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:
- Orsino, Valentine, Curio.
- Captain and Viola
- Toby & Maria | Toby, Maria & Andrew | Maria & Andrew
- Orsino & Cesario
- 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.
Posted by: Lora Constantine
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
I’m happy to announce that the long-awaited Open-Ended run of a SL Shakespeare Company production is now in the works! Casting has just been finalized moments ago, and although the actors won’t have an entire summer to both breathe in the language and era and rehearse, we’re still hoping to put on our usual captivating show for you–soon!
With this production, I’m introducing a new production serial–the OEP, a.k.a., the Open-Ended (run) Production.
The idea is that the OEP’s would generally follow a much-hyped fewer-showdates season (aka, your typical limited performance run).
Our inaugural OEP, as you probably already know, is based on AP1’s Twelfth Night.
For more details on Production Serials, see here.
Continuing our tradition in producing several plays, but focusing on just one Shakespearean play per year, to make it the *best* that it can be - this year, we hope to present a full length Twelfth Night, entertaining and educating - worth *every* minute of your time.
If you’re in the SL Shakespeare Company group inworld, check group notices archive for a HoloLight attached in the latest group notice. Or… visit the SL Globe Theatre to grab a free copy of the 2009 Edition of the SL Shakespeare Company HoloLight. Last year, we had the Ghost from Hamlet. This year, we’ve got Feste the Clown! Rez & click to find out the next show date!
The SOS Campaign status has jumped nearly 2% in the last 24 hours. Thank you to everyone who’s contributed - and we’re getting closer to our goal, but your continued help would be greatly appreciated!
If you have seen any of our productions, you’ll see that we not only bring quality arts and culture to Second Life, we also create and utilize new technologies to expand and evolve the medium.
Below is a very brief summary of each of our main productions from 2008. In addition to supporting more productions of similar caliber for 2009, the SOS Campaign would also help support the Primtings, Shakespeare, and sLiterary sims.
Feb 28, 2008: In our inaugural live performance of “Hamlet 1-1 Extended,” we presented the first four-island sim performance of a play in SL. Anticipating the large audience, we used a variety of preloading techniques and minimal texturing, but still showed off our trademark visual excellence—with photorealistic skins and sculpted talking faces based on the RL actor’s faces. While there was some debate on whether we should perform the entire play, we stuck with quality over quantity and showed off the scene the best we could. Care was taken in both costume and set design to create the historically-accurate Elizabethan atmosphere you saw live at the SL Globe Theatre stage. In addition, we also established standards for HUD-based multi-lingual subtitle support. (Progamme Booklet.)- Apr 23, 2008: As part of the Shakespeare 24, international 24 hour celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday in RL, we performed the famous play within a play–”Hamlet 3-2: The Mousetrap.”
We managed to rehearse and bring to the virtual stage a cast of nearly twenty actors from around the world to give life to the actor avatars, dressed in historically accurate Elizabethan attire. The performance consulted Shakespeare scholars from around the world to present what Socrates might call “an examined” interpretation of the scene. This was the first ever usage of a recorded period music segment played using SL voice, as “piped” by an avatar. Our continued usage of actor alt’s helped the audience easily find the voice sliders in SL voice to tune into the performance. (Programm Booklet.)
Jun 20, 2008: We took a break from Hamlet to pursue a non-era specific costumed staged reading series of the full length Twelfth Night, but in bite-sized pieces, presenting roughly a scene per week in the days between June and July. Devoid of “the sound of motion,” the costumed staged reading actors were distinctly grayscale. The performance was done with a moving cast, which sometimes enlisted audience members from the last week; this was the first tag-team performance of a Shakespearean play in the world–in both RL and SL.
Sept 12, 2008: Continuing our hiatus from the Elizabethan era, we brought to the virtual world a modern science fiction play by a published/performed playwright. One’s A Pawn of Time was our first full-length performance of a one act play. “Seamless advertisements” were woven into the set, where great care was taken to simulate a stereotypically impoverished apartment of a physics grad student’s. The box set, whose dimensions adhered to the stage’s characteristic twin pillars, did not modify the existing elements of the Globe Theatre’s thrust stage. This is one of the first plays on SL where the director controlled the audience view through real time dynamic camera controls.
Nov 13, 2008: This November production of “Twelfth Night: Act 1” continued our tradition of performing full-length unedited first folio Shakespearean pieces. We decided to take an indefinite hiatus from Hamlet due to the costs and time required to create the many Elizabethan historically-accurate costumes. Twelfth Night was performed without era limitations; fewer custom costumes were created, which allowed for the creation of custom sets for each of Act 1’s five scenes. Memorably, we brought a real storm to the Globe Theatre thrust stage. Special care was taken to make the performance as lag-free as possible: the sets were placed without the usage of rezzors, seamlessly loaded. We continued the usage of real time dynamic camera controls. This was the first play on SL where global lighting was changed for each scene. Programme Booklet.
Dec 21, 2008: On Winter Solstice, when many actors were safe snoozing in bed or otherwise, on the coldest day of the year, we brought to ice a cast of a baker’s dozen “self-powered” avatars controlled by scripts and bots–who zoomed around on ice skates in Shakespeare on Ice.
All of that was accomplished without the aid of any grants or external support. It is all because of you.
We can’t do this again this year without your continued help. Please donate. Every $L counts, and every dollar counts - to help bring us closer to our SOS “Save our Sims” Campaign goal!
Donations are accepted in either RL or SL currency - please help us raise our SOS Campaign goal, so that we would not have to worry about land tier fees for either 6 months (50% goal) or 1 year (100% goal).
