Re-imagining online performance arts for a pandemic world

The event - entitled All The World's A Screen - will present performance, Shakespeare and technology specialists discussing the impact of the pandemic on the performing arts, reflecting on how to create effective online theatre. How is it possible to convey tragedy, comedy and magic through code, 3D modelling, live audio-video streams and interactive systems? How can performers rehearse and interact together in shared online space? And have online theatre audiences learnt to suspend disbelief in new ways?

All The World's A Screen will be moderated by Paul Sermon, Professor of Visual Communication at the University of Brighton, along with Satinder Gill, Research Affiliate in the Centre for Music and Science at the University of Cambridge. The event is a collaboration between Telematic LASER (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous), which Paul Sermon runs in University of Brighton's Centre for Digital Media Cultures, along with Randall Packer from the Third Space Network in Washington DC.

Professor Paul Sermon

A trio of panellists will lead the discussion. Pascale Aebischer is Professor of Shakespeare and Early Modern Performance Studies at the University of Exeter, focusing on bodies in relation to performance technologies. Lucy Askew is Chief Executive and Creative Producer at Oxford-based Creation Theatre, whose recent lockdown performances included a Zoom audience engagement production of The Tempest and a choose-your-own-adventure take on Romeo and Juliet.

Sarah Ellis is Director of Digital Development at the Royal Shakespeare Company. A recent partnership with the UKRI Audience of the Future programme saw her produce Dream - an online virtual midsummer forest experience inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream that used motion capture cameras and 3D gaming software to explores the use of avatars in live performance.

All The World's A Screen will take place on Thursday 2 December 2021 at 4pm GMT. Register to attend via Telematic LASER.

The event will also be recorded, and will be available to view on the website for Telepresence Stage, a UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project led by University of Brighton, in collaboration with LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore and the Third Space Network, which identifies new ways to produce collaborative live performances from remote sites.