Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1996 - 42

TIte A AAin~ 111tfcl.-ine

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seemed a likely vehicle for testing out the
idea of a "virtual agent"· \rithin the production. The head was animated using the Inte/face application which runs as an
am:.iliary to HyperCard. The head was rendered on a green background which allowed it to be superimposed over the
graveyard virtual-world by the video mixers' chroma-key features. These graphics
were not rendered in stereo but simply
split and sent to the two mixers. However,
when supel~imposed in front of the 3-D
backgrounds the graphics seemed to float
over the scene.
Chroma-key special effects were used
again to add live actors directly into tile
virtual worlds. Offstage and behind tile
black velour sUITound, a small TV snldio
was erected (Figure 3). Actors worked in
front of a green chroma-key screen, listening for their cues from tI1e stage. Necessary lighting was supplied on cue and a
\~deo canlera captured tile actors and sent
a signal to tile video mixers to be chromakeyed into tile viItual worlds. In tllis manner, characters appeared not only in front
of the scene but often within it. At the end
of scene two, Zero's boss appears in this
manner (Figure 7). By zoonling the canlera, the boss was made to "grow" during
tI1e scene, llis face finally filling the screen.

WINTER

TD&T

PERFORMANCE SCENARIO ~~~~~

The performance of The Adding Machine at
The niversity Theatre on the campus of the
niversity of Kansas, in Lawrence, Kansas,
began with Mr. Zero and his wife at home.
The progression of this scene established the
emptiness of Mr. Zero's life and the views of
the virtual world reflected the drab state of affairs and the process of Zero and his wife getting ready for bed. The second scene showed
Zero at his office. The views of the virtual
world and shadow silhouettes of other actors
projected onto the screen created the world
of Zero's work (Figure 6). The restricted,
mechanical, soul-crushing routine of Zero's
workday was broken by the expressionistic
device of having the shadow silhouette images take over the repetitious work while
Zero and his co-worker, Daisy, expressed

The party guests of scene tllI'ee also appeared \~a the camera. their images
bouncing around the screen in time \\~th
the hectic party conrersation. The jUly of
scene four was also supelimposed on the
scene. AcnIally played by only two actors,
the jury's twelve large faces were generated tlll'ough the use of a novelty multi-image lens positioned in front of the camera
(Figure 10).
The 10-foot wide sections of projection screen flanking the stage were used to
fill the audience's \~sual field and increase
the sense of immersion within our VR
stage. Three-dimensional slides were used
for tllis purpose. Side-by-side stereo
grapllics were captured onto 350101 slides.
While tile grapllics were created with tile
same software tllat was used to create tile
\~rtual worlds, tile subject maner of tile
slides varied. In some scenes, tile slides
presented a continuation of tile virtual
worlds. In otl1ers, an alternate scene was
depicted; one that commented on, or indirectly added to the underlying tI1eme of the
virtual-worlds. In the disjointed party
scene for example, rather than show a
continuation of Zero's expressionistic living room with its floating furninlre, one
side screen showed a close-up of a champagne bottle and the other an odd
Magrine-like figure with no head under llis
hat.
Due to the availability of only one
~ligh powered slide projector for each side
screen, the 3-D effect of the slides was
achieved in a rather unorthodox manner.

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