Practice-Based Research on AI-Integrated Playback Theatre: Mediated Improvisation and the Prompt Director

This study empirically explores using generative AI to overcome Playback Theatre's expressive limitations and expand audience experience.Playback Theatre spontaneously recreates audience narratives but has structural limitations in spatiotemporal expression.Through practice-based research, we built a real-time system integrating generative AI (ChatGPT-4, Stable Diffusion, SUNO AI) with visual processing tools, applying AI-integrated theatre techniques.Results showed AI expanded expression by transforming abstract narratives into audiovisual content, achieving a creative balance between AI content and improvisation through 'mediated improvisation.'The 'prompt director' emerged as a new creative role mediating between AI and human actors.However, limitations including network dependency, system complexity, and AI's lack of cultural understanding were identified.This study demonstrates AI as an amplifier of human creativity, presenting AI-integrated Playback Theatre as a creative future co-created by humans and technology.