Here are the Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers) regarding our new On-Demand Run (ODR) program.

Q. How does the On-Demand Run program (ODR) work?
A. The On-Demand Run is a program that lets audience members demand the time for the show they’d like to see, while helping to spread the love of SL Shakespeare across the grid, and beyond. Audience members can choose a date and time, and the show will be guaranteed if either a quorum or impensa is met; in other words, to have a show “set in stone,” an audience member can sign up enough friends who will see a show, or pay a fee to help us make back the costs involved in putting on a production.

Q. Is this free, or is it in the same “Pay As You Will” spirit of SLSC shows?
A. Yes, providing that you can reach Quorum. Otherwise, you would still get your show on the date you want it if you pay a nominal fee, as specified above.

Q. Can I request a show at my own venue?
A. This program only addresses shows at the SL Globe Theatre, Blackfriars Theatre, and the Shakespeare and Primtings island sims. For shows at other venues, please see http://offsite.SLshakespeare.com

Q. What if I would like a private show at the SL Globe Theatre?
A. You can specify your Quorum or Impensa session (see above) to be private or public, per your will. If it is private, only the avatars on your list will be allowed entrance to the event.

Q. Which plays will you put on?
A. We are planning to start with your choice of (any) single-scene production of Hamlet, Twelfth Night, or King Lear; or entire-act performances of Twelfth Night. We may also do encore performances.

Q. Can the SL Globe Theatre accommodate at least 100 avatars?
A. Yes. The SL Globe Theatre is located in the confluence of 4 private island sims. Each private island supports up to 100 avatars. The SL Globe Theatre can accommodate up to 400 avatars.

Q. How would performance be affected by a large audience load?
A. Linden Lab asserts that recent updates in server architecture should make live performances with large audience counts on this level more efficient than in the past.

Q. This is a lot of work to gather all those avatars; will I get my effort’s worth?
A. You and your guests will get to experience the SL Shakespeare Company magic for no cost, if you meet Quorum. Plus, your guests will all receive limited edition ODR goody packs! So, what’s not to love about rounding people up to share the love of Shakespeare in live performance on SL?

Q. Will you be performing shows in a regular season?
A. In the past, so many people miss our shows due to timing problems — and, for the few who have seen shows from our main Shakespearean canon, you’ll know that once you miss it, it’s gone. To try avoiding this problem, we would really like our favorite fans to set their own dates using the ODR system.

Q. Do you plan to perform the rest of Twelfth Night?
A. We hope to! As long as we can get enough of an audience… The play doesn’t seem to draw as much as a solid tragedy like Hamlet. Help us put on Twelfth Night by rounding up a crowd for your own ODR session!

Timing and publicity are two very important parts of a live performance, and yet, sometimes we feel as if we’re impoverished in both aspects. We’re a resident-supported endeavor and we put in just so much love into every production (too much!), but it’s always such a pity that the timing and publicity doesn’t reach. For those lucky enough to see a SL Shakespeare main canon production (so far, only Hamlet or Twelfth Night), you know exactly what I mean when I say that we endeavor to create the most memorable of experiences — and yet, the show itself is as ephemeral as any live theatrical performance is, and though many see it, so few see it! Once it’s over, it lives only in people’s memories. Alas…

So, endeavoring to solve the problems of timing and publicity… Timing – it seems like us setting dates just doesn’t work, so we’ll let you do it. Publicity – it seems there’s a certain limit to our grassroots network, so in exchange for you helping spread the love of SL Shakespeare, we’ll perform exactly when you want it!

Sounds good? Then…

Behold… the details of this experiment (and, do please participate!):

The On-Demand Run (ODR) Program lets audience members designate their own dates and times to see a live SL Shakespeare Company production — as long as a QUORUM of 100 is met, the show will be set (and will be free as in beer – though you may pay as you will) on said date, at least 3 weeks in advance of when quorum is met; if a party would like to see a show with fewer than quorum, they may pay (or split to pay) an IMPENSA of L$100,000 to set the show.

Please post a thread to this ODR forum with the time, date, and choice of your play – then get all your friends to reply to it to meet quorum! (If you choose to pay the impensa, please state so somewhere on the thread.)

AVAILABLE PLAYS for inaugural ODR Season:
Any scene from Hamlet
Any scene from Twelfth Night, or Twelfth Night Act 1
Any scene from King Lear

(Assuming there will be free wireless @ SLCC – Please check back for updates during the event!)

Please join us for the following SLSC presentations at SLCC:

FashTrack: Ina Centaur will be a Panelist (with penchant for historical outfits) Location: Elizabethan Room C on Friday @ 3:30 PM and Sat @ 11:30 AM

BizTrack: Branding for a Cause: The Creation of the SL Shakespeare Company. Location: California East on Friday the 14th @ 5 PM.

EdTrack: Shakespeare’s Virtual Theatre – Sat @ 10 AM in Elizabethan Room B

All locations are RL, part of SLCC (Second Life Convention) in the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco

The SL Shakespeare Company will be presenting on both the Business Track and the Education Track. Presentation abstracts for each track follows:

BizTrack Abstract: Branding for a Cause – Two Case Studies in the Arts

In a world of substandard wages, more often associated with the vapid, the consistent and significant value required in building a brand can only be fortified by a cause. This 60 minute session will include two notable expository case studies, as presented by the driving force involved in each virtual world namebrand: Eshi Otawara and the Ina Centaur SL Shakespeare Company. Galvanized by the cause of RFL, Eshi Otawara, a starving artist in RL, created unique couture virtual dresses that sold for record prices. Haunted by an undying childhood dream, Ina Centaur, a recovering physicist, created the premier professional theatrical production company in virtual worlds. Discover the story behind each global brand, and the cause that created it.

EdTrack Abstract: Shakespeare’s Virtual Theatre

Shakespeare, in his heyday, established modern theatre; nearly five hundred years later, the Ina Centaur SL Shakespeare Company is trying to develop and advance the nascent field of “virtual theatre” by staging Shakespearean (and other) plays on SL with a full range of live 3d virtual world magic. In addition to a demo overview of some of the new technologies we have created for virtual theatre, we will also explore the theatres and the sets of past productions, and perhaps meet some SLSC actors and the Bard, himself (in avatar form).

Please note that we are STILL accepting sponsorship for our presentations. The SL Shakespeare Company is a resident-funded endeavor – and we’ll need your support to help keep a roof over our heads when we’re in the cold fog of San Fran!

The SL Shakespeare Company is presenting LIVE – and in the flesh – at SL Convention (SLCC) 2009 in San Francisco, CA.

Sponsorship (both discreet and advertisement-based) opportunities to help support us at this seminal RL event are now available.

Any amount accepted for discreet sponsorships.

Because this is an RL event with RL printing costs, advertisement-based sponsorship start at L$11,000 (USD$50)/3″x5″-page ad to be displayed on a sponsorship poster at our presentation(s). (6″x10″ ads are at a discounted rate of L$50,000 or USD$150.) Ads must be submitted at 300 dpi or higher; inhouse design options are also available.

We are currently scheduled for a 90-minute Edu Track presentation on August 15 at 10 AM PDT at the SL Convention event located at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, CA. We are also participating in the Fashion and Music/Performance Tracks, and if space allows, your ad will receive additional exposure (pro bono!) at these avant garde performance events.

Printing Deadline: August 5. SLCC starts August 14!

Please pay at our SLSC @ SLCC Terminal at the SL Globe Theatre or Blackfriars Theatre.

Help us show the SLSC magic at SLCC! – Sponsor us!

Please contact Ina Centaur at ina.centaur @ gmail.com directly for questions or further info.

Back for ONE HOUR ONLY, encore performance of SL Shakespeare Company‘s April Fools Multi-Parody SUPER SPOOF 2009 – that parodizes some of the memorable pop culture icons in 2008, while analogizing them to characters from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Act 1:

• Scene 1: Still Popular in 2008 – Star Wars in Duke Jar Jar’s Court … with Duke Orsino played by Jar Jar Binks (Duke Jar Jar); Curio played by Amidala; Valentine played by Darth Maul… and a small battalion of R2D2′s piping a spacy-techno-variation of Thom Dowd’s “Music is the Food of Love.”
• Scene 2: Popular CG 2008 – Wall*E in a not-so-barren wasteland (coast) of Illyria … with Wall*E played by the Captain, and Eva played by Viola
• Scene 3: Popular Politics 2008 – Outside a tavern in Illyria … with Hillary as Maria; GWB as Sir Toby Belch; Obama as Sir Andrew Aguecheek!
• Scene 4: Cult Film 2008 – Twilight in Duke Orsino’s Court … with Duke Orsino played by Edward Cullen and Viola (as Cesario) played by Bella Swan
• Scene 5: SL Popular 2008 – Rezzable Greenies in Olivia’s Household … Wherein… nearly the entire cast of Twelfth Night (Feste, Maria, Malvolio, Olivia, Sir Toby Belch, and Viola) is replaced by… a slew of Rezzable Greenies

Sunday, May 3 @ 1 PM at the SL Globe Theatre

LAST CHANCE to see our super satire, beyond Shakespeare, super spooooofed! SSSSSSSSSSS!

Free show; seating is first come first to squat.
Be there early! Sunday, May 3 @ 1 PM at the SL Globe Theatre

P.S. The Darth Maul, Queen Amidala, and R2D2 avatars shown in the poster above will be given away for free at the event! Come for the show, go home with memorable freebies!

The Twilight Bella Swan and Edward Cullen skins are also available at the Twilight SL Shoppe with 100% donation to support the SL Shakespeare Company — for Shakespeare and live theatre on Second Life!

This isn’t our usual — but just for fun — kind of our version of the Simpson’s tradition of parodies on Halloween — but earlier in the year for us! Join us for this free-for-all medley on SL!

The year’s second open auditions will be held on Saturday, April 18 @ 11 AM – 11:59 AM SL Time and Saturday, April 25 @ 1 PM SL Time. We are hoping to launch an open-ended run of Twelfth Night: Act 2 (Production Serial: OEP2) in June, with rehearsals starting in May, exact timing TBD. Auditions would be for roles in this upcoming production, and also several possible productions, including a Challenge Production (a non-Shakespearean production) and Twelfth Night: Act 3. Please be sure you have SL voice configured prior to auditioning.

1. Please have prepared a passage (from Twelfth Night, Act 2) of no more than 5 minutes. Polish it well; this should demonstrate what you are capable of at your best.
2. Be ready to perform another segment from the perspective of the character you wish to play (though you might not get casted as that character).
3. Be prepared to demonstrate (voice) range.

If you can’t make it to the audition times, please email item #1 as an mp3 file (no larger than 10 mb) to production at SLshakespeare dot com, along with a detailed schedule of your availability from May to August, inclusive.

Auditions will be held at the SL Globe Theatre.

This isn’t the Brady Bunch, but…

Here’s the story… of a lovely cast set… where everyone can let you take photos and go wow!

Really, quite seriously–for the first time ever–the SL Shakespeare Company will be unleashing our avatars, standing still, on a single sim for you to take photos of–as part of our Koinup Photo Contest, with over L$100,000 in prizes! If you’re new to avatar photography or would like to learn more about it, we’ll also have the legendary photographer Ryker Beck to kick off the event with a photography tutorial.

Here are my recommended settings for avatar photography. The photos shown above are unedited, with Windlight *off* and avatars wearing a face light.

Join us this Saturday, Apr 4 @ 1 PM SL Time at the Blackfriars Theatre in Shakespeare, Second Life.

The Super Spoof plays @ 5 PM on April 1. ONE DAY ONLY. We are going to multi-parody a whole bunch of things from 2008, and see if they flow with Twelfth Night–that is, this is our “Twelfth Night – Popular Culture Analogues” Edition.

Everything summarized by the playbill above. Please feel free to link. This is a strictly unofficial fan production; our SPOOF-esque version of Twelfth Night just for April Fools Day 2009 – join us at the SL Globe Theatre at 5 PM PST (GMT-8).

Please note that we do have a L$100,000 koinup photography contest going on in conjunction with our open-ended run of Twelfth Night. We also have a special contest category JUST FOR today’s show. In this mini-contest for this show, there’s over L$5000 worth of cash and prizes up for grabs for your winning photo. Drop by the show. Take pictures. AND WIN!

Draft 1 of MultiParody 2009 Playscript is here.