Display Technology

UK university brings Shakespeare to metaverse with telepresence rehearsals

Provided by Coventry University.

January 30, 2023

Coventry University has announced a partnership between its Immersive Telepresence in Theatre project and the Florida International University for the latter institution's upcoming performance of Shakespeare's "Pericles," featuring hybrid rehearsals between actors in the U.S. and the U.K. before U.K. students travel to Florida for the in-person, globally live-streamed performance, according to a press release.

The Coventry University program has already leveraged digital communications and display technology for global telepresence in rehearsals and performances, including work with Tampere University in Finland and Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan in Poland.

"Telepresence opens up a world of opportunities for our performers, bringing them together with actors, lecturers and directors that they otherwise would be unable to work with," Tom Gorman, project coordinator and assistant professor of arts and humanities at Coventry University, said in the release. "By using advanced networking technologies, rear projection screens, careful lighting and unidirectional microphones, telepresence gives actors the illusion that they are occupying the same physical space. It's this realism that helps actors, who may be separated by thousands of miles, feel as though they are working together on the same stage. We believe we have created something special in theatre and we're excited to explore what can be done with this technology."