Sharing their value of interactive theater

The result is a piece that queries audiences about what they value - socially, financially, spiritually. It asks them to consider money, class, dreams, prayer, death, and birth, among other topics, and to talk about them. Produced by the Foundry Theatre, “How Much Is Enough? Our Values in Question’’ opens Tuesday at ArtsEmerson, in a world-premiere production leading up to a run later this fall at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. A primary goal of the show is to foster a conversation among people who ordinarily wouldn’t have a chance to speak and listen to each other.

“I want to talk with everyone in the whole wide world if I possibly can, about everything,’’ Joseph said the other afternoon, sitting on a rounded banquette in the Paramount Theatre’s upstairs lobby, her dog Lupe lounging on the floor nearby. “I want to know how we make the world better - how we make the world together every day.’’

Already, some local theatergoers have seen the show in free open rehearsals. The play has a cast of three professional actors, but Joseph says it’s not possible to rehearse it without an audience. Though the actors’ lines form the spine of the script, the text is dotted with ellipses signifying the unpredictable responses of spectator-participants. A huge percentage of the show, then, is made up of the unknown.

“Essentially, the play sort of writes itself in the room,’’ Lynn explained from Austin, Texas, where he is one of the artistic directors of the Rude Mechanicals Theater Company.

“It’s terrifying - for all of us. Every night,’’ said Joseph, who is no stranger to the unorthodox theatrical event.