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Wednesday, October 28, 2020
Is It Theater? Chekhov's 'The Seagull' Adaptation For The Sims 4 To Stream On Twitch
NPR: Playwright Celine Song is transforming Anton Chekhov's The Seagull into something avant-garde — by adapting a version that will be presented in The Sims 4 video game and streamed on Twitch.
7 comments:
Elizabeth P
said...
I have honestly never read a more chaotic title. When I first read this I thought that it was the most ridiculous thing to have Sims 4, “The Seagull,” and Twitch all in the same sentence. At first this seemed like some ploy by an old person to want to feel hip with the young ones and make them passionate about classic works. However, based on our world situation I know that I’m not the person to make the call on whether or not this is theater. I don’t think anyone is. Musical artists were doing performances on Fortnite and other artists did VR concerts. If Song can make this experience enjoyable while still holding onto those who favor the traditional theater arts - she may be a genius. It’s interesting that they chose “The Seagull,” but in terms of the chaos of life just happening I think this is the choice to make in terms of content.
Wow- people continue to surprise me all the time with their endless creative ideas and how they execute them. I’ve known for years now that people really enjoy making characters on Sims and making short films with them; sometimes for comedic purposes, some for dramatic story telling, and even sometimes for music videos. One thing that separates Sims from the average video game now a days is that Sims have their own language comprised of mostly of random syllables and distorted words, meaning that every short film is essentially a silent movie. A silent story can translate to stage through lots of mediums such as dance or commedia del arte, but I’m just not sure a story as dense as The Seagull could be told effectively as a silent play/story with just the Sims alone. I’m not sure if a livestream Sim version of any play can truly be considered a play, but I am definitely in favor of considering it a neat new version of a classic silent movie.
I love this so much! I watch people play the Sims 4 on YouTube all the time and it is so entertaining. Since it’s a life simulation game you have a lot of freedom to customize a characters traits and choose where they go. But because it’s the sims, ridiculous things can happen which is part of the fun. I definitely think it’s theater because you set up a story with characters and build a set. I like how she tried to do a specific play, that would be very difficult because there would be no words and the actions couldn’t always be controlled. Creators have a lot of creative flexibility when it comes to building houses in the sims so I would love to see what she created for the set. I’ve thought about doing set designs in the Sims because it’s basically a 3D modeling program but funner. If they do do more plays on this format it would be cool to see if they work with set designers or sound people. I wonder what other games could be made into virtual theater?
I actually watched parts of this stream before I saw the article and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don’t know The Seagull, so I don’t know how well Song’s stream portrayed the play, but I do feel confident in saying that this wasn’t theater. However, it was better than a lot of the zoom theater that’s being done lately. So many theaters are trying to figure out how to engage with an audience over the internet and they’re acting like they have to reinvent the wheel, which is just frustratingly idiotic. Twitch streamers and Youtubers have already figured out how to build an audience online. I spend 4 hours every Thursday night watching a bunch of voice actors play Dungeons & Dragons on a show that’s being going on for over 5 years. The Seagull stream wasn’t a straightforward narrative, but it was about theater and it featured not only Song but several prominent people in theater and right now that sense of community should but what we’re striving for, not a brady bunch style play reading
My first assumption, on seeing this title, was that she must be making a recorded video somehow and posing Sims in a series of short clips to go along with recorded audio, and I was both skeptical and impressed with the amount of work that would have to go in. And then I got to the end where they mentioned the sim characters getting into a fight and I realized what was actually happening, and just about laughed out loud, and now I want to watch it for some reason despite not really enjoying The Seagull as a play. I don’t know if I would classify this as theater, per se, but it’s an interesting look at a collision between modern internet humor and entertainment sensibilities and classic performance style. I think before the pandemic there wouldn’t even be a question that it would not be considered theatre, but now that so many things are online the lines are becoming a little more blurred.
One of my favorite parts of this experiment was how they gave money to a bunch of theatre artists and said go innovate. A lot of the time we are all so stuck in what we think is the way to do something, even theatre, because that’s how we were taught it’s done. So, it’s really refreshing that people were invited to push those boundaries and come up with something new. While I miss live theatre events, I am trying to look on the brightside and appreciate how people are able to embrace creativity during this time. I would have never thought to put on a play using the Sims and I played that game all the time as a kid. I’m not exactly sure if it would feel like I’m watching a play, but I think that’s okay because it’s not supposed to. I completely agree with what Song said, even if it fails there will still be successes.
In 2020 we’re breaking all of the norms and the way we think about things. I never thought about having a Chekhov play bring produced in the Sims 4, let alone someone streaming it on twitch. It’s a pretty creative way to tell stories honestly, since you can dress up and design the characters however you want, as well as model the houses and rooms to look a certain way too. From the article I think it’s kind of funny what happens since they can’t exactly control all of the actions of the sims, so it leaves room for some obscure and unplanned things to happen. Theatre is described as “the activity or profession of acting in producing, directing, or writing plays” or “a play or other activity or presentation considered in terms of its dramatic quality.” And while the Sims 4 Twitch rendition of The Seagull may be way outside of the box, I think it does fall under these definitions and, at least, I would call it a form of theatre.
7 comments:
I have honestly never read a more chaotic title. When I first read this I thought that it was the most ridiculous thing to have Sims 4, “The Seagull,” and Twitch all in the same sentence. At first this seemed like some ploy by an old person to want to feel hip with the young ones and make them passionate about classic works. However, based on our world situation I know that I’m not the person to make the call on whether or not this is theater. I don’t think anyone is. Musical artists were doing performances on Fortnite and other artists did VR concerts. If Song can make this experience enjoyable while still holding onto those who favor the traditional theater arts - she may be a genius. It’s interesting that they chose “The Seagull,” but in terms of the chaos of life just happening I think this is the choice to make in terms of content.
Wow- people continue to surprise me all the time with their endless creative ideas and how they execute them. I’ve known for years now that people really enjoy making characters on Sims and making short films with them; sometimes for comedic purposes, some for dramatic story telling, and even sometimes for music videos. One thing that separates Sims from the average video game now a days is that Sims have their own language comprised of mostly of random syllables and distorted words, meaning that every short film is essentially a silent movie. A silent story can translate to stage through lots of mediums such as dance or commedia del arte, but I’m just not sure a story as dense as The Seagull could be told effectively as a silent play/story with just the Sims alone. I’m not sure if a livestream Sim version of any play can truly be considered a play, but I am definitely in favor of considering it a neat new version of a classic silent movie.
I love this so much! I watch people play the Sims 4 on YouTube all the time and it is so entertaining. Since it’s a life simulation game you have a lot of freedom to customize a characters traits and choose where they go. But because it’s the sims, ridiculous things can happen which is part of the fun. I definitely think it’s theater because you set up a story with characters and build a set. I like how she tried to do a specific play, that would be very difficult because there would be no words and the actions couldn’t always be controlled. Creators have a lot of creative flexibility when it comes to building houses in the sims so I would love to see what she created for the set. I’ve thought about doing set designs in the Sims because it’s basically a 3D modeling program but funner. If they do do more plays on this format it would be cool to see if they work with set designers or sound people. I wonder what other games could be made into virtual theater?
I actually watched parts of this stream before I saw the article and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don’t know The Seagull, so I don’t know how well Song’s stream portrayed the play, but I do feel confident in saying that this wasn’t theater. However, it was better than a lot of the zoom theater that’s being done lately. So many theaters are trying to figure out how to engage with an audience over the internet and they’re acting like they have to reinvent the wheel, which is just frustratingly idiotic. Twitch streamers and Youtubers have already figured out how to build an audience online. I spend 4 hours every Thursday night watching a bunch of voice actors play Dungeons & Dragons on a show that’s being going on for over 5 years. The Seagull stream wasn’t a straightforward narrative, but it was about theater and it featured not only Song but several prominent people in theater and right now that sense of community should but what we’re striving for, not a brady bunch style play reading
My first assumption, on seeing this title, was that she must be making a recorded video somehow and posing Sims in a series of short clips to go along with recorded audio, and I was both skeptical and impressed with the amount of work that would have to go in. And then I got to the end where they mentioned the sim characters getting into a fight and I realized what was actually happening, and just about laughed out loud, and now I want to watch it for some reason despite not really enjoying The Seagull as a play. I don’t know if I would classify this as theater, per se, but it’s an interesting look at a collision between modern internet humor and entertainment sensibilities and classic performance style. I think before the pandemic there wouldn’t even be a question that it would not be considered theatre, but now that so many things are online the lines are becoming a little more blurred.
One of my favorite parts of this experiment was how they gave money to a bunch of theatre artists and said go innovate. A lot of the time we are all so stuck in what we think is the way to do something, even theatre, because that’s how we were taught it’s done. So, it’s really refreshing that people were invited to push those boundaries and come up with something new. While I miss live theatre events, I am trying to look on the brightside and appreciate how people are able to embrace creativity during this time. I would have never thought to put on a play using the Sims and I played that game all the time as a kid. I’m not exactly sure if it would feel like I’m watching a play, but I think that’s okay because it’s not supposed to. I completely agree with what Song said, even if it fails there will still be successes.
In 2020 we’re breaking all of the norms and the way we think about things. I never thought about having a Chekhov play bring produced in the Sims 4, let alone someone streaming it on twitch. It’s a pretty creative way to tell stories honestly, since you can dress up and design the characters however you want, as well as model the houses and rooms to look a certain way too. From the article I think it’s kind of funny what happens since they can’t exactly control all of the actions of the sims, so it leaves room for some obscure and unplanned things to happen. Theatre is described as “the activity or profession of acting in producing, directing, or writing plays” or “a play or other activity or presentation considered in terms of its dramatic quality.” And while the Sims 4 Twitch rendition of The Seagull may be way outside of the box, I think it does fall under these definitions and, at least, I would call it a form of theatre.
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