I. 1. CONFESSION.
I don't think that I will continue the practical applications of the VT as a director. The vProductions are too time consuming and I I'm not sure that the end result is for me. The title of the paper is an indication that developing the technologies that allow us to position a spectator in the middle of the action and in some control of the action, does move the theatrical phenomena into the field of the ritual, when we cross the line of the interacting theatre and participatory shows into spectator generated narratives.
I call "Theatre of One"...
I. 2. HISTORY
In the spring of 1999 my Advanced Directing and Acting classes did the scenes from The Three Sisters as their final project. We added the cameras and screens to the live show, when some characters where in the same time, but not in the same physical space with the rest of the cast. The audience was seatted within the set, like the part of the crowd in the Prozorov's house. The intent was to unlock the space and the camera made the difference, when we could break further the space, because of the shots on the screens and because we could transmit the live action from a different location. The purpose of those exirsices was rather experimental -- to see how it would affect the actors and the audience. To our surprise both, the cast and the public didn't mind the presence of the camera on the set or the screens. As long as the video images were emphasizing the action, of course.
It wasn't a period piece, but a "created world" concept, so the presence of technology or the audience within the set, seams to be natural and I thought that we can take this experiment a few steps further -- I directed the whole play in the Fall of 1999 in the Lab Theatre.
This time we had 3-4 cameras with the live editing. I did our own translation/adaptation in order for us to webcast the show without copyright problems. We had the live video and all what was needed is to send it out transformed into digital signal. The UAF super-computer people helped us with the tech part and we webcast the show to the computer screens via Internet. The number of people who could log-in at the same time was limited to 25, but the Virtual 3 Sisters people saw in NYC and California in the middle of the night (Alaska is 1-4 hours behind in time). There were some technical problems, mostly the sound, but the techno-aspect of the project was surprisengly easy. The real question was the aesthetics.
What do it do to the live show, what kind of rules and principles to organize the webcast live drama, how different this process from the TV broadcasting?...
First and obvious difference between TV and webcasting was that the show ends up on the computer, not TV screen -- therefore you have much more control because of the keyboard. In fact, we can delegate the editing part of the process to a viewer, who can select where and when to cut from camera to another (very much that the live editor does). All you need to do it to send four, not one signal out....
Here when the things get complicated. Not only we have several digital live signals to choose from, the supercomputer can store all the video of the previous shows, which can broken into files for you to retrieve at home on your computer. In short, you can arranged your own "3 Sisters" narrative, because the digital video archive has many hours of footage.
In my classes, like everybody else, I teach that Chekhov is a father of the new 20th century drama. Now I had a chance to see that his dramatic innovations are very suitable for hyper-drama, or the open text structure. (In the Spring of 2000 I tried vTheatre style with The 12th Night on our big stage and it didn't work as well). Chekhov's diffusion of the central hero for example, allowed us very easy to arrange the narrative around many characters -- Olga: 3 Sisters, Virshinin: 3 Sisters -- different stories every night, or every time you would like to recompose "your" story from the files in the supercomputer's memory.
II. 1. QUESTIONS
The big question I have no answer for is -- do we really want to have that much conrol over the narrative, or we rather to be controlled by the dramatic flow of the show? How much authorship do we want? Well, the choices you have at home at your computer are still less than the options you empowered with being live in the same space and time, when you can switch your attention from one character to another, when in fact do organize your own "3 Sisters" differently every time you see it. In the final count the only true live element in webcasting is YOU.
Between a live show and you at the computer is the film stage of the process -- and film is the opposite in nature to theatre, every moment of it frozen (or dead), and this is why we have that power of film with the closeups and cuts. Could your participation at the end of the line bring back the "theatre live" phenomena to the video images? What if we can let the viewer to have control over cameras as well? All we need to have enough of them within the set. What if we about to add more elements of the PLAY and even the GAME to the process. What is in the future we will be able literary to surround you with the virtual set and characters? What if we are to take a radical step into a full identification with the character (your film experience, where the forgetting "your own self" is even stronger that in theatre experience)? That is why I thought that this "Theatre of One" maybe should take a second look at the Ritual experience (as oppose to theatre experience).
II. 2. Present and the Future
Two years ago I was upset with the small 3X4" screen on my monitor, but the technical development is scary -- now it's a full screen and the near DVD flow of images. Some you with children perhaps are familiar with VR quality of the games on the market. Dramatic Virtual Theatre is a concept at the moment, not a "reality".... but it's all just a matter of time.
The term "Virtual Theatre" is a contradiction in itself -- "Virtual" is a description of the non-physical terrain created by computer system (in "cyber space"), -- and theatre is about the PHYSICAL presence. If we about to focus on TIME, not space, VTheatre is live. Here is another definition for "VR" -- an artificial environment created with the computer hardware and software and presented to the user in such a way that it appears and feels like a real environment." Don't we had similar definition for Theatre, which makes us believe that events on stage are "real"?
And what about the Performance phenomena? Jokingly, the film crew called themselves "SpectActors" -- because they are the active spectators who got on stage and produce their interpretation of the action. By the standarts of the Performance Art they are artists and performers (we had no storyboards and the camera-people were free to select the visual picture improv style). Interestingly enough the actors began to "play" the cameras (acting for the camera) within the method acting concept, including addressing the camera on closeups. They also, use the images on the big screen, sometimes to address themselves! All without breaking the "fourth wall"! No direct interacting with the live audience, but sometimes addressing the "audience on the screen." (To my surprise the public treated cameras very much the actors did -- nobody played for the camera, no faces and etc.)
III. 1.
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and
Quotes:
That finishes our tour of systems theory and Gestalt laws. We can try to summarize as follows:
The parts of a system communicate with one another.
The system has an environment with which at least one of its parts communicates.
The system is always changing.
The behavior of the system cannot be predicted from the behaviors of its parts.
All systems have similar characteristics.
Many managers still see organizations as "machines" that can be wound up with rules and procedures. It is not possible for the manager to control what happens to the system.
An organization near death (one traumatized by fear and anxiety) will be stagnate and certain sub-systems will wither.
If there is too much top-down control, creativity and productivity will be stymied.
A system as a whole works differently than its parts.
Parts alone cannot do what the system can do (a motor with no truck, a movie with no plot, a body without a heart, an individual without a team).
Effective organizations (individuals) have networks communicate with others).
Each part does something special, and the sum of the parts make a whole.
One of the lessons of systems theory is that there is no preferred observer, and a lesson from Gestalt psychology is that your perception as an observer may be wrong.
Gestalt psychology teaches us that we cannot see reality objectively, and our mental models of the world are deeply ingrained with personal assumptions, even mental images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action---we may be wrong!
Working with others should make you aware that they have different mental models and that you must build a common vision or shared picture of the world and your goals.
Nothing is stable, things are always changing.
The effects of some behavior on an organization are not predictable.
The relationships between elements in a complex system are short-range, but the information that passes through a system is likely to be altered or modified in some way.
A small stimulus may cause a large effect, or no effect at all.
Energy and information are constant inputs and outputs of any system crossing the boundaries. Therefore, every system is in a constant state of flux, trying to achieve equilibrium.
Parts cannot contain the whole.
No element in a system can totally control a system, except in the most dire circumstances. If it can, then, then it portends death (starvation for a human, running out of money for a business).
Any organization is complex, and the components of the system make the system complex.
A system is adaptive, so the organization will change.
The future is unpredictable.
You can forecast the future by erecting several potential plans, or scenarios, so it is possible to plan for different possibilities but you will not know for sure which one might appear.
http://iit.ches.ua.edu/systems/index.html
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