To Be with Hamlet Press Kit to Be with Hamlet
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To Be With Hamlet Press Kit To Be With Hamlet A live performance of Hamlet in Virtual Reality. Contact: [email protected] 1 To Be With Hamlet Press Kit Tagline To Be With Hamlet is a live theater performance in Virtual Reality that allows anybody anywhere to have an intimate experience with Hamlet, Shakespeare’s dramatic masterpiece. The experience enables audiences to walk the battlements of Elsinore Castle with Hamlet as he confronts the ghost of his murdered father. Synopsis o enter the experience, you put on a Turning, the spirit will declare itself to be the Vive alongside up to fifteen audience ghost of Hamlet’s father, the fallen king, and members in the designated exhibition impart the story of how he was murdered by Tspace. Immediately, you are transported to his own brother. At the end of his speech, the the illustrious Elsinore Castle, a grand stone ghost commands Hamlet to avenge his death. fortress perched on a brotherhood of rocky cliffs. Before the performance begins, you Before Hamlet can make his reply, the morn- will be free to explore the Castle with your ing sun peeks out of the far corner of the bat- fellow audience members. tlements, forcing the Ghost to depart. Speak- ing directly to you, Hamlet pledges to avenge When the performance begins, a thick fog his father’s “most unnatural murder.” will descend upon the battlements. Hamlet and his friend Horatio will climb onto the Horatio then catches up with Hamlet. Fear- ramparts, in search of the mysterious ghost ful that the ghost’s message will be revealed, that has been haunting the castle. Soon the Hamlet takes up his sword and compels specter appears, dressed in the armor of the Horatio to swear that he will keep secret all former king. Horatio warns Hamlet to avoid that he has seen, so that no-one will learn the ghost, but you and Hamlet will follow it of grim task with which Hamlet has been along the battlements until Hamlet demands charged. The two then leave the battlements that the spirit reveal its intentions. as the sun crests above the horizon. Contact: [email protected] 2 To Be With Hamlet Press Kit Director's Statement by David Gochfeld hile virtual reality has long been a medium for “gee whiz” experiences, only recently have creators begun Wexploring how to use the technology to tell satisfying stories. Most of the practitioners working in narrative VR today approach it as an extension of film or video games. But I believe storytelling in VR is closer to the art of theater. In theater we create a fictional world that attains a feeling of reality through the physical presence of live performers and scenic elements, and the illusion of place presented on the stage is an essential element of the power of theatrical storytelling. Theater has always experimented with new ways of For this investigation, we’ve taken a cue from creating that sense of place, ranging from un- Hamlet in the Holodeck, Janet Murray’s book canny verisimilitude to minimal suggestions about the future of storytelling using inter- that engage the audience’s imagination more active technologies. As one of the most well actively. The recent wave of highly immersive known stories in the Western canon, Hamlet site-specific productions such as Sleep No is a prime candidate for reinterpretation in a More is a testament to just how strongly audi- new medium. Of course, it’s not an easy play ences respond to being fully transported into to stage in any respect. But it does give us a a fictional world. Virtual reality is a powerful fully drawn, psychologically believable char- medium for doing just that. acter inhabiting a rich mythical-historical world -- key ingredients for a compelling and To my knowledge, no one has yet explored satisfying piece of theater and, we hope, VR. the question: what happens when we bring actors and audience together into a virtual Among the limitations of VR today is atten- world? And from that follows: How do you tion span: it would be foolhardy to expect stage a play in a virtual space? How do you, anyone to sit through a full-length play in a technically, allow the audience and actors to VR headset. So we are using a short excerpt be in the same space together? What kind of of Hamlet to explore the aesthetic, dramatur- play is suited to this sort of staging? And, if gical, and technical challenges posed by this you believe, as I do, that the true power of new fusion of theatre and VR. We’ve chosen theater lies in the live, real-time connection to stage the scene between Hamlet and his fa- between the actor and the audience, can that ther’s ghost because it is the key incitement to relationship exist when mediated through VR the dramatic action of the rest of the play, and technology? it is a naturally theatrical encounter that lends itself to the kinds of enhancements that can be applied in a 3D CGI environment. "Can the live, real-time Through the combination of an immersive, virtual environment and a live, human perfor- connection between mance, To Be With Hamlet is exploring new avenues for experience in VR. By adding real, actor and audience seen human connection to VR performance, we are in theatre exist when pushing into uncharted artistic territory. mediated through VR technology?" Contact: [email protected] 3 To Be With Hamlet Press Kit Biographies Javier Molina David Gochfeld Producer, Creator Director Francisco Javier Molina is an engineer, actor and David Gochfeld creates performance experiences at media artist working with virtual reality, motion the intersection of the real and virtual, drawing on capture, interactive installations, performance art his training in classical and contemporary theat- and experimental film. He holds a degree in Tele- rical techniques as well as interaction design and communications Engineering from the Army Poly- creative technology. He has created and performed technic School in Quito,Ecuador. pieces internationally and has recently shown work at the Tribeca Film Festival Interactive Playground, He moved to New York City to study at NYU the Daily News Innovation Lab, Come Out And School of Engineering along with a minor in acting Play, and Creative Tech Week NYC. He co-created at Uta Hagen’s HB Studio. He is currently work- FutureMate, which won the first StoryCode Trans- ing at NYU MAGNET as faculty researching VR media Hackathon at Lincoln Center, and was nom- and AR technologies and teaching motion capture inated for a New York Innovative Theatre Award. workflow for virtual reality. He also has been a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. He holds a Masters from NYU's In- Javier's interest in performance has evolved from teractive Telecommunications program, and trained conventional theater to more eclectic and inter- with Jacques Lecoq, Philippe Gaulier, and at the active practices, he has recreated famous perfor- National Shakespeare Conservatory. mance-art pieces and interactive shows presented at the Brooklyn Experimental Media Center and night clubs in New York. His work offers a creative way to join passion and envolment with contemporary art and combine with cutting-edge technology. Contact: [email protected] 4 To Be With Hamlet Press Kit Team Biographies Zachary Koval Owen Bell Roger Casey Cast Assistant Director Cast Originally from Portland, Oregon, Owen Bell is a coder and designer Roger Casey is a NY based artist. Re- Zachary received his BA in Acting working with games and virtual reality cent Theater credits: CasablancaBOX at The University of the Pacific in and a graduate of the MFA Game De- – Humphrey Bogart/Rick (HERE Arts), Stockton, CA. In NYC he worked and sign program at the NYU Game Center. H5: Life after Death – Steffon (Schom- trained for three years with Theatre His interests lie in the creative inter- burg Center), Good Girl Gone Bad Group Dzieci, an experimental theatre actions that are made possible by the – The Man (HERE Arts), Lunchtime ensemble dedicated to exploring the collaboration of humans with comput- in Heaven - Freddie Gray (48hrs in sacred through the act of theatre. He is ers, best expressed through his project Harlem, National Black Theatre), The currently in production on an acro- Mendel, which explores using genetic Return - Adam (Metropolitan Museum dance-theatre piece entitled "Babel" properties to create surreal, procedural of Art), Tyson Vs. Ali - Mike Tyson & premiering in January (www.babel. flora. He wears many hats on the team, Muhammad Ali (3-Legged Dog,Foxy build). assisting both in the creative aspects of Films), The Misanthrope - Acaste the production as well as drawing on (Shakespeare Theatre of NJ), 12th Night his knowledge of Computer Science to – Antonio (Shakespeare Theatre of NJ), develop the backend technology. Tragedy! A musical comedy - Aaron the Moor (Lucille Lortel Theatre). Ifeoluwa Lawal T.K. Broderick Brett Moody 3D Modeler and Texture Designer Sound Engineer Communications Director Ifeoluwa Lawal is an engineer, 3D mod- T.K. is a sound designer, film composer, eler and artist studying at the Tandon and creative technologist. He is a grad- Brett Moody is generating excitement School of Engineering at MAGNET, uate of USC's film production program and funding for To Be With Hamlet where he also works. He is creating the and NYU's Interactive Telecommu- by creating and managing the project's 3D set for Hamlet and mapping the nications Program, where he focused website, print materials, development photographed skin textures to the 3D on developing real-time movement diaries, and social media platforms. Hamlet model so that that Prince of controlled sound, music, light, and Additionally, he is performing miscel- Denmark looks as realistic as possi- image applications, driven by a fascina- laneous production tasks, writing appli- ble when he is played live via motion tion with ways in which the body can cations for festivals and grants, and capture.