The Black Imagination Series Begins with Live Virtual Reality Performances of New Short Plays

Crux and Blair Russell Productions announce the Black Imagination Series, an exploration of live performance in Virtual Reality. The first-of-its-kind series will premiere with an event in AltspaceVR on Thursday, October 1st.

Through the Black Imagination Series, Crux believes that storytelling and live performance can be redefined in XR through the historically forward-thinking, unparalleled artistic vision of Black artists. Black storytelling will be the foundation on which the future of narrative is built. Crux will begin this movement in the medium, allowing for shared wealth generation, ownership of intellectual property, and the celebration of Black Imagination to lead the charge on the development of live performance in digital and virtual spaces.

This first event in the series will be a premiere of three new short plays including Making a Perfect World by Kleban and Audelco award-winner Cheryl L. Davis, Last Ones First by Amara J. Brady, and It's Homecoming Y'all! by Breana C. Venablé.

The free event will take place in Altspace for a limited audience to experience with VR headsets. They will be transported into the completely realized, custom-built immersive environment for the show which will be performed live by the actors as virtual avatars. For the less adventurous, the event will be streamed live on Youtube. Visit www.imagination.black to register for the event.

Featured performers are Léoh Hailu-Ghermay, Liz Morgan, Cristina Pitter (Behind The Sheets), Deon Releford-Lee (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), and TL Thompson (Is This A Room, Straight White Men). The plays will be directed by Espii Proctor, with environmental design by Michah Jackson and Jonathan Williams.

Executive producers are Lauren Ruffin and Nick Leavens.

Future projects in The Black Imagination Series include an improv performance with remote audience interaction, plays performed on-location with 360° VR video capture, volumetric video production, and more. For more information visit - www.imagination.black

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