination, and technology could reshape the way they understand themselves and others.
Sometimes, all young people need is a space where imagination is taken seriously.
Between 2018 and 2020, based on the Willow Method and accompanied by my colleague, actress R. Ananie, and by her husband, I created a Personal Development project for young people, using acting as the main pedagogical tool. To the best of our knowledge, this initiative was among the first—if not the very first—to integrate virtual reality technology into a theatre‑focused educational program in Romania.
The project was hosted in a gaming club that welcomed both virtual‑reality enthusiasts and board‑game communities. In this environment, we designed a structured curriculum and selected a group of participants who, after the initial recruitment, continued to attend the sessions regularly and entirely by choice — a clear sign of their engagement and enthusiasm.
The course included:
• physical and vocal warm‑ups, including basic diction exercises
• breathing techniques and improvisation work
• virtual‑reality film screenings (Oculus technology headset)
• creative exercises in an HTC‑equipped virtual‑reality room
• introductory modules on theatre history
For this part of the program, we used a wide range of illustrative materials: photographs, video excerpts, books, art albums, museum exhibition catalogues, authentic Venetian commedia dell’arte masks from my personal collection, and even a small exhibition of clown dolls. This exhibition accompanied the course How to Build Your Own Clown?, in which students explored the fundamentals of clowning through practical activities. The collection featured dozens of dolls from various cultures and historical periods (Russian, English, French, Italian, German, etc.), crafted from materials such as porcelain, textiles, and wood, generously provided by a local collector. The small exhibition created for LUDI later inspired a related display at the local museum, extending the project’s impact beyond the workshop space.
The interplay between theatre discipline and its poetic dimension was centred on play, as suggested by the project’s title: LUDI. The success of these playful activities, together with the students’ enthusiasm, led to the creation of an improvisational performance based on international fables, which was warmly received by the audience.
Throughout the program, the participants gradually developed greater confidence, spontaneity, and expressive freedom. Many of them discovered abilities they had not been aware of before, and the group evolved into a supportive creative community that continued to collaborate even after the project ended.
As the project’s facilitator, I also took on the roles of coordinator, curator, and documentarian, managing both the pedagogical process and the visual documentation of the activities.
The project received local press coverage during its development and local journalists highlighted the innovative nature of the project and its impact on youth engagement. It came to an end with the onset of the COVID‑19 pandemic and, for practical reasons, could not be resumed afterwards. Although the project ended with the pandemic, its methods and spirit continue to shape my pedagogical approach today.
At LUDI Club, we explored how theatre play and immersive technologies can transform learning, spark curiosity, and open unexpected paths toward self‑discovery.
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