that was fun!

I streamed for about half an hour, acting for my camera and adding some feedback and effects. I’ll put the video recording up if there’s interest.

grrrr

how did this post end up set as private? I didn’t notice until now, five days after it was posted.

A Telepresent Improv Workshop:

What’s it like to share a stage with people who are hundreds of miles away? Let’s find out.

Every hour of every day, network television shows unite far-flung people and places with live video connections. Until recently, the technology necessary for such streams was too costly for small theaters. Now, the software is free, the cameras are cheap and bandwidth is abundant. It’s time to bring telepresence to improvisational theater.

On Saturday, November 19th, the Integrated Digital Media Institute and Dirty South Improv Theater will host a workshop/symposium on telepresence in improvisational theater. This event will bring together improvisers in Chapel Hill, NC, and New York, NY. In essence, we will be joining two performance spaces with live two-way video. On each stage, there will be a projection of the video stream from the other location. We’ll open the connection and and do some improv. We’ll try different longforms, e.g., the Armando, La Ronde, and different ways of relating to the performers on the other stage, then talk about it. What works? What doesn’t? Who’s got the funniest lag joke when the stream stutters?

Come play, come watch. Join the conversation.

Saturday, Nov. 19
2 to 6 pm: improv and discussion
-at-
Integrated Digital Media Lab
Polytechnic University
Brooklyn Campus
6 Metro Tech Center
Rogers Hall room 207
-and-
DSI Comedy Theater @ Carr Mill Mall
(Entrance on dock behind Elmo’s Diner)
200 N. Greensboro St., Suite B-11
Carrboro, NC 27510

Read the FAQ.

Q: How will the workshop be structured?
A: The video streams will be up and running at the start of the workshop. After a very brief round of introductions, we’ll start doing some improv. We will most likely do abbreviated versions of some longforms like the Armando, La Ronde and basic Montage (and any others you suggest). We’ll also play around with different ways of relating to the remote performers and the screen, e.g., alternating scenes between NC and NY, remote performers as monologists, the use of closeups and, of course, two-person scenes with a performer in each location. Everyone who wants to will have a chance to perform. Those who want only to observe may do so. We’ll balance the performance time with discussion when the spirit moves us.

Q: What do you mean by ‘live video streams’?
A: In this context, we mean video shot on a digital camera, which is connected to a computer that immediately sends the video to a remote location over the web, like a closed circuit camera. Unedited. Yes, there might be lag.

Q: What about lag, freeze, stutter and other technical problems?
A: We’re improvisers. When somebody messes up in a show or a lightbulb explodes, we incorporate it and make it funny.

Q: Who else is coming?
A: Experienced improvisers, producers of related shows, visualists, educators and IDM graduate students.

Q: What’s the point?
A: Every day, most of us call, email or IM friends and colleagues in other places to share our lives. TV shows like Saturday Night Live connect us almost instantaneously to performances around the world. Shows like the Neutrino Video Projects and The AV Club have started to explore the possibilties afforded by these new technologies. Widespread local use of telepresent, two-way video is part of the next stage of improvisational performance.

Q: What’s next?
A: Actors and visualists improvising together. There are so many potential forms. Think big. Add your thoughts to the wiki.

Q: Oh! This gives me a great idea for a show with telepresence, live visuals, …
A: Fantastic! Mission accomplished. Let us know if we can help you realize your idea.

Q: Who started this?
A: The workshop was instigated by Dan Winckler.

Q: Who’s Dan Winckler?
A: If you don’t know me, I’m an improviser and visualist (or VJ) based in New York City. I perform with Gunshow and I used to shoot for the Neutrino Video Projects. In September, I began a Masters program in Integrated Digital Media at Polytechnic University, where we’re developing improv theater shows that incorporate live, collaborative visual performance. The first area we’ve chosen to explore is telepresent performance, hence this workshop.