Theater audiences are traditionally filled with older individuals who may not understand the concept of theater interaction, so it would be important to advertise the production in a way that encourages a younger attendance. Another concern they had was giving up a certain amount of control. Interaction signifies a dynamic story, which means the story could potentially move in various directions. Can this be pulled off with major success?

The majority of the class, however, liked the idea of audience interaction. It can be used to enhance the story, giving audience members, who choose to use the technology, added insight into the story. Audience interaction would be one element that pushes the line of theatrical innocation. With the addition of technology and audience interaction into the production we will be attempting to do something that hasn't really been done before.

The other thought behind the pro-audience interaction is that the use of technology (text messenging) itself will add to the plot. There is this never-ending evolution of technology in our society and in order to survive we must be willing to adapt to the changing technologies. By utilizing audience participation through technology this fact will be reinforced and will actually be part of the story itself.

Based on the two sides to this discussion the goal should be to clearly identify the types of interaction we should use (text messenging, video cameras, touch pads, etc.) and how best to encourage audience members to be actively engaged in the production.

As we receive these numbers they are entered into a bulk sms messenging program which has the ability to send single text messages to many phones at one time. People not providing their mobile numbers will still get the full effect of the play, but those who receive the text message will get added insight into the story.

We talked about getting sponsership from a major wireless company to provide us with off network phones to hand out to the audience and then return them at the end of the play. This would increase audience involvement and could increase the potential of what we can actually do. If we are provided phones with Flashlight capabilities we have the potential to send much more than text messages to audience members.

Another thing we discussed has to do with set design. We came up with the idea of creating a vitrual backdrop displaying a wall of piping that could contain lighting inside which could change to form various background elements and help with transitions. This piping would morph into other textures depending on the world Zero is currently in, while still maintaining a similarity with the piping.

George took us into the theater to show us various possibilities for how this could be achieved. The idea would be to use at least two layers of scrim. One, in the back could have this piping metaphor rear-projected onto it. The front scrim could have other elements to fill in the scene. This was a good meeting. I will continue to post summaries of our discussions each week to keep everyone informed as to the direction we are moving.