Emerging from the Dark Stage

[Music]

i began creating interactive virtual

worlds

back in the mid 90s at that point i

already had a strong background in

traditional narrative

and from that point on the dream of

converging

live performance with computational

power

to lift story up beyond its physical

limitations

beyond linear time

tangible objects that became my north

star

now to get there i would need to

navigate

quite a few different industries

i’d go from the tech industries to media

companies

software development companies

production houses

research for me all of these came

together with a very clear

understanding of what the future of

narrative looks like

i had a friend ask me with all that

bouncing around didn’t you feel kind of

lost

like a creator without a tribe

no i didn’t i never crossed my mind

professionally

i was always with my storytellers

whether we were working with programs or

performers or participants

i did however feel lost in my personal

life occasionally

you know searching for meaning not sure

where to go

and when that happened i wouldn’t put on

a virtual reality headset

i’d go to the theater

so in 2008 i found myself in a very

dark place in my life i was reeling from

an abusive marriage

my friends and family were scattered all

across the globe

i had a new baby

so on my first night out i went to the

theater

a black box theater in midtown manhattan

performing that night were broadway’s

understudy standbys and swings

they were doing pieces that they might

not ever get to play on stage

but in that theater they were filling it

with the most incredible talent

followed by the most horrific stories of

being booed on stage

missing choreography because they didn’t

have to have a chance to rehearse

i walked out of that theater into the

dark night but for me

it was a bright new world

i would spend the next four years

directing a documentary called the

standbys

i would spend many more years after that

navigating the new york city divorce

court system

takes a while to untangle ourselves from

the reality we

think we’ve built

i think that maybe theater finds itself

right now and not

quite so dissimilar a situation of

entanglement

business models built on

packed houses that now said empty actors

trained to perform for the back row

now at home the lights are dark

where is theater to go when it’s lost so

much

not necessarily because of outside

forces even maybe when we’re

searching for creative inspiration

where’s the light

three things happened in that when i

left that black box theater that night

three things that you can do right now

that do not

involve technology although i sincerely

believe

that today’s technology can be the light

for tomorrow’s theater

but these three things are diversify

your relationships

look to the future create something new

let’s take a look at each of those all

right so diversify your relationships

kindred spirits all over the world are

creating new types of story new types of

characters

they’re doing it in computational

academia where papers are flooding in

combining storytelling and ai

and frankly they need the bright minds

of broadway to figure out how to

actually do that

you might be familiar with the drama

departments of cmu usc

yale nyu did you know that they also

have

entertainment technology centers blended

reality labs future reality labs

academia for me is a bellwether you can

go there see what’s coming down the line

check out some of the prototypes see

what if what we can be excited about in

the future if anything we can use right

now

but even outside of academia when we

look at film festivals they are

featuring the new frontiers

social media is becoming the concert

houses

of yesterday and if you look at escape

rooms

they’re doing some really neat stuff

with narrative and game design

when we diversify our relationships we

build a support network so that when

things don’t work out the way that we

planned

maybe we have a new perspective on how

to move forward

look to the future right now our

audiences

are adapting technology at an

accelerated pace

grandparents that would normally be

sitting in the schubert or at home

becoming zoom pros and tick tock stars

the other night i was actually with a

couple hundred other people

navigating a virtual house with live

performers in it that were responding to

our chat commentary in real time

and my son who grew up on a healthy dose

of

soul-saving theater now has to

communicate with his friends

through devices and technology

the future might not look like the past

that’s okay

create something new you won’t be alone

in a galaxy far far away in orlando

florida

you can be part of the resistance or the

first order and that’ll change

your experience performers in france

are in motion capture suits becoming

animated characters and headsets

all across the world theaters in japan

motion track their dancers so that they

could in real time

perform with projected characters

through a game engine that was in the

theater

when we create something new something

awesome happens

when we take action

the darkness starts to fade away as we

build our new reality

and that shines the light for other

people to come with us

these three things might seem easy

but they’re deeply personal and yes

even the most formidable of institutions

can move on

marriage or broadway

now i have the most incredible partner

supportive empowering caring

my son is a funny

and kind teenager

and we have a new baby in our family

it’s my hope that tonight when i walk

out of this theater

it’s your turn to walk into a bright new

world

thank you