I recently fell in with the theatre groups in Second Life. It wasn't anything I had planned to do with my SL time. For many months, the world just served as a type of micro-vacation. It was a place I could go to for quiet time and solitary relaxation. But I was intrigued by the dance, drama and singing performances in SL. It looked deceptively easy.
My first experience with performance was an open mic night at SL Shakespeare Co. I recited one Shakespeare sonnet since I was too leery to do anything else. Plus it felt strange, a little disconnected, as if I were in a vacuum. I couldn't hear my own voice bouncing off theatre walls back at me. I couldn't hear the breathing and shuffling noises from the audience. The only indication that gave me assurance that anyone could hear me at all was that my voice indicator was glowing green. It was a great experience but I felt rather confused by it as well. Was it still acting even though the audience couldn't see the actual me but only a self projection, a fantasy avatar. And yet, they heard the essential me, the acting source...my voice. Which highlighted to me that there was still life in VR acting, a living breathing presence that was me and my fellow actors inside our pretty avatars.
That experience was last summer. Recently I received an audition notice for the new season and attended. As a result of this bane of all actor's lives, (even in VR auditioning is a necessary evil) I became a member of the SL Shakespeare Co's cast for Twelfth Night. The first picture in this post is of me and a fellow actor.
The picture is an example of the strange freedoms of VR acting. I can look like anyone or anything a Director wants me to be to fulfill his/her artistic vision. However that isn't to say that typecasting doesn't or can't exist. In reality, an actor is cast to type by their features. In VR, an actor is cast to type by voice. Needless to say, with my chirpy little voice I will never be the femme fatale of the VR acting scene.
Rehearsal in VR is the same as rehearsal in RL. A lot of work on text, subtext and blocking. Except the blocking exists entirely on the virtual stage. The interesting element I noticed was how I and my fellow actors completely projected ourselves onto our avatars. My avatar acts as another limb. Walking across the VR stage is experienced as a real walk. During a rehearsal for another acting company in SL (TLE Theatre), one of my cast mates was directed to walk across the stage. He made the observation that it was a far way to walk which amused me. Because it was, even though the stage only existed on the computer screen. Those old acting bugaboos such as the nervous fear of "What do I do with my body" are transposed into the virtual as well. And as in RL, that fear is channeled into action. As in "What does my character want? How will he/she get it?" Then the appropriate bodily action is transmitted through the avatar. As always, the directors are a large help with the overall arc.
The only block in the way of action is that the interface in SL is still rather primordial. Body animations are rather big and sometimes melodramatic. That works against the VR actor who is trying to infuse his/her character with a more subtle nuance. I suspect VR actors will not only create their own animations but it will be required. Only the actor can know what they want for their physical acting. I haven't started on my own animations. But I work around the big, over the top movements by interspersing them with stillness. It tones down the melodrama in many of the animations I do use.
What VR acting highlights to me the most is how much I need my fellow actors. In RL it is so easy to become enmeshed in one's own acting actions or physical state. That it is too easy to ignore the actors around you. In VR, the isolation is so intense that acting totally depends on reacting to the voice of a fellow cast member. As it should be. VR seems to cut the fat out of the problems that get in the way of RL acting. Virtual acting is an entirely new process in the tradition of the theatre and I'm excited to see the forms it will take. Already other acting companies in SL have tried to mesh RL Actors with VR Actors.
The stage design in VR can be anything that a director and acting company want it to be. But I've discovered that the regular stage is still the best forum for acting. It carries a feeling of the familiar in an acting world that is new. The audience is also comfortable with this convention as well. The SL Shakespeare Company has recreated the Globe Theatre as well as Blackfriar's Theatre. It amazes me how these old theatres are perfectly designed for VR acting. In that they were designed for an audience that felt comfortable interacting with the performers. In VR, where audiences cannot be heard but are seen, these Elizabethan stages, that have "the pit", allow for an audience member to stand right up against the stage. Which overrides that feeling a VR actor has of "Can anyone hear me? Can anyone see me?".
All in all acting in SL has renewed my energy as an actor and has led me to new observations on acting technique. It is an exciting time and I'm glad to be a pioneer in a new element of this art form.
I'm also amused by how theatre people find each other, no matter where they end up in the world.
Labels: acting, art, avatars, computers, culture, drama, mmorpgs, plays, second life, technology