Cyberspace and Stage: Recreating Theater for the Connected Generation

  • New Paradise Laboratories, a Philadelphia-based theatrical company, is using social media to make its stories and characters available to the audience even before the show opens. This approach appeals directly to people who might not attend theaters but are active Internet users.
  • In their “Fatebook” production, NPL used Facebook, Twitter and Flickr to allow the audience to interact with the actors in character. The actual live show became the party where all the characters met.
  • In “Extremely Public Displays of Privacy,” one actor spent a year creating the character online that included pictures, songs and Facebook entries.
  • “What I loved the most was that I had a constant outlet for my creativity. I would follow my impulses. I was creating little pieces for my character,” explains actress Annie Enneking. “After the show closed, it felt like a little death.”
  • “In addition to molding the two characters’ lives online, the play also incorporated geo-location technology where a character guides you through a park,” reports Mashable. “Audience members could download a sound file for a 45-minute guided tour in a Philadelphia park. Online audiences can take a virtual walk online via YouTube. The third act completed the play with a real-time performance in Philadelphia where the theater is based.”

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