Digital Actors on Shakespeare’s Stage

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"Digital actors" - people, animals, monsters - are common in Hollywood movies. Now they are on stage at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In "The Tempest", human actors are on stage when a huge digital tidal wave crashes across stage, sinking a ship. It looks and sounds like the real thing. Then Ariel, a digital sprite, appears and manipulates the storyline while changing size and appearance from time to time.

Thus the traditional performance of Shakespeare is changing with technology - virtual reality, augmented reality, digital effects, 360 degree environments, 3-D, holography and interactivity.

For Shakespeare's fairy, it began in a movie studio. The actor wore a motion capture suit. As he moved, the movement of the green patches were captured by a computer. From that, an "electronic costume" was placed on the actor, making him look like a fairy. Wings were added so the fairy could be lifted off the ground and fly above the theater audience. The costume could be changed with the press of a button in the control room.

It's a bit complicated, but during a stage show, the human actor playing the fairy is actually acting the role back stage. Via electronics, his "holographic" image, similar to a ghost, is onstage and mimicking every move that he makes backstage.

It's not your father's Shakespeare! But it will be your grandchild's Shakespeare!

Similar technology appears in new movies such as "Avatar".

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