Protocol: I'M SITTING AT MY LIGHTING DESK with my headphones on, listening to the Deputy Stage Manager stand-me-by for the first cue. The audience is waiting in the lobby, the house announcement has been made and they proceed into the first scene—a church. I'm an experienced board op with many years behind a lighting desk (although it has been a while), yet I still get the same first-night nerves I always do.
2 comments:
I find it ironic that an article about immersive digital theatre is designed to look like a print article, even the page turns are accompanied by the audio of a page turn. The article talks about a variety of interesting resources for the digital world, many of which have been created since we transitioned to relying more on virtual modalities due to the pandemic. Mozilla Hubs reminded me of Gathertown at CMU. I have only used it once to attempt to attend the Virtual Fair but hopefully the virtual fair makeup session will be better on the servers. The fortnite music performance seems wild to me. I personally do not see how a video game concert can compare to an in person or a filmed concert, but I am happy for those who attended and enjoyed it. One of the most interesting aspects of the article was looking back and comparing older modalities of performance from stand up to silent films. I have somewhat of a familiarity with VR, so I find the term XR interesting. I also know of XD when it comes to multidimensional film experiences. The combination is a helpful way to contextualize these modalities. I like how the article called it “a new era of media”. It is a much more positive way of looking at the situation the entertainment industry is currently in rather than the perspective of how it was forced upon the industry. Hopefully we can keep this perspective as we continue down this path.
-Ariel Bernhard
I had come to acknowledge that the productions we are creating right now amongst the Covid pandemic is no longer theatre but a new digital hybrid of art we need to stop trying to confine to the traditional rules of theatrical practice, but I guess I had not considered how we, as an industry, can be gentle with criticism as we work out the rough patches in this new format. Simpson aptly points out that film and TV took time before finding an ideal form, and I think it would be wonderful if that benefit of the doubt could be translated to theatre trying to pivot digitally. I think that part of the pressure to suddenly have this new thing we are all doing work perfectly is because we live in a world where instantaneous knowledge and results are a common expectation, and because we are theatre people that are so used to being able to problem solve and fix it now – I too struggle to re-adjust my expectations. I think the format of morphing theatrical experiences into a gaming setting is very interesting, and I wonder if the theatre world embraces that medium, will it bring in a new subset of audience members – those who are comfortable with that gaming technology and in that world – to live theatre, if there is ever such a thing again.
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