The Virtual Theatre Project

Faculty:
Lesley Ferris, Department of Theater

Staff:
Matthew Lewis, ACCAD

GAs:
Katie Whitlock, Department of Theater
Arun Somasundaram, Department of CSE
Ian Butterfield, Department of Art

		examples of interface

Virtual Theatre Demo Movie (11.6MB QT)

Theater is an interactive, situated art form involving performers interacting with an audience in an environment designed with respect to lighting, movement, set costume, and sound. Reproducing these essential elements in the classroom is at present only possible in small and focused courses--such as those dedicated to acting, directing, voice, movement; others, such as the Introduction to Theater course (Theater 100), have to rely on the lecture format plus slides and video in presenting material. This mode of teaching fails to take advantage of students' growing computer/internet literacy and falls short of the multi-dimensionality of the art itself.
A virtual theater interface was designed for theater students that immediately effects the way Theater 100 is taught, and impacted the entire theater department's pedagogy. The interface was constructed around a virtual stage - a simulated 3D space which allows the user not only to enter and explore the environment but also to interact with its content by controlling lighting, movement, and design elements built into it. In effect, the interface enables a range of different virtual performances to be mounted under the interactive control of the user. The project involved the construction of a detailed simulation of the Department's Roy Bowen Theater, a 250-seat thrust stage located in Drake Union.

		examples of different lighting
		examples of different viewpoints

The simulation enables users to:

- view the stage from various positions in the house (seats) to get a range of different sightlines.
- have standard furniture pieces (chairs, tables, boxes) placed on the stage for blocking, directing, and design purposes.
- manipulate representations of actors.
- alter backdrop and lighting arrangements to accommodate different design concepts.

Thus, use of the interface not only promotes comparison between digital and actual performance in relation to the Roy Bowen Theater thrust stage, but allows the students to go beyond being a spectator of the stage picture by providing a productive interaction with the basic elements for stage composition.

The system offers two distinct benefits. As a new interactive tool, it offers undergraduates, graduate students and faculty an exciting medium for experimental projects and research that situates the theater department at a leading edge of theater technology. As a pedagogical tool allowing students to take part in directing/design experiments that are impossible under existing arrangements, its introduction immediately benefits a large number of students on the Columbus campus as well as students on regional campuses at Newark, Mansfield, Lima, and Marion. Students at all these campuses take the Introduction to Theater course which is one of the largest GEC courses in the university, with over 1100 students enrolled each quarter on the Columbus campus and some 200 each quarter at the regional campuses.

[text modified by Matthew Lewis from the original grant proposal by Brian Rotman and Leslie Ferris]

Virtual Theatre Interface
http://www.accad.ohio-state.edu/VT