Keeping the living bond between actors and remote audiences in distributed virtual theater

Georges Gagneré (1, 2, 3, 4) , Ternova Anastasiia

1 INREV - Image Numérique et Réalité Virtuelle
2 AIAC - Arts des Images et Art Contemporain
3 UP8 - Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis
4 UPL - Université Paris Lumières

This paper introduces a new method to achieve remote distributed performances using a virtual shadow theater and real time motion capture. It was used during the lockdowns in France in 2020-21 to reach remote scholar audiences with The Wizard without Shadow performance. After a review of remote distributed virtual experiments in performing arts, the paper details the creation-as-research process that leads to two versions of the same story. It shows how the quality of the theatrical bond between the actor and the audience of the first face-to-face version is maintained in the second remote version combining a video conference platform and live motion capture in a video game engine to bring actors performancesto two remote distributed audiences.

Keywords: Avatar direction; mixed reality; motion capture; performing arts virtual theatre; Avatar directionmixed realitymotion captureperforming arts virtual theatre

Keywords: Avatar; Réalité mixte; Capture de mouvement; Théâtre

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Graphics [cs.GR]; Art and art history; Musicology and performing arts

Georges Gagneré, Ternova Anastasiia. Keeping the living bond between actors and remote audiences in distributed virtual theater. 10th International Conference on Digital and Interactive Arts (ARTECH’21), Oct 2021, AVEIRO, Portugal. ⟨10.1145/3483529.3483683⟩. ⟨hal-03634176⟩