Theatrical storytelling in a virtual space

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the uniqueness of storytelling in a theatrical context. From this exploration, we present a theoretical structure for classifying theatrical performance and describe a technical framework for creating such performances in a virtual space. The framework allows for interplay between human actors, virtual performers and live audience members cohabitating both physical and virtual spaces. We describe a prototype implementation of the framework and provide the details of a distributed performance given in the spring of 2004 as a proof of concept for the system.