What is it about?
Ferryman Collective is a diverse group of creators interested in furthering the emerging art of live theater in virtual reality. This article is about their award-winning production, Gumball Dreams, discussing the process and team that created this unique show and highlighting the challenges and affordances of performing theater in VR. Gumball Dreams had its world premiere at SXSW where it won the Audience Award for XR Experience Competition. It then went on to have their International Premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, and it’s Asia premier where it was the Winner of the VR Golden Fire Ball Award at the Kaohsiung Film Festival. It played at the Denver and Imagine Film Festival before winning ‘Best Immersive Performance’ at Raindance Immersive. Gumball Dreams was named the XR Must Winner of: Creator of the Year, Best 2022 Experience, Best Live Experience.
Featured Image
Photo by Sara Kurig on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Theatre lives in a space that is uniquely its own, a space that is about the moment, connection, collaboration, and community. But it is often difficult to access for a variety of reasons. However, in virtual reality, Broadway is now global, and has the potential to allow access to a much larger audience, no longer limited by geographical or other physical limitations. Audiences from all over the world can meet together in the same digital instance to share a unique moment only experienced together in the present.
Perspectives
We are honored and grateful that so many have enjoyed and loved the show as much as we have.
Deirdre V. Lyons
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Gumball Dreams: Live Theatre in VR, July 2023, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3588027.3595593.
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