Community Events
Workshops, receptions, conversations, open rehearsals, and more.
All of the GFTF2018 Community Event are free and open to the public.
"Field Day" - Program
2:00 PM - Ensemble Devised Works Performance - Wyatt Deck
GFTF’s dedication to sustainability is the springboard for this collection of short devised pieces. Devised Theater is a technique that originates from a collaborative rehearsal process, using improvisation as a mainstay.
3:30 PM - A Crucial Stage: theatre and the climate crisis - Wyatt Pavilion
GFTF co-founder Tom Burmester gives a presentation of sustainability for today's environment, inspired and cultivated from Al Gore's Climate Reality Project.
5:00 PM - Reception - Della Davidson Studio Deck
Join the GFTF Company for FREE music, food and beverages on our outdoor patio. Meet the playwrights, discuss the festival, and take a picture in our very special photo booth!
7:00 PM - SUMMERTIME or DAISY VIOLET THE BITCH BEAST KING
Join audiences to see one of our FREE ‘ON THE STAGE’ productions!
Play the Knave workshopSeptember 15 from 2pm - 3pm
Wyatt Pavillion Theatre |
Created by faculty at the UC Davis ModLab, Play the Knave is an augmented reality video game for Windows that enables virtual design and performance of scenes from Shakespeare. But the game’s design is flexible enough, however, that it allows for live motion capture performances of actors performing any scripts. A Kinect camera connected to a PC computer picks up the actor’s movements and maps them immediately onto the avatars on screen, allowing the actors to control the movements of their avatars in what feels like real time. Although the quality of the motion capture animation produced by Play the Knave is significantly lower than other motion capture performance systems, Play the Knave is potentially a more sustainable system for theater groups interested in using live motion capture on stage and in rehearsal: it takes minutes to set up, is low cost, and is small in size--and thus entirely mobile.
At the workshop, Gina Bloom, Professor of English and Project Director for Play the Knave, will demonstrate the technology. Her current research concerns how Play the Knave’s glitches (a function of the game’s low cost motion capture system) prompt actors and their audiences to think in new ways about embodiment and human interactions with digital technology. |
Kill the Wabbit open rehearsal
September 15th from 12pm - 2pm
Wyatt Pavillion Theatre |
Motion Capture for Live TheatreIn this open workshop, we will be rehearsing a few scenes from the full-length, romantic comedy, Kill the Wabbit, by Jonathan Luskin The scenes were selected to demonstrate the integration of live action stage performance and live motion capture animation.
The motion capture hardware and software have been repurposed from Play the Knave, an augmented reality video game developed by Gina Bloom, Professor of English at UC Davis. By adapting an existing, economical, consumer grade motion capture system, we expect to demonstrate that integrating this technology into live performance is affordable for small theaters. Synopsis of the play Troy Steel is an aspiring action movie hero who's been fired from a reality TV show. Annabella is a talented actress who's struggled to find onscreen work, getting cast only to perform behind the mask of computer-animated characters. When Troy is hired to animate a heroic warrior using a motion-capture suit, he's unable to perform even the simplest scene without suffering a crisis of confidence. To save the show, the producer coerces Annabella to secretly redo Troy's animation after hours. The couple's journey is guided by Troy's grandparents, famous vaudeville actors who return from the past. The play mixes real-time motion capture sequences with film and video game animation to examine how performers combine traditional skills and new technologies to connect with an audience. |