JETTISON, a New Play Produced, Rehearsed, and Performed in Virtual Reality Closes Out Here Online Oasis Weekend

On Sunday, October 4 at 6:30 PDT/9:30 EDT the live virtual theater production Jettison presented to close out the HERE Online Oasis weekend, held in lieu of the HERE Summit, which was canceled in March due to the pandemic.

Jettison, a play by Brendan A. Bradley, was produced, rehearsed, and performed entirely in the web-based virtual reality platform, Mozilla Hubs. It will be performed in two acts as a demonstration of two separate forms of virtual theater production.

Audience members can attend using their computers, phones, tablets, or any virtual reality headset. Once they've logged in, they'll find themselves in a virtual lobby, where they'll be met by the house manager - an enormous robot - who will help them navigate the theater (built by Bradley in the 3D modeling program Blender) and find their seats for the show to begin.

Jettison was originally commissioned and produced by The Swim Shorts Festival, premiering new theatrical voices in a rooftop swimming pool in midtown Manhattan. The play is only three actors and ten minutes on one static set, but also features a live rabbit and takes place in the middle of the ocean. This juxtaposition of simple production needs and impossible production elements represents exactly the kind of theatrical production process the team wanted to approach in VR. This workshop is a proof of concept exploring the application of low-budget theatrical production methods and best practices for live mixed reality, remote performances.

(The set, a tiny lifeboat on an undulating sea, surrounded by 20 seats for this intimate virtual performance)

Engineers, designers, and community managers from Hubs dropped in to the rehearsal process and made recommendations and offered tips and tricks for working within the limitations of the platform. The entire production is built with consumer-grade equipment and free, publicly available software, with the entire cast and crew never leaving their homes.

The performance will be Sunday, October 4th at 9:30 EDT / 6:30 PDT. For tickets, RSVP using this link: http://bit.ly/jettisonRSVP

Jettison

By Brendan A. Bradley

Directed by David Gochfeld

Produced by Alex Coulombe, Kevin Laibson, David Gochfeld, Brendan A. Bradley

Virtual Space Integration by Roman Miletitch

Featuring:

Brendan A. Bradley

Nick Carrillo

Nican Robinson

Digital Puppetry by Ashley Clements

Performed in Mozilla Hubs at

The Brendan A. Bradley Future Stages Theater