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I have to write an essay on practitioners that have used technology to aid a performance and how this proves that technology is an integral part of performance. Can anyone come up with any good suggestions for practitioners?
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I have to write an essay on practitioners that have used technology to aid a performance and how this proves that technology is an integral part of performance. Can anyone come up with any good suggestions for practitioners?

Any recent West End Show? Cirque de Soleil? The Olympic Opening Ceremony?

 

Have a browse through recent L&SI magazines for inspiration, perhaps?

 

(A more interesting question is to ask /whether/ technology is an integral part of performance or not, rather than presuming that it is before you even start...)

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I think you also need to define technology. If you consider a lighting control to be technology, then EVERY production has used technology to aid the production. Also do you mean aid, as in provided support - or aid as in 'fixed'.

 

 

Seems a bit strange to me.

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There are examples of theatre (or theater-like) productions where the technology is an integral and core part of the work. One production company I admire in this space is Troika Ranch, as for them the art and the technology developed in tandem. Ok, its dance, not theatre, but it is an interesting example nevertheless. And Troika has been around for lots of years so they are not just a oncer.

 

At the other end of the scale, there are bazzilions of works that have what I'd class as minor technical needs where that technology is core to that particular work. See how well your local amateur group manage when the phone doesn't ring on cue. Technology is part of most works; it may only be a tiny part, but if its there, its probably essential to that work. Roger Hall's "Market Forces" features four phones with two ringing cadences each, and an appears-to-be-working fax machine. Take those dozens of technical effects out of the show and there is little left of it. Much of the input that the actors react to comes from information received by phone conversations, or via the fax.

 

E2A: Many of these technical effects were simply not possible before the dawn of electricity in theatre. However, there are few writers who demand technology in their shows, and even fewer that demand stuff that hasn't been around for most of the last century. Well known musical Chess is unusual because it requires TV interaction. Most musicals never get beyond assuming that your have music and lights.

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Just shout across the room and ask Glenn what he has learned so far. My link

 

Homework questions are mildly irritating but doing the same queries over and over again from the same class of students gets tedious, don't it? Some miserable old farts might think you guys were extracting the urine.

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