Live and Life in Virtual Theatre: Adapting traditional theatre processes to engage creatives in digital immersive technologies

Simpson, James

doi:10.14236/ewic/EVA2021.17

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Live and Life in Virtual Theatre: Adapting traditional theatre processes to engage creatives in digital immersive technologies

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proceedings-article

Author(s): James Simpson

Publication date (Print): July 2021

Conference name: Proceedings of EVA London 2021 (EVA 2021)

Conference theme: AI and the Arts: Artificial Imagination

Conference date: 5th July – 9th July 2021

Keywords: Theatre, Motion capture, Augmented reality, Unreal engine, Live streaming, Lighting technology

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Abstract

The Round is an augmented reality platform that allows users at home to watch live streamed 3D characters being produced by real actors in a motion capture suite. The project holds the idea of “liveness” in high regard and considers it an important part of the theatrical experience that needed to be preserved in the creation of an at-home, digital experience. The live theatre experience in itself is often enormously technical with pre-recorded visual and audio experiences that are designed to be repeated. We ask the question, what is live theatre and how does this map to live streamed digital experiences, particularly involving motion capture? Whilst liveness, in this context, refers to the experience of the audience and their relationship with the performer, there is another aspect of live that affects the process of creating and designing a piece of digital theatre. The ability to affect and determine results from “live” changes to ideas on stage from the theatrical design team became an important part of the iteration of the production itself. This is part of the traditional theatre making process which doesn’t easily map into the limitations of digital immersive content creation. This project however attempted to rectify that by introducing innovative technologies that allowed existing theatrical control systems and the skills used to run them to operate Unreal Engine 4 game engine, live for the show. By retaining traditional theatrical equipment and skills, the entire production team who were all new to delivering theatre in a virtual medium, were able to adapt their existing practices and approach to communication in order to maintain fast design iteration and effective collaboration within an entirely new digital medium. This paper looks at the creation of the first prototype of The Round and the effect of using traditional theatrical technologies and processes in combination with real-time platforms that are trying to adapt to the live theatre model. Whilst trying to understand the role of the live design process in this context, the subject of “liveness” will be discussed from an audience point of view and the necessity of “live” with or without “life” in the medium the audience is watching.

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Author and article information

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James Simpson

Conference

Publication date: July 2021

Publication date (Print): July 2021

Pages: 109-116

Affiliations

[0001]Rose Bruford College

University of East London

Kent, United Kingdom

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2021.17

SO-VID: 73e399cf-0d61-4a91-b19e-de3decd85371

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of EVA London 2021

Conference acronym: EVA 2021

Conference number:

Conference location: London

Conference date: 5th July – 9th July 2021

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: AI and the Arts: Artificial Imagination

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2021.17

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

B. Baker (2013) Backstage Stories. Bloomsbury Publishing.
J. Baudrillard, S. F. Glaser (1994) Simulacra and Simulation. University of Michigan Press (Body in theory).
BBC (2021) New Year’s Eve: UK sees in 2021 with fireworks and light show – BBC News, BBC. 0 (Accessed: 13 March 2021).
Bellagio (2021) Bellagio Water Show – Tourist Attraction | Fountains of Bellagio – Bellagio Hotel & Casino. (Accessed: 13 March 2021).
S. Benford and G. Giannachi (2011) Performing mixed reality. MIT Press. (Accessed: 5 February 2019).
T. Brown (2020) Heavenly Bodies — Tallulah Brown. (Accessed: 13 March 2021).
R. Cadena (2013) Automated Lighting: The Art and Science of Moving Light in Theatre, Live Performance and Entertainment. Taylor & Francis.
L. Collins-Hughes, M. Paulson and S. Tillet (2020) ‘Four Black Artists on How Racism Corrodes the Theater World – The New York Times’, New York Times, 10 June.
Digital Media, Projection Design, and Technology for Theatre – Alex Oliszewski, Daniel Fine, Daniel Roth – Google Books (2018) Focal Press. (Accessed: 10 September 2020).
N. Fellingham (2020) Condense Reality. [Website] https://www.condensereality.com/ (Accessed: 13 March 2021).
E. Grundhauser (2021) How ‘Live’ is Live TV? – Atlas Obscura. (Accessed: 17 March 2021).
K. Hayles (1999) How we became posthuman : virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics. University of Chicago Press.
Hong Kong Tourist Board (2021) A Symphony of Lights – Details of the Show. Available at: (Accessed: 13 March 2021).
R. E. Long, A. T. Wing and E. I. McCann (2007) Producing \& the Theatre Business: Working in the Theatre. Continuum (A @Giniger book).
K. Mitchell (2009) The director’s craft : a handbook for the theatre. Routledge.
J. H. Murray (1997) Hamlet on the holodeck : the future of narrative in cyberspace. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Ofcom (2020) Media Nations 2020: UK report.
Old Vic Theatre (2021) Old Vic: IN CAMERA | The Old Vic, London (Accessed: 17 March 2021).
J. Parker-Starbuck (2011) Cyborg Theatre, Cyborg Theatre. Palgrave Macmillan UK.
M. Pavelka and A. Chitty (2015) So you want to be a theatre designer? Nick Hern Books.
D. Radosavljević (2013) Theatre-making : interplay between text and performance in the 21st century. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke
ROH (2013) Royal Opera House. Available at: https://www.roh.org.uk/interactives/opera-machine (Accessed: 13 May 2020).
Rose Bruford (2021) Homepage | Rose Bruford College. [Website] https://www.bruford.ac.uk/ (Accessed: 13 March 2021).
RSC (2021) Home – Dream. [Website] Available at: https://dream.online/ (Accessed: 17 March 2021).
R. Schechner (2017) Performance Studies: An Introduction. Taylor & Francis.
J. Simpson (2018) ‘How Do You Know When You Have Created A Bad Production?' In: J.P. Bowen, J. Weinel, G. Diprose, and N. Lambert (eds), EVA London 2018 (Electronic Visualisation and the Arts), pp.298–305. [Cross Ref]
J. Simpson (2021) Home | Copper Candle. Available at: https://www.coppercandle.co.uk/ (Accessed: 13 March 2021).
T. Winsor and P. Brignall (2021) Reality Check Productions. Available at: https://www.realitycheckproductions.co.uk/the-round (Accessed: 13 February 2021).

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] B. Baker (2013) Backstage Stories. Bloomsbury Publishing.

[2] J. Baudrillard, S. F. Glaser (1994) Simulacra and Simulation. University of Michigan Press (Body in theory).

[3] BBC (2021) New Year’s Eve: UK sees in 2021 with fireworks and light show – BBC News, BBC. 0 (Accessed: 13 March 2021).

[4] Bellagio (2021) Bellagio Water Show – Tourist Attraction | Fountains of Bellagio – Bellagio Hotel & Casino. (Accessed: 13 March 2021).

[5] S. Benford and G. Giannachi (2011) Performing mixed reality. MIT Press. (Accessed: 5 February 2019).

[6] T. Brown (2020) Heavenly Bodies — Tallulah Brown. (Accessed: 13 March 2021).

[7] R. Cadena (2013) Automated Lighting: The Art and Science of Moving Light in Theatre, Live Performance and Entertainment. Taylor & Francis.

[8] L. Collins-Hughes, M. Paulson and S. Tillet (2020) ‘Four Black Artists on How Racism Corrodes the Theater World – The New York Times’, New York Times, 10 June.

[9] Digital Media, Projection Design, and Technology for Theatre – Alex Oliszewski, Daniel Fine, Daniel Roth – Google Books (2018) Focal Press. (Accessed: 10 September 2020).

[10] N. Fellingham (2020) Condense Reality. [Website] https://www.condensereality.com/ (Accessed: 13 March 2021).

[11] E. Grundhauser (2021) How ‘Live’ is Live TV? – Atlas Obscura. (Accessed: 17 March 2021).

[12] K. Hayles (1999) How we became posthuman : virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics. University of Chicago Press.

[13] Hong Kong Tourist Board (2021) A Symphony of Lights – Details of the Show. Available at: (Accessed: 13 March 2021).

[14] R. E. Long, A. T. Wing and E. I. McCann (2007) Producing \& the Theatre Business: Working in the Theatre. Continuum (A @Giniger book).

[15] K. Mitchell (2009) The director’s craft : a handbook for the theatre. Routledge.

[16] J. H. Murray (1997) Hamlet on the holodeck : the future of narrative in cyberspace. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[17] Ofcom (2020) Media Nations 2020: UK report.

[18] Old Vic Theatre (2021) Old Vic: IN CAMERA | The Old Vic, London (Accessed: 17 March 2021).

[19] J. Parker-Starbuck (2011) Cyborg Theatre, Cyborg Theatre. Palgrave Macmillan UK.

[20] M. Pavelka and A. Chitty (2015) So you want to be a theatre designer? Nick Hern Books.

[21] D. Radosavljević (2013) Theatre-making : interplay between text and performance in the 21st century. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke

[22] ROH (2013) Royal Opera House. Available at: https://www.roh.org.uk/interactives/opera-machine (Accessed: 13 May 2020).

[23] Rose Bruford (2021) Homepage | Rose Bruford College. [Website] https://www.bruford.ac.uk/ (Accessed: 13 March 2021).

[24] RSC (2021) Home – Dream. [Website] Available at: https://dream.online/ (Accessed: 17 March 2021).

[25] R. Schechner (2017) Performance Studies: An Introduction. Taylor & Francis.

[26] J. Simpson (2018) ‘How Do You Know When You Have Created A Bad Production?' In: J.P. Bowen, J. Weinel, G. Diprose, and N. Lambert (eds), EVA London 2018 (Electronic Visualisation and the Arts), pp.298–305. [Cross Ref]

[27] J. Simpson (2021) Home | Copper Candle. Available at: https://www.coppercandle.co.uk/ (Accessed: 13 March 2021).

[28] T. Winsor and P. Brignall (2021) Reality Check Productions. Available at: https://www.realitycheckproductions.co.uk/the-round (Accessed: 13 February 2021).

UK Computing Summit 2025: Navigating change (surviving and beyond) - 29-30 April @ Sheffield Hallam University - Register here.

Live and Life in Virtual Theatre: Adapting traditional theatre processes to engage creatives in digital immersive technologies

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