Orange Theatre to Launch Digital Performance Lab

This month, Phoenix's critically acclaimed Orange Theatre will launch a new initiative, the Digital Performance Lab, with the support of the Arizona Commission on the Arts' Art Tank grant program, which makes strategic investments in the state's most exciting arts-based ventures.

The Orange Theatre Digital Performance Lab is a residency that brings together digital media designers, developers, and actors to collaborate on the creation of new, interactive technologies for the stage. The goal of the program is to provide the time and space for true experimentation and collaboration among these groups, a rarity in the American theatre.

Orange Theatre will host a free public demonstration on Thursday, June 25 at 7:30pm at the Lyceum Theatre on ASU's Tempe campus. (The Lyceum Theatre is located at 901 S. Forest Mall, Tempe, Ariz., and nearby public parking is available at the corner of University and Forest Aves.)

In this demonstration, the actors and designers will showcase the capabilities of the technology developed in this year's Lab: a network of portable, matchbook-sized wireless sensors that have the power to send and receive information; track performers, objects, and set pieces as they move around the stage; and visualize that tracking data in real-time and locate it on a 3D rendering of a theatrical set. This allows instant triggering of complex lighting, sound, and media cues and opens up the possibility for creating truly unique, interactive theatre experiences.

Orange Theatre's system is especially exciting because it can be implemented for only a few hundred dollars, as opposed to the many thousands that similar systems available on the commercial market cost. The company plans to make the software and hardware developed in the Digital Performance Lab available to other independent performing arts groups for an affordable price.

This year's Lab collaborators include resident designer-developers Ian Shelansky and Eric Brickley, along with consultant Matthew Ragan. They will be joined by Orange's acting ensemble of William Crook, Katrina Donaldson, and Carrie Fee, as well as the troupe's technical director and sound designer, Stephen Christensen.

In January, the ensemble pitched their vision for the Digital Performance Lab to a panel of community and arts leaders at Art Tank West in Peoria. Going up against multiple worthy projects, Orange Theatre won the $10,000 top prize by making the strong argument that Arizona is suffering a drain of young creatives who are drawn to well-known hubs of artistic innovation like New York and Los Angeles. Orange Theatre co-founders Matthew Watkins and Stephen Christensen proposed that the only way to halt this trend is to support innovative projects like the Digital Performance Lab that offer paid opportunities for young artists and technology experts to do exciting work without leaving the state. As one of Arizona's only experimental, multimedia performing arts ensembles, Orange Theatre is perfectly situated to design and launch this program.

Future plans for the Digital Performance Lab include an education program that teaches best practices for actor-designer collaboration and a digital performance resource library based in Phoenix. Pending additional grant funding in future years, the company hopes to make the residency an annual program.

Sadly, due to the state legislature's recent cuts to their budget, the Arizona Commission on the Arts has been forced to put its Art Tank initiative on indefinite hold, which means that vital seed funding like Orange Theatre received for this innovative program will not be available to other local groups in the near future.

This year's Digital Performance Lab will take place at ASU's Lyceum Theatre because Orange Theatre's warehouse performance space in downtown Phoenix is still under renovation to add air conditioning to the facility. The company will present their next show at their own space this October. More information about the ensemble and its work can be found at orangetheatre.org.

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