I thought I should do a quick follow up entry to the Flipping the Script live-stream issues. In case you didn’t see, insufficient planning/equipment meant that the exciting streamed new reading didn’t actually work until the last 20 minutes, and at that point was running very poor video, and appalling audio quality.
I found this really disappointing for many reasons, but most particularly because as my role as a freelance online comms bod for Theatre Writing Partnership, I’d really been pushing the event, and felt we’d been let down, and worse, had let others down, when it turned into such of a shambles.
This was my (ranty) reaction as I left the mini event we’d set up at the TWP offices:
It turns out they had been trying to use a webcam over a shared wifi connection to run it, and according to a friend who had logged on earlier, had only tested it an hour previously. Although admittedly the reaction audiobooed above is very ranty, the whole experience has reminded me of the importance of emphasising the need to make the tech part of a project, rather than adding it on at the last minute or treating it as a gimmick.
Of course I’m sure Talawa/The Young Vic aren’t going to jump at my height-of-anger offer of interference (why would they), but I was pleased to see that Talawa did respond to the comments in the chat-area of the livestream:
I would like to thank you and at the same time apologise sincerely for the loss of our streaming feed yesterday. Unfortunately, we were relying on WiFi and once the studio doors were closed the signal went with it. We subsequently established a permanent cable link but it was late in the reading. We are grateful for your comments and the very lively exchanges. We learned quite a lot from you and are now ready to hit the ground running with a boosted up, infinitely more reliable, and multi-camera streaming on 8th October. So please join again, or email your comments and/or introduce yourself to me christopher@talawa.com.
I’m really glad that the first knockback hasn’t phased them, and hopefully the 8th of October will provide the brilliant experiment in online new-writing dissemination that the 8th of September failed to deliver. This has been a reminder on my part not to make assumptions about companies’ knowledge or tech-capabilities (for better or for worse), and by far the most positive thing about the experience is that they have revised their approach, and are trying again. Kudos.
Also, on a personal note, my subsequent rant in the mini-gathering at the office about the need to integrate and investigate technology in theatre got me another invite to talk at a conference! That makes three in total, before I’ve even officially started my work. Though always surprised to find people think my rants are of exterior value, it’s thrilling to see that other people are thinking about these things too, and makes me really excited about the prospect of my research. Good stuff.
The scope of the topic: Theatre and Technology will look at technology as both vehicle and subject matter in contemporary theatre. On the one hand the study will look at the true (as opposed to gimmick-driven) use of technology in theatre, particularly in a political and educational context, and on the other it will consider how theatre-writing can address the changing face of human social-interaction in a ‘Web 2.0’ world. The study will work towards theorising and testing a series of new models and genres for the application of technology in theatre and within theatrical storytelling. I intend that this research will form a fundamental and relevant collection of methods and theorisation of how theatre can react and adapt to new media.
Methods/approach/theory: The research will take the form of a 60:40 theory:practice split. The theory will be developed out of a philosophical (mainly phenomenological and semiotic) starting point and will converge with reading on narrative in technology, identity and social media, gender/race studies, applied theatre, and colonialism in a theatrical context. The research will then drive an investigation into two main areas; the use of technology in theatre, and how the experience of technology is portrayed in theatre. From here the two strands will be developed via discussion with the current theatrical world.
The first part of Theatre and Technology will examine how applied theatre can reap the benefits of gender/race/class and youth activism in the context of new technology, and how the democratising power of the internet can be harnessed in a live theatrical framework in order to speak to new audiences. Following on from a theoretical starting point the ideas will be informed by direct interviews with theatre practitioners and participants, taking in projects ranging from the National Theatre’s live streaming programme, to C&T Theatre’s innovative use of technology and theatre in learning. There will also be a dedicated online space and social networking presence for the thesis in order to allow debate and discussion, and the testing of theories in practice.
In the second part of the study, the thesis will move on from the theory to look at the ‘bracketed’ aspect of live performance, and how the tension between identity, reality and story is imitated in technology. The study will question how far mainstream theatre-writing has delved into modern ideas of identity, loneliness, and being, and work to develop new modes and genres in order to examine the problems inherent in telling the stories of the contemporary world.
The practice will interweave between these two parts, testing theories of technology in theatre as a socio-political tool, as well as developing a body of theatre-writing examining contemporary models and genres, allowing theatre new ways of examining identity and human interaction in the age of web 2.0. The applied theatre writing will be developed alongside current practising companies, and the creative writing will be showcased in a ‘testing ground’ of invited professionals and non-professionals in a dedicated space at the Royal Court Theatre, to which I have access through my work on their Young Writers Programme.
Plan of work: In June 2009 I will be working with Pilot Theatre on the live streaming and tweeting of their Shift Happens 2.0 conference. This conference will bring together theatre professionals, critics and academics (including the National Theatre, Lyn Gardner, C&T Theatre, Hoipolloi, the Cornerhouse, Charlie Leadbeater and more) to discuss technology in theatre – from live streaming and social networking, to genuine interactivity with the creative and performative processes. I intend to use this event to make contacts, and ground my ideas about theatre and technology in the realities of theatre-making from the outset. The thesis will then develop a highly theoretical base, working on the phenomenology and semiotics of theatre, how it is suited to the exploration of virtual worlds, as well considering the democratising and educational potential of technology in the face of the new media revolution. After a period of reading and developing ideas I will test them in practice through interviews with practitioners and participants, as well as developing and workshopping creative writing, and testing new applied theatre ideas in their intended context. I will continue to keep in touch with the theatre profession, throughout all of my work and use a dedicated web space as an area to develop and openly debate my ideas and findings in order to produce work that is technologically current, and practically relevant. This process of theorising and testing will naturally occur several times as I redevelop and refine my ideas and begin to present my work.
