Performance is the act of performing a play or piece of music or a concert in front of an audience. Digital resources are valuable tool that can help us to explore performance from a variety of perspectives past and present.

Digital technology in its present form allows us to record performances such as dramatic works in numerous ways. We can store scripts and annotations of performances digitally. It is possible to store cast lists and critical material of performances. We can keep a record of cultural differences in performances and even store scripts and performance material from different countries and in different languages. Text based resources can be enhanced using various methods for re-presentation, putting two or more scripts side by side for analysis, and providing methods for annotation of differences between them. Run-Time translation can be completed on scripts written in different languages. Hyper linking can be used to cross reference important sections of plays with notes and annotations, or between alternate versions.

Photographic material from performances can be added to digital resources and be presented along with the text. Photographic material is important as it provides a record of sets and scenery, it provides a record of costumes and provides another record of actors and their appearance. Photographic evidence may also exist of the theatre that can help to contextualize the entire performance within its setting.

Should audio files exist of a performance then these can be used to enhance a digital resource. Improving technology allows recordings of significant length to be handled easily by the computer from the storage media that a resource may be kept on. Audio is important because it allows us to look at how an actor delivers the lines of the play, how lines were pronounced, what intonation’s were put on particular words or phrases. A further step from this would be to include video footage from a performance for the same reasons, a further stage from this would be to use videos filmed from multiple angles during the performance to capture as accurately as possible each performance of a play.

Digital techniques can help us to collate a large body of evidence and information, large storage capabilities allow us to film concerts and plays from multiple views and provide interactive access to these views for an accurate representation of the performance being studied, the limitations are almost endless.

The importance of studying performance and keeping records on each production is that each production is considered as important as every other performance. No one performance is considered as ‘definitive’, each play has its own merits and a collection of material about every production of a single play allows this view to be put forward.

The AHDS Glasgow have developed the FESTE database which is a detailed record of all performances of the Royal Shakespeare Company and its predecessors in Stratford from 1879 to the present. The database includes full cast lists of performances, bibliographic data and contemporary review material from the time.

Historical performances are as important as future performances. While audio and video may not exist from some historical performances digital provides a tool for the storage and analysis of as much material as can be collected so that historical differences in performance can be recorded.

One of the criticisms from the 3D Visual Centre at the university of Warwick is that certain elements are missing in studying performance from text, even sound, even video. The study of performance using text alone is limited. Using digital resources it allows us to enhance the experience by providing additional texts with searchable features, and as mentioned audio and video. Using digital resources also allows us to provide simulations of theatres and space, and virtual reality re-enactment of plays. While image, audio and video may not exist for historical performances the ability to create a virtual recreation of a theatre, a stage, or thee play itself allows it to be studied in new and challenging ways. Theatron, a project developed by the members of the 3D visualisation group at Warwick University specialises in the creation of virtual 3D environments. The project combines archaeological and architectural skills, along with computer programming, virtual reality modelling and multimedia designers to help create accurate representations of theatres past and present.

Theatron is an educational tool that uses walkthroughs of accurate 3D models of theatres, and combines such walkthroughs with texts relating to the theatres along with multimedia tools. Other features are photographs, animations, and 360-degree panoramic views such as those created in Quick time VR. The project has also managed to create audio reconstructions to allow users to hear what the audience would have heard from different sections of the theatre.

The motivation for such a project is the additional sensory experience that can be given to the users of the simulation.

Text gives no direct sensory experience of events, and nor do depictions in the form of paintings, drawings, or musical scores and choreography. Photographs provide a visual representation, and audio gives a sense of time and sound. Film can give a sense of timing, sound and visual. However simulations can provide a sense of timing, image and sound, plus can depict and give a sense of the space a performance is acted within.

VR Re-Enactment provides a combination of space, and allows the users to act within the space. The VR re-enactment techniques are still being developed but do currently allow users to step inside a scene using blue screen technology and monitor their performance within the theatre.

Other research by the 3DVC includes the creation of a virtual model of the Hellerau theatre designed by Adolphe Appia and opened in 1910. The theatre used experimental lighting, stage layouts and scenery. Light would change according to sound and mood. For a student to be able to study their own performance and the performance of others within an experimental environment such as this would allow them to gain an understanding of the effect environment had on the performance, and the effect of the environment on the perception of the performance.

Development in digital technology now allows resources combining these elements online for greater access for students and those showing general interest alike.

References

http://appserver.pads.arts.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects/PadsBrowser.woa - accessed June 12th 2005

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/humanities/english/tper.html - accessed June 12th 2005

http://www.theatron.co.uk/ - accessed June 12th 2005

http://www.warwick.ac.uk/3d/theatron.html - accessed June 12th 2005