Digital media and technology are ever-evolving, and so is their relationship to theatre. In this section, you can learn about how theatremakers are incorporating media and tech into their art-making and career-building, as well as read New Crit pieces about work created to be shared online. Two interesting series to explore for a sense of how quickly the conversations change are Gwydion Suilebhan’s Techne—essays written in 2013 and 2014—and Performing the Internet, curated by Kate Bergstrom in January 2021. Check out content from the 2019 Digital + Performance Convening for a multifaceted look at this topic!
The Latest
Essay
How to Embrace the Dramaturgy of Creative Caption Design
CultureHub presented a performance of Odes for a World in Search of Joy livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 1 May 2021 at 5 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 7 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 8 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).
Bringing La MaMa's 1960s café aesthetic to a virtual platform that links performers and audiences in real time across distance
Friday 30 April 2021
Kenya
La MaMa and CultureHub presented Downtown Variety: Kenya Edition livestreaming on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 30 April 2021 at 9 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 11 a.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 12 p.m. PDT (New York, UTC -4) / 7 p.m. EAT (Nairobi, UTC +3).
Episode 4: Transference and Transposition - Notes from across the boundaries of the original medium
Thursday 29 April 2021
South Africa
Presenting Unrehearsed Futures: Theatre Making livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Thursday 29 April 2021 at 5 a.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 10 a.m. BST (London, UTC +1) / 11 a.m. SAST (Cape Town, UTC +2) / 2:30 p.m. IST (Mumbai, UTC +5:30) / 7 p.m. AEST (Hobart, UTC +10).
Investigating how performing the everyday has recently changed our perception of and experience in theatre and performance
Wednesday 28 April and Thursday 29 April 2021
United States
The Ph.D. Program in Theatre and Performance, The Graduate Center, City University of New York presented Negotiating Quotidian: Performing the Everyday livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Wednesday 28 April and Thursday 29 April 2021.
Episode 3: On Theatre Making (it), before and after the pandemic
Thursday 22 April 2021
South Africa
Unrehearsed Futures: The Many Lives of Red Peter livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Thursday 22 April 2021 at 4 a.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 9 a.m. BST (London, UTC +1) / 10 a.m. SAST (Cape Town, UTC +2) / 1:30 p.m. IST (Mumbai, UTC +5:30) / 6 p.m. AEST (Hobart, UTC +10).
Aurora Theatre presented the conversation Welcome to Our Space: Audience Experiences in Virtual Spaces livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 15 April 2021 at 5 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 7 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 8 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).
Featuring a rotating cast of dancers and musicians presenting new collaborative work of movement and sound
Wednesday 7 April 2021
United States
CultureHub presented Sonic Gathering In Person with Re-Fest livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Wednesday 7 April 2021 at 3 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 5 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 6 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).
Join Piehole members for a (free) technical skill-share and discussion on adaptation across mediums
Monday 29 March 2021
United States
Piehole presented Virtual Translation: Bringing Piehole's Disclaimer to Zoom livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 29 March 2021 at 3 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 5 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 6 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).
Bringing La MaMa's 1960s café aesthetic to a virtual platform that links performers and audiences in real time across distance
Friday 26 March 2021
Seoul, Korea
La MaMa and CultureHub presented Downtown Variety: SeoulArts Edition livestreaming on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 26 February 2021 at 6 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 8 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 9 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / Saturday 27 February 2021 at 10 a.m. KST (Seoul, UTC +9).
A New Way of Performance Watching for an Old Classic
4 March 2021
Merve Parla shares her experience with Netherlands-based dance company Club Guy & Roni’s recent production of Swan Lake, an interactive experience with both offline and online components.
In envisioning of the future, Jared Mezzocchi begins by questioning: “What if theatre’s identity is not lost in the digital, but instead is enhanced in it?”
Engaging in meaningful conversations on digital tools in live performance
Monday 18 January - Saturday 13 February 2021
Canada
Associated Designers of Canada and ToasterLab presented the symposium Level Up: The Dramaturgy of Digital Performance and Design livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv from Monday 18 January to Saturday 13 February 2021.
Heidi Coleman and Patrick Jagoda discuss alternate reality games (ARG) as a means of motivating audiences to take action, what goes into creating ARGs, game-based improvisation, and more.
During this episode of Building Our Own Tables, podcast host Yura Sapi talks with Claudia Alick, founding executive producer of the transmedia social justice company Calling Up Justice.
Zeina Salame sits down for a conversation with Leila Buck and Tamilla Woodard to talk about their most recent creative collaboration, American Dreams, online audience interaction, and more.
Bringing La MaMa's 1960s café aesthetic to a virtual platform that links performers and audiences in real time across distance
Friday 22 January 2021
United States
La MaMa and CultureHub presented Downtown Variety: Take 17 livestreaming on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 22 January 2020 at 4 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 6 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 7 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).
In the last conversation of the Performing the Internet series, curator Kate Bergstrom sits down with three members of the Detroit-based artist-activist collective Complex Movements—Sage Crump, ill weaver, Wes Taylor—to talk about intentional engagement in a virtual world.
In this article for the Performing the Internet series, Miller Puckette and Onyx Ashanti get together for a conversation about the changing landscape of multimedia technology in the arts, how technologically mediated performance practices have taken on new relevance in the post-COVID era, and more.
As part of the Performing the Internet series, Martim Galvão and Todd Anderson have a conversation about the unconscious “performance” and emotional journey of web browsing, internet mixtapes, building websites for performance, and more.
Alchemy, Narrative, and Dismantling Borders in the Virtual World
12 January 2021
Anchuli Felicia King and Adam Cooper-Terán talk about how the object of the internet functions in their creative work, the ethics of the internet, digital apocalypse art, and more.
Kate Bergstrom introduces the Performing the Internet series, which asks big questions, such as: Can unpacking the internet be a bellwether for how we all can unpack and restructure our society and our organizations? Can we reconceptualize our relationship to the internet by dismantling, questioning, and addressing it in our creative work?
A Producer’s Guide to Measuring, Budgeting, and Lowering the Carbon Emissions of Livestreams and Video Conferences
7 January 2021
Vijay Mathew asks, and then offers ideas to approach, the question: "How will the performing arts field contribute to climate justice during the sixth mass extinction?"
Amelia Parenteau explores the most recent Seuls en Scène Festival, which took place in September 2020 on Zoom and had a programmatic mix of video recordings of live performance, “staged” readings, one making-of documentary, and a series of docutheatre work. / Amelia Parenteau explore la dernière édition du festival Seuls en Scène, qui a eu lieu en septembre 2020 sur Zoom et qui a présenté une programmation variée, avec des captations vidéo de performances, des lectures de pièces, un documentaire sur un processus de création et une série de docu-théâtres.
Barbara Fuchs chats with director and designer Jared Mezzocchi about his digital theatre production Russian Troll Farm, how to reverse-engineer Zoom, Isadora as the way forward, and more.
