28 Jun Varyon VR
Posted at 12:12h
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Varyon VR is Living Structures virtual theatre space for live and pre-recorded performance that allows audiences to view and interact with performers, in real time, within a digital VR environment. It is a digital adaptation of our mind baffling Varyon contraption. The theatrical set consists of 16 interconnected panels that surround the audience. Each of the panels functions as a video screen that can either playback pre-recorded footage or live stream video.
Primary audiences experience the virtual space by wearing VR headsets and audiences and performers can interact and communicate directly with one another in real-time via the live streaming function. Performers appear in the space using phone cameras or computer webcams allowing us to stage and rehearse performances remotely.
The project was funded by Story Futures, and we worked with students at Falmouth University as part of their Train the Trainer program. The production we created with the students, Not Near Enough, was invited to perform at the National Student Drama Festival. In order that the work could reach as many people as possible we produced a 3 degrees of freedom 360 version of the work, situating the audience member at the centre of the performance space. Although this gives audiences less control to being in the actual games engine environment this gives a good sense of the immersive experience.
Not Near Enough student production
Devising in our virtual theatre environment
In theatre rehearsals we often must rely on our imagination because the spatial layout, set, lighting and costume aren’t yet in place and of course in productions that include audience performer interaction we must imagine that other halve of the ensemble – the audience until we get to test our ideas with actual people attending.
Imagining in VR with our students was a new sort of exercise that engaged previously unused mussels of our imagination. Having to get our heads around the different perspectives that actors and audiences can inhabit in a performance environment mediated by a games engine and to understand the technical intricacies of performer audience relationship in such a space, to grasp its limitations and affordances, could at times be challenging and make our minds ache.