The SL Shakespeare Company is participating in the Second Life Land Expo — which ends this Saturday! Our display shows off a unique slightly “modernized” skeletal build of an amphitheater-style Blackfriars. The salient characteristic elements of the Blackfriars — the hammerbeam ceiling supports are revealed in an open sky, while the sunbeams and ornate Elizabethan stage are also shown. Here are some unedited SL photos with SLurl’s:

Our nifty display shows off our innovative use of SL and SL land resources to create… what you know to be the SL Shakespeare Company magic ;-). This being the first Linden-Lab event we’ve participated in after receiving the aside on SL brand name infringement, you’ll notice that the signage shows “Ina Centaur SL Shakespeare Company.” This is the beginning of a tradition where the artistic director of this virtual Shakespeare troupe also gets her name tagged into the company’s official name, for purposes of both artistic merit/identity and legal reasons, as decreed by LL. This easily adheres to their guidelines on how… not to infringe, while making sure people who knew us by our old name still know us, and can easily find us in SL’s convoluted search system!

On Saturday morning, I gave an opening talk at Land Expo on Historically Accurate Buildings in Virtual Environments: The Architecture of Shakespeare’s Era in Second Life. Here’s the Powerpoint:

For purposes of transparency, we have released a public Transparency subsite that accounts for all SLSC public funds. Rest assured that your dollars are spent right, and that you’re kept in the know on these matters.  http://transparency.SLshakespeare.com

Please note that though we are currently supported completely via inworld means, our actual production costs far exceed what we have raised. Artistic quality has been the bane of the SLSC’s existence; you should know better than to judge us based our funds listed.

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I’ve hesitated from doing this in the past because there was always a subset of people who would put us in the slushpile primarily because of this lack of funds. But, speaking from the point of view of an artist — someone who starts with just a blank canvas and art utensils obtained at based pricing and, after brooding for several years, creates a masterpiece that later sells for thousands of times the initial cost — I have to say that SLSC is worth far more than the tier paid. I and others who have actually seen what we’ve done know that any SLSC (canon) event far overdoes your typical big-org event that receives all the RL media. I guess cynics will always be cynics…

For those who’ve seen a vanilla performance of our current Open-Ended Run (if not, do drop by on Sundays @ 1 PM PT), one of the things you might note is the meticulous analysis that was put into creating the dramatic interpretation behind the acting. Methods in directing on the virtual theatrical stage vary–but, I prefer it such that the character’s personality can be cogently presented through voice only, and the rest, the visual adornments, merely help embellish the role.

In general, I ask actors who make the cast to spend some time analyzing the playscript, especially with regards to scansion and their own close reading. We use several versions of the playscript through the production, starting with a version with emphasis on language and interpretation (one for the actors to mark up themselves, and one with my own interpretation), before finally moving onto the final script, paginated at a page per minute with stage directions. A well-rehearsed role is not merely a reading, but an enactment, where you’re living through the life of your character via your unique portrayal of the script.

I also post some supplementary notes on the blog. Here they are for each Scene of Twelfth Night, Act 1:

1. Orsino, Valentine, Curio.
2. Captain and Viola
3. Toby & Maria | Toby, Maria & Andrew | Maria & Andrew
4. Orsino & Cesario
5. Feste & Maria | Feste & Olivia | Malvolio, Feste, and Olivia | Malvolio and Olivia on Announcement of Cesario | Cesario & Olivia | Malvolio & Olivia Reprise

The point is to have you gain an understanding of the character that is coherent with as much of the play as possible.

This is a fun weekend of conferences–with the SL Shakespeare Company @ both NAST and VWBPE!

SLSC@NAST

Sean Kelley (Kyler McCullough from SLSC MP2 Hamlet) brought his laptop to the Case Studies/Tech session at the NAST Conference in Chicago. With SL connected to the big screen in the ballroom, we did a sort of minimal-setup “mixed reality event,” where he flew around the Globe Theatre, gave me the mic — and I went ahead and did a lightning fast 10 minute presentation that both introduced the SLSC and also virtual worlds/virtual theatre (to an audience not familiar with the medium). Conference Slides are below:

This was followed by a live demo of Twelfth Night, Act 1 Scene 2 — played by Mokey Mokusei as Viola and Caliban Jigsaw as Captain. (You can see this scene along with the rest of Act 1 in our open-ended run of Twelfth Night, every Sundays @ 1 PM, and Tuesdays @ 6 PM at the Globe.):

SLSC @ VWBPE

The SLSC also has exhibits up at VWBPE (Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education). Here’s a quick shot of SLSC @ VWBPE 2009, and you can visit our exhibits for the duration of VWBPE inworld here:

It’s true! We’re holding grand opening events this weekend, March 21st… and later today, the Blackfriars Theatre will be on SL search–and a new theatre will be officially open to the public!

Lora Constantine’s PR is here.

The SL Shakespeare Company has teamed with Koinup to offer you a photography contest based on our upcoming open-ended run of Twelfth Night, Act 1. Over L$100,000 in prizes will be awarded to winners in several categories–including an exclusive Unedited SL Photography category! Judged by a wide-ranging panel of well-known Second Life residents. Select winning entries will also be published in Best of SL, Inner World, Prim Perfect, RezLibris, SL Newspaper, and sLiterary Magazine.

See the press release here.

Rules and contest details available on the contest page @ Koinup or grab & print this pdf.

The SL Shakespeare Company is seeking silent actors (actors with non-speaking roles) to perform in its upcoming open-ended production of Twelfth Night: Act 1. The show opens on March 1, and runs every Sundays at 1 PM SLT, and Tuesdays at 6 PM SLT.

Silent actor benefits include:

• experience and credit in a professional theatrical production,
• avatar skin, eyes, clothing, and props, and
• a small stipend.

Interested actors should be able to commit to at least one (if not both) show dates each week, indefinitely until May. There is a rehearsal at 5 pm SLT on Friday, Feb 20th at the LM above.

Please email production at SLShakespeare dot com with your availability and/or contact Ina Centaur for further information.

Since Second Life voice is so often unstable, most of our voice rehearsals will probably be held on Skype. (We might even get to revive the old Skype Shakespeare Radio’s that was around a few years back.)

Ladies and gentlemen, I am excited to announce that our first open-ended run production (OEP1) of Twelfth Night: Act 1 will open exactly a month and a day from now on Sunday, March 1st at 1 PM SLT (GMT-8). This will be followed by the opening of our weekday performance of the production on Tuesday, March 3rd at 6 PM SLT. Weekly performances will continue indefinitely every Sundays at 1 PM SLT, and Tuesdays at 6 PM SLT. Performances will be held at the SL Globe Theatre.

While we have (nearly) a new cast for this production, and less time to prepare, unlike previous productions, I will be directing the play by myself. We will begin with scansion and a semi-close reading in our inaugural rehearsal on Sunday @ 1 PM SLT. The public is welcome to attend most rehearsals; schedules will be posted @ http://rehearsals.SLshakespeare.com