There was perhaps no moment more exciting in this project than at last donning the HoloLens and directing not just two actors on stage, but three! At this performance, the role of Tinker Bell will in fact be played by Tinker Bell herself—it’s now possible to guide her around the stage (to predetermined locations, of course) and cue her acting beats in time with her human costars’ performances.
The HoloLens itself is already a few years old which with the way technology progresses these days already feels like ages ago, but directing a holographic actor on stage and seeing her convincingly “converse” with real people and move around and inside objects on stage feels like a milestone in theater/tech history. There’s still a (very) long two weeks between now and when we show this to the public, but there is a strong sense of magic happening that we are using to propel us through the final weeks of development.
Here’s what else happened this week:
Set design/construction: As evidenced from the photo above, we have a set! It’s much more painted (blue) than in that photo now, and there’s a lovely rug that covers the linoleum flooring. Additionally, the final virtual model of the set that gets run inside of the HoloLens has been created as well.
Programming: We’ve now successfully configured the Spectator View Pro setup, which will allow both audience members not wearing the HoloLens as well as our tech team cueing the performance to view the show as intended. We’re mounting two monitors on each side of the stage specifically for these purposes. We’ve also successfully networked multiple HoloLenses together, to maximize the size of the audience that can experience the performance in the optimal fashion—the way we envision audiences of the future viewing performances of this nature.
Art/Animation: Tinker Bell’s animations are really coming along now. She’s zipping around stage, emoting, and generally feels like an actual character. This will only get refined over the next couple of weeks.
Misc. Production: Rehearsals with the actors have been going really well. It’s important to remember that even in the midst of all the technological craziness, there’s a real human story to tell here between Peter and Wendy. It’s quite a touching little scene with a lot of warmth, and we’re spending time to make sure that isn’t lost with all of the tech layered on top of it.