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"Let’s go for a ride! This transformation that has been brought about by technology is complete. What is it about our art form, that I love, that I think my students are missing, but which in fact they may not be missing, but experiencing it through other means…. So you take a look at a generation where we lament they are not coming out to the theater but they have taken social networking to a level where it is digital improvisation on a global scale."
-Don Marinelli, Executive Producer
Entertainment Technology Center
Carnegie Mellon University


Linking Platforms: Theater & Digital Media in the 21st Century

Presented by The Black Women Playwrights’ Group, April 22-24, 2010, Chicago, IL

And what a ride it was! For two days, the excitement and energy in the room was palpable. The Black Women Playwrights’ Group brought together a diverse group of theater and technology professionals in Chicago for Linking Platforms: Theater and Digital Media in the 21st Century from commercial and non-profit theaters, web tv companies, and the government. They were professionals rarely found at the same table, but brought together by Don Marinelli’s assertion that…This transformation that has been brought about by technology is complete. The alchemy created by this uncommon mash-up was evident in the free exchange of ideas centering on successfully meeting today’s audiences where they live – in theaters and online!

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NEA Director of Research & Analysis, Sunil Iyengar, built the foundation for the meeting with these findings from the NEA Arts Participation Survey 2008:

These data underpinned the conversations that followed over the course of the next two days. Our opening panel, Non-Profits and Digital Media, consisted of three artistic directors with very diverse audiences. Eric Lockley, artistic director of the two-year-old Movement Theatre, has an average audience age of 18-31. Kamillah Forbes, artisitic director of the Hip Hop Theatre Festival produces theater with hip hop elements across the country. Eileen Morris, artistic director of the Ensemble Theater in Houston, TX, helms a 400-seat theater with a five-play season. The panel centered on how each theater currently uses technology and how they envision expanding technology in the future. Current uses included a “green reading” without printed scripts for rehearsal or performance; using social media to connect with individuals and groups interested in the subject of the play, but who may not have attended the performance; and encouraging audience members to “tweet” their opinions about the play during intermission and after the play.

Joy Meads and Rebecca Rugg of Steppenwolf Theater joined us at lunch on the first day. Our keynote speaker, Don Marinelli, gave an electric presentation on the future of technology and theater. Marinelli, along with Randy Pausch, renowned author of The Last Lecture, founded the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at Carnegie Mellon. ETC examines the intersection of artistic process and cutting edge technology. Perhaps his most startling assertion was that the common ground between theater and technology was wide and deep. In addition, he asserted that computer scientists welcome theater professionals because we bring a complementary, and much needed, skill set to the paradigm of new technology.



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On the second day, Small Group Discussions centered on the future of the intersection of theater and technology. Inspired by two terms introduced by Don Marinelli, “interactivity” and “immersion” (the desire to visit an online environment repeatedly), one small group discussed creating a product that would allow audiences (including those who may not have seen a live performance) to engage the play online on their own terms. This might include interactive interviews with the playwright, social networking, video postcards, and a game based on the play.

Black commercial theater uses the internet differently than non-profit theaters, building a more personal relationship with its audience. Panel members for Exploring Commercial Theater included, Glen Alan, The Drama Department, JéCaryous Johnson, I’m Ready Productions, and Rashida Shaw, a Northwestern University PhD candidate whose dissertation centers on the Urban Theater Circuit. Rashida Shaw gave an overview of the history of the Urban Theater Circuit and the diversity of the types of plays currently being produced. JéCaryous Johnson talked about building a relationship with audience members that was personalized and not focused on selling tickets to performances. His future interests include in-flight podcasting of excerpts of his plays for hand-held devices. Glenn Alan outlined internet marketing strategies currently used by commercial producers and gave a detailed presentation on social networking.

BWPG’s Linking Platforms: Theater and Digital Media in the 21st Century consisted of two days filled with learning and excitement about changing artistic vistas. For more information, visit us at www.blackwomenplaywrights.org and at Facebook and click on our logo!

Linking Platforms: Theater & Digital Media in the 21st Century was supported by BNA, the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, the Max & Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, William a nd Louisa Newlin, and The Weissberg Foundation.

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"Thank you for the invitation to such an amazing conversation/event. As many others I was truly inspired by this past weekend, it has truly got my mind running in circles!! I can’t wait to take all of the knowledge, and questions, that arose back to my little corner of the world. This has been the most useful conversation/conference I feel that I have been a part of in the past few years. So thank you for that!"
-Kamilah Forbes, Artistic Director
Hip Hop Theatre Festival