Stage Door News
Stage Door News
It's been described as Shakespeare karaoke.
Theatre fans bowed, pranced and swung their arms madly as they played out a scene from the comedy Love's Labour's Lost in the Festival Theatre lobby Tuesday afternoon.
The Festival launched the custom video game developed by the University of California, Davis, to some rave reviews. This is no ordinary video game.
"You don't point and click with a mouse," explained Gina Bloom, English professor at UC, Davis, who helped develop the game and was in Stratford to launch it.
"You have to perform with your own body. The player is creating an animated short. It's Shakespeare karaoke."
Patrons act out the scene in which Berowne and Rosaline first meet. There is a television screen mounted to the wall and two avatars stand on the Festival stage waiting for two "actors" to play out the scene. The avatars' movements match the movements of the actors while they speak the lines that come up on the screen.
The scene is captured and participants get a link to a video so they can share it or edit it or do anything else they'd like. It attracted a younger crowd on Tuesday but anyone with even the smallest acting bug is encouraged to give it a go. Grandparents might even impress grandkids by sending a link to their avatars' performances.
The game is free to try and there is no cost for the link either. It will be available before performances of Love's Labour's Lost and staff are ready to help out and answer any questions.
It's fair to say the game opened to critical acclaim.
"For me, the fact that I'm a gamer, this speaks to me," said Cole Larson, a Brock University student after trying it out. "It's not just playing a game, you have to move your whole body and speak the language."
Today's youth need ways to connect with the Bard other than through a textbook, he added.
"If you're just reading it, you're not getting the experience Shakespeare intended."
Bloom couldn't agree more. She points out there was give and take in the theatre in Shakespeare's time and going to see a play was an event. There was entertainment outside the theatre, too.
"In Shakespeare's day they were very interested in the intersection of games and theatre. I like to say we're catching up with the past," she said.
"I think (Shakespeare) would have loved this. Shakespeare knew the value of games. He wanted an interactive theatre experience."
There are games based on Shakespeare and his plays already, but mostly they're trivia games, she noted.
"An important part of the game for us is having Shakespeare's language in it. Most games abandon it."
The developers kept it simple, though. There are no long soliloquies-- just a couple of lines each time the characters speak.
Bloom is hopeful the game will change the way patrons experience the play. As this game bridges the 16th century with the 21st century, Bloom is hopeful theatre will once again become a mainstay in popular culture.
The Festival hopes that's the case, too.
"It's the sort of thing that could be added as part of our attractions, if it starts to take off. We're always looking for ways for people to engage more," said Anita Gaffney, executive director at the Stratford Festival.
The project got started about two years ago when Neil Randall of the Games Institute at the University of Waterloo approached the ModLab at UC, Davis, about developing a game for the Festival. Both universities are part of the IMMERSe network.
UC, Davis, had been working on motion-capture technology and incorporated that into the game.
This was Texan Herbert-William Bracy's first trip to Canada. He's in the military but has a "bit of a theatre background" and gave the game a shot. He thought it was a lot of fun and suggested it would be even better if there were more scenes to choose from or some scenes from very famous plays like Romeo and Juliet.
The game developers are already considering expanded versions of the game in which actors can choose an avatar, a stage and theatre, as well as other details in the scene. They're also looking at making it possible to play from anywhere, with anyone in the world, Bloom said.
By Laura Cudworth for www.stratfordbeaconherald.com.
Photo: Student Cole Larson and Brock University’s Andrew Bretz try out a new motion-capture video game based on Love’s Labours Lost. ©2015 Scott Wishart.
2015-08-05
Stratford: Stratford Festival unveils video game to complement Shakespeare's "Love's Labours Lost"