A new proscenium : exploring interactive live performance in a socially distant digital world

In the era of virtual entertainment and social distancing protocols, many live entertainment industries are asking how they might create engaging experiences that connect audiences and performers. Is it possible to merge Theatre, Television, and Gaming into a new medium that plays to the strengths of each of these forms? What actions can be taken to successfully combine mediums and maintain liveness? How can we remotely and virtually connect audiences and performers? In a connected world, with entertainment at our fingertips, my curiosity in cross medium entertainment has been given an opportunity, as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, to devise and create a system that would allow for audiences and performers to connect in real-time from anywhere in the world. While the prevalence of producing streamed theatre over Zoom places a temporary band-aid on the problem of being unable to congregate in person; Existing technologies allow for connections to be found for audiences and performers alike in live entertainment, using low latency video streaming, audience voting, bespoke website user interfaces, and audience dictated diverting storylines; audiences and performers can indeed connect via a new spin on live entertainment. While there are inevitably obstacles encountered with emerging technologies and techniques, I conclude the live entertainment industry should explore the convergence of mediums rather than settle for the limitations of virtual Zoom Theatre or recorded Theatre performances. Through a new residency presented by Texas Performing Arts and Fusebox in December of 2020, my collaborators and I, the Frank Wo/Men Collective, explored and designed a new medium that brought together features of theatre, film, television, and gaming. The resulting production revealed that the combination of mediums can in fact create engaging experiences that open up a wild variety of engaging opportunities for the audience and the performers alike. While the COVID-19 pandemic will eventually end, there will be a long-lasting effect on the live entertainment industry as some people may choose to avoid congregating with large groups for years to come. The solutions and explorations presented serve as a starting point for others interested in this live entertainment medium.