Comments on: Theater of the future – live from Pittsburgh

By: jodisc

jodisc — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:30:18 +0000

Ceci -

Opera has been way ahead on this front compared to theater. I am reasonably sure it is the first time a professional theater company in the U.S. has done it. I would love to hear more about your simulcast though – please share.

By: Ceci Dadisman

Ceci Dadisman — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:51:52 +0000

This wasn’t going to be the first time this has occurred. I recently live streamed Palm Beach Opera’s season preview concert and we plan on live streaming at least 3 additional performances this season. We had very positive feedback from our first outing and were very happy with the result.

By: jodisc

jodisc — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:35:33 +0000

I completely agree about the beauty of theater being in the room with living and breathing actors. I just wonder and I have posed this many times before because I don’t know the answer – for the upcoming generation does live have a different or evolving meaning. Last summer I pondered this with a group of twenty-year-old interns http://tinyurl.com/lskfg9 and found a lot of varying opinions – from theater interns! I do think you will lose the urgency and the magic of the experience, but will you gain anything? A few years ago I would have said it was heresy to simulcast in movie theaters and many feel that it has been a great thing for opera (I am still on the fence on that). I didn’t get to see the National’s Phedra but is certainly got mixed reviews.

So many questions.

My knee jerk reaction is maybe for musicals certainly not for plays! But then here we have The History Boys which on Broadway integrated film seemlessly and perfectly into the production. If I had to guess the first major internet broadcast it wouldn’t have be my guess.

Interesting to think of it as it’s own production – not sure whether I feel that is an extension of the artform or a new artform a la performance art. I think about what Whit MacLaughlin is doing with FATEBOOK and that is along the lines of being it’s own production.

With the unions on board we have a major movement to explore what it all means. It will be interesting to see how Saturday night’s performance goes and what it leads to, but I stand by the idea that this is a moment of change in the theater no matter how it goes. The debate in very interesting.

By: kb

kb — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:09:45 +0000

I wonder about this — hasn’t the attraction of the theatre, as opposed to film and tv, been the live aspect, the experience of being in the room (or amphitheatre) with the performers and with your fellow audience members? Will the small screen do justice to a full stage picture? Will enailing and twittering substitute for live applause? Will there be any sense of urgency to a story mediated by the electronic presentation? I have trouble imagining it doing so. Still, getting all the unions on-board is a signal step, and I’m sure there will be many iterations of this attempt before we fully understand it. In the end, the Live & Online component will have to be its own ‘production,’ with real attention paid to the capture, support, and response.

By: jodisc

jodisc — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:52:03 +0000

I have some reservations too, but I don’t think it diminishes the impact of someone actually doing it. Even if it is done poorly the threshold will have been crossed at a regional theater which can’t be undone.

By: Byrne

Byrne — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:32:00 +0000

I have my doubts about this, but I suppose I’ll reserve judgment until I see it.

You are right, though. This could be huge.