This year I was brought on as a professional mentor and coach for NIDA’s digital theatre festival program across a range of productions involving magic, illusion and practical effects in a virtual environment. This is an incredibly exciting program of six innovative productions developed specifically for an online audience. This appointment has been well-timed, as we have been developing Mada’s Virtual Marvels – a digital virtual magic performance for corporate teams.
There is some terrifically exciting work coming from the students, as they are forced to innovate and work out of their comfort zones in Masks !
Read more on the festival, about each of the 6 productions and how to get tickets. These are not just student plays, each production is directed by highly regarded internationally recognised directors, curated by David Berthold.
Featuring international collaborations and guest directors Katy Alexander, Leticia Cáceres, Nigel Jamieson, Deborah Pollard, Sean Stewart and Pierce Wilcox, the Digital Theatre Festival comprises six world premieres of works created specifically for the online space.
These often transmedia works will evoke age-old wonder and surprise through farce, horror, sci-fi adventure, love stories, classic characters, and multi-media collage while anticipating what new times might bring as theatre continues to journey into digital realms.
The Digital Theatre Festival requires audiences to watch and sometimes participate online. All instructions for digital access will be forwarded by email the week prior to the show.
Roundabout
Live streamed on Twitch
Written and directed by Sean Stewart
4, 5, 8 Aug, 8pm AEST
7–9 Aug, 11am AEST
Indicative running time 100 minutes including three intervals.
6 characters. 3 bodies. 1 meddlesome audience. So many things could go wrong.
An interactive farce for the digital age.
Science fiction meets comedy as three young school leavers in an awkward love triangle meet on the video platform Twitch. In the chat channel are three skylarking digital humans who yearn to be made flesh for the first time in 13,000 years. With the help of the audience they possess the actors.
Begin your journey into Roundabout on the show’s Twitch, Facebook and Twitter pages.
Content warning – MA15+ (adult themes, flashing lights)
Ghost Lights
Live streamed on Facebook and YouTube
Concept and directed by Katy Alexander
6, 8, 9 Aug, 7.30pm AEST
8, 9 Aug, 11am AEST
Indicative running time 45–60 minutes.
Six
Live streamed on dedicated website
Written by MFA (Writing for Performance) students:
Aiden Ossovani, Bradley Ward, Sophie Davis and Leah Tolmosoff
Directed by Leticia Cáceres
5, 6 Aug, 9.30pm AEST
7 Aug, 11pm AEST
8 Aug, 7pm AEST
9 Aug, 1pm AEST
Indicative running time 50–65 minutes.
It’s Saturday night during lockdown. A group of strangers somehow end up in the same Zoom meeting. Mysteriously, one participant’s window is completely black. While the characters speculate about who is behind the window, their grasp on normality gradually crumbles as a series of strange and frightening phenomena unfolds.
Read more and book
Content warning – MA15+ (horror themes)
Lunacy
Live streamed on dedicated website
Written and directed by Pierce Wilcox
4, 6, 7 Aug, 9pm AEST
8 Aug, 1pm, 7pm AEST
9 Aug, 11am AEST
Indicative running time 75 minutes.
Immerse yourself in this epic 1960s pulp sci-fi adventure.
A scientist has uncovered a mysterious alien artefact on the surface of the Moon.
A daredevil explorer is the only one brave enough to conquer its impossible depths.
A driven team race to understand the artefact before it kills them – or they tear each other apart …
Begin your journey into Lunacy by investigating the mystery of Project Eclipse at the Archive, where you can unlock footage and images that will help you prepare for the culminative experience of this extraordinary project: a live mission to the Moon.
Content warning – MA15+ (guns, violence and sexual references)