NYPL Billy Rose Theatre Division and MASIE Productions To Present AI & THEATRE? DISCUSSION & DIALOGUES

AI & Theatre? Discussion & Dialogues October 12th by Billy Rose Theatre Division of the NYPL for the Performing Arts and Masie Productions.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is at the center of the negotiations currently underway in both the SAG-AFTRA and Screenwriters Guild strikes. But how will this new technology affect theatre, and how is it already affecting it?

On October 12th The Library for the Performing Arts and Masie Productions invite you to an afternoon discussion of these issues at the Library at Lincoln Center. Moderators Doug Reside (curator of the Billy Rose Theatre Division) and Elliott Masie (Broadway Producer and Technology Analyst) will provide both a briefing on the current AI technologies and their potential impacts on all aspects of theatre. We will include perspectives from theatre and technology colleagues.

Discussion & Dialogues

October 12th from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm ET
Billy Rose Theater Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center
Co-Host: Masie Productions

Reserve a Free Space: https://tinyurl.com/aitheatre

In these discussions, the hope is neither to promote or denigrate AI-instead, we will make space at a key moment in the technology's development to engage in an open dialogue about the potential impacts of AI on Theatre.

A preliminary agenda is as follows:

1:00 Welcome and Introductions

1:30 Survey and demos of current AI software (ChatGPT, DALL-E, PlayHT)

2:00 Panel: Theatre and Technology

2:30 Perspectives from Unions

3:00 Affinity groups discuss potential/dangers for AI in their fields

3:30 Presentations and large group discussion

4:00 AI & Theatre Near-Term Futures and Challenges

4:30 Discussion and next steps for theatre industry

5:00 Light refreshments

While tickets to all events at the Library for the Performing Arts are free, seating is granted on a first come first serve basis.

Doug Reside is the Curator of the Billy Rose Theatre Division at the Library for the Performing Arts. He joined NYPL in 2011 first as the digital curator for the performing arts before assuming his current position in 2014. Prior to joining NYPL, Reside served on the directorial staff of the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities at the University of Maryland. He has published and spoken on topics related to theater history, literature, and digital humanities, and has managed several large grant-funded projects on these topics. His book, Fixing the Musical: How Technologies Shaped the Broadway Repertory is scheduled to be published by Oxford University Press in the Fall 2023. He received a PhD in English from the University of Kentucky.

Elliott Masie is the CEO of Masie Productions and is Tony Nominated producer and producing partner on over 30 shows, including Here Lies Love, Allegiance, The Prom, Godspell, Shucked, and Dan Lauria's "Just Another Day" . Elliott Masie has also spent over 50 years as an analyst of emerging technologies, credited with starting eLearning in the 1990s and the Broadway Hackathon with the Library.

To Reserve a Free Space: https://tinyurl.com/aitheatre