Much of my training in Digital Theatre/Performance has come from experience (see experiments. Through University of Maryland courses and independent study I've picked up some skills in Final Cut Pro, Maya, and Jitter/Max. Additional Training has come through summer workshops with Troika Ranch. This summer I look forward to learning additional skills in Dance Technology at University of Arizona and UC Irvine as well as presenting a conference paper on Intercultural Digital Collaboration at ATHE in Toronto.

In December I was able to attend the New York staging of Builders Association and motoroti's digital theatre production Alladeen. This intercultural work combined spectacular digital video manipulation effects on the fly with themes of globalization and virtual place. The story weaves together documentary footage of the workers at global call centers in India and the Aladdin myth. The workers are trained to impersonate American or British citizens when assisting callers and must adopt Western names, accents, and knowledge for which they are paid well for Indian standards. The piece raises questions about the effects of globalization on individuals, consumerism and instant gratification, and variable identity. The show uses the metaphor of technology as well as the digital staging technology to cast both the call center workers as Aladdin characters, friends personas, wish granters and temporarily into First World citizens. The work has been a key feature of several of my recent papers and presentations.

To find out more about the web site, music video, or stage show go to www.alladeen.com

I also checked in with GSRT about their process and Troika Ranch saw some great slow motion footage from Dawn & Mark's work in progress "Surfaces."

Very recently, I was thrilled to attend the opening night of The Magic Flute at the University of Kansas, which featured animated characters and scenic projections by technologist Mark Reaney. It was a splendid production that surpassed my expectations. The sparse set, was in fact a bare stage back to the brick walls, with the exception of the two rectangular and one circular rear-projection screens (and the creatures of light and digital landscapes that inhabited them) which at times made entrances and exits as grand as any of the characters. They flew off the stage with the Queen of the Night burst onto the stage with her circular screen illuminated with electric sparks and fractal spirals of intense hues. They danced across the stage with the feet of the pages which held make-shift screens by poles, allowing the dragon to chase Prince Tamino through the space, or as small hand carried structures allowing the round little blue-bird to furtively mock Papagano and avoid his net. These screens (and the magic of Mark Reaney and his skill with programs such as 3D Max) showed the audience the magic of the flute as we crossed through flames and water, the sun's rays, brought us into a continually rotating Escher-like castle, a forest glade, the mysterious realm of cyberspace, and even set us inside an ever-changing world visually representing sound itself.

Before the matinee Mr. Reaney was kind enough to give me a quick tour of backstage. The technical crew, which remains visible in the background during production, has control of real-time video recording, and computer animation controls for both front and rear-screen projected elements. A controller sitting in the orchestra pit can manipulate the humorous movements of the whimsical and all too brief dragon. During the matinee, I noticed several small changes from the night before in the sound visuals and the dragon especially, demonstrating the ability of the technicians to improvise and create real-time reactions to the audience and the actors. The technicians became digital puppet masters. The cast and crew did a marvelous job in bringing this story to life, and all of them- both human and computer-generated, artists of sound or light, deserved a curtain call and a standing ovation.

The following day, Mr. Reaney got some well-deserved rest and I watched archival tapes of previous productions such as Midsummer Night's Dream (also an excellent production incorporating live actors and digital projections). image/link

Recently, I visited with The Talking Birds, a group which works on site-specific performances which evolve out of thier fascination with community landmarks. The group researches the buildings, gathers oral histories, and devises new scripts to be performed in these found spaces in a way which both draws on thier history and expands the audiences's sense of the places' cultural meaning. I was able to observe the group working on Three Doctors, a piece in an abandoned hospital wing and as they rehearsed thier pagent piece (as Jonah) from inside a giant metal whale. I also enjoyed participating as a phone voice in one of thier recent projects.

www.talkingbirds.co.uk