The Rear Window continues Bygone Theatre’s ongoing research into the relationship between live performance and digital technology that began with our Digital Now grant from the Canada Council for the Arts and our production of The Yellow Wallpaper.
During the pandemic, many performing artists turned to digital technology to survive; at large companies, we began seeing livestreamed shows and in independent productions the use of Zoom. As we came back, we started seeing more companies experiment with projection design and livestreaming, integrating recordings and digital media into live productions and presenting live productions through digital means.
We thought the industry could do more to preserve two important parts of the theatre experience: the fact that theatre is a live experience and the relationship between performer and audience that comes from being in the same room.
In The Rear Window, all of the projections you see are live streams of live actors who are on stage, able to react to the audience and other performers and giving the actors you see up close and personal the ability to react, rather than respond to cues. Here’s how we did it:
(1) It starts with set design. Wesley Babcock was able to design us a set that only used half of the depth of the stage, which allowed us to use the other half for “mini sets”.
(2) Each mini set has its own camera (and one has two). In this case we used HD webcams, using simple USB ports. In the Yellow Wallpaper, we did the same thing but with more complex high-end media production equipment.
(3) The video feeds are input to a program called Madmapper, who have generously provided us with a license to do these sorts of research projects. Madmapper allows us to control the video feed and how it is output. We can change what the live feed looks like.
(4) We use two (simple & old) graphics cards to output video to four projectors throughout the stage. These are basic consumer-grade projectors that you might use at home. The projectors are mostly pointed at the back of our walls, with a canvas dropcloth (the ones you get at a hardware store) stretched over a window box.
(5) In Madmapper, our projection designer creates the shape of the window as a “mask” and overlays the video feed. We then just have to block the actors movements as usual and we have windows we can place anywhere on stage.
This process means that EVERYTHING you see in The Rear Window is acted live in front of you. Though this is the simplest version of this type of workflow, we think that developing inexpensive and easy to use methods we can reach new audiences and find new ways to tell stories.
Watch a behind-the-scenes video here:
Bygone Theatre 