June 17, 2005
Internet Theatre Fest
Cross-Cultural Artistic Expression
Last October, Moscow’s Interstudio presented the First Interactive Theatre Festival. Seven Russian companies – performing in four locations and a variety of theatrical traditions – participated in this groundbreaking event. Productions were streamed live from Moscow, Perm, St. Petersburg, and Komsomolsk-na-Amure to the Interstudio site, and viewed by over 2000 users from more than fifty countries.
Featured in the festival were: Pyotr Fomenko Atelier (Moscow) performing THE FAMILY BLISS, The Shadow Theatre (Moscow) performing MISANTHROPE / RAIN AFTER THE FLOOD, Elena Kamburova Music and Poetry Theatre (Moscow) performing P. S. REVERIES..., Evgeny Panfilov Ballet (Perm) performing EIGHT RUSSIAN SONGS / BOLERO, Helicon Opera (Moscow) performing LULU, KnAM Theatre (Komsomolsk-na-Amure) performing REINSTATEMENT OF DADAISM, and The Comic Trust (St. Petersburg) performing THE WHITE SIDE STORY.
Following the final production of WHITE SIDE STORY, audience members from Moscow, St. Petersburg, and New York participated in a discussion forum conducted via web conference. Participants shared their visions for cross-cultural artistic expression, and their hopes for future streamed performance festivals. Though this fledgling effort weathered many technical difficulties, viewers voiced enthusiastic agreement about its tremendous potential.
The festival organizers had tried to anticipate bandwidth problems by asking viewers to register in advance, but on the first day of the festival, the website was swamped, and finally overwhelmed by high demand.
Viewers were offered a choice of three video streams, one with sound, which could also be viewed simultaneously. Audience members in New York, watching a wall-sized projected image, had a detailed view of the performances, although some viewers were distracted by the lack of synchronicity between the three video streams. Some audience members also expressed their desire for a view of the live audience, and a look at the theater space – two things that might have helped them get a feel for the live performance experience.
At the same time, New York viewers were excited by the unique opportunity to experience an unfamiliar theatrical style. Most felt they understood the Russian shows -in spite of the language barrier and technological limitations - and talked about how the Russian work could influence their own artistic work.
The Russian performers also seemed excited by the new possibilities explored in the festival. One company – from a small Russian town – had never dreamed they would be able to reach such a large international audience. Directors and performers had many ideas about ways to improve the web-streamed experience, including rehearsing camera operators and designing staging for the camera as well as the live audience.
Theatre-Web hopes to put these ideas into practice in future festivals. [via Digital Performance]
Posted by jo at June 17, 2005 08:16 AM
