IBOSS to Make World Premiere at Great Barrington Public Theater With AI-Driven Tech

The second show of Great Barrington Public Theater's 2026 Summer Season, iBoss, written by Thomas Kee and directed by Clay Hopper, is bringing new technology to GBPT's newly configured space at Saint James Place. The World Premiere Play takes place in a not so distant future, where the rapidly accelerating intelligence of AI systems has created "Lisa." Powered by AI, she wields enormous power. Shockingly, Lisa displays an emergent property of AI — sentience. And from this newly sentient being something else emerges: an emotional agenda. As Job Johnson begins his first in-person evaluation, it's clear this isn't going to be just another day at the office.

 

The production will utilize a brand new technology called Random Actor, an interactive design tool that was co-created by director Clay Hopper. This is the first time this software has been used in a professional production of a new play. 

It creates visuals that are an extension of LISA, the AI character in the play. The images projected in the space respond to her movement, her voice and her mood and intonations. Random Actor allows for the visual design of LISA'S internal state. 

The images are not recorded or played back from a video. They are created IN REAL TIME along with the actor's performance, with a generative algorithm using machine learning to create evocative images that are organic, despite their computational nature. No two performances of this play will be exactly the same…it is live, real-time design, based on the interaction of the actor, the text, and the designer who is responding to the performance in the very same moment that the audience is watching it. 

Director and co-creator of the technology, Clay Hopper, walks us through the process of designing Random Actor, “For the last several years, I have been engaged in creative research where we attempt to utilize conventional projection mapping technology in combination with interactive, generative-computer graphics and computational vision, in order to create a completely fluid and projected environment for the actor. 

The technology already exists that enables graphics designers to design in real time, and the same goes for sound and lighting designers. If we had a tool that could give the same power of real time design to designers without the necessity of coding, but with an intuitive user interface, then we would be able to fully expand and enhance the standard rehearsal system; one where the actors rehearse for 3 weeks then the designers come in and “install” the design over the actors, effectively designing the play before the actors are a part of it. This is what we usually call “technical rehearsals” or in the parlance of the trade, “Tech”. 

What we found when attempting to stage a play within an immersive, fully projected-media environment for the actors, was that this system of rehearsal was insufficient for the aesthetic application we were pursuing. Because of the inordinate amount of time we spent adjusting/writing code in rehearsal in order to make changes, we developed the idea of a software application that could change the values of any given generative algorithm in real time, as we worked in rehearsal with the actors and other designers. In this way, all of the elements could be created together as a seamless whole: the projection design changing to accommodate the actors staging, the director then staging the actors to accommodate those new design adjustments, which then further refines the design and the values of the generative graphics…all in real time.

And this is how we arrived at our software tool, RANDOM ACTOR. It is a new application for the design of interactive generative graphics with multiple uses. Whether it's the theatre, with its specific demands around narrative, or choreography with its extension of human form and movement, or art installations that change the space entirely as people interact with it or within it – even music performance, where a musician's work can manifest visually in response to the music… all with the capability for real time design and an intuitive user interface with no need to know how to write code.” 

You can find out more about Random Actor here- www.random-actor.com

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