Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2021 - 11

Festival " is probably best captured this
year as a New Work event and best
described as an intersection of new
work and emergent technologies, " says
Fleming. When the theatre works inside a
medium that Allgeier doesn't have experience
with, his role changes yet again. The
2021 Humana Festival of New American
Plays included live streaming docuseries,
virtual reality storytelling, an interactive
video game, and a community partnership
with nurse and dancer Tara Rynders
designed to address compassion fatigue
and nursing burnout. " Pretty much everything
since has been conceived for
the medium, either intentionally or by
nature of the design, " says Fleming.
Because Allgeier's experience is mostly
centered on shooting video and working
with projections, he's been focusing
on editing more traditional projects like
Still Ready, a musical docuseries in three
parts, directed again by Fleming. He also
edited and produced a non-VR version
of Ali Summit, a 2021 Humana Festival
production planned to be released in VR
later in the coming year, also directed by
Robert Barry Fleming and produced in
collaboration with Crux Cooperative. For
this production, Allgeier pulled some of
the images produced for the virtual reality
production and combined them with
the theatre's graphics, artwork by Andy
Perez, and audio from Paul Doyle to create
an audio-visual experience.
Even though he is not as intimately
involved in some of the projects that use
emerging media, such as the VR production
Beyond the Crossroads or the video
game Plague Doctor: Contagion 430
BCE-2020 AD, Allgeier remains aware
and abreast of the process, so that as
Actors Theatre continues progressing
Philip Allgeier at his at-home workstation, editing footage for Romeo and Juliet: Louisville 2020. | Photo by Kim
Allgeier.
with new technology, Allgeier can serve
as a technological representative for the
theatre. Allgeier predicts the theatre will
continue to use emerging technologies
long into the future. " It will be different
than it was before, but time will tell how
different, " he says.
Meanwhile...
Actors Theatre was well-positioned to
pivot to new media, but also relied on
local companies and trusted partnerships
to forge a new pathway through the
2020-2021 season. Other arts organizations
in Louisville had various stories to
tell of a changing relationship to the role
of video and media in performance, but
whether they relied on internal resources
or external contracting, the through line
is clear: The landscape has changed,
and the use of media and video will likely
have a lasting role in even small companies.
Post-COVID, there are continuing
questions about providing streaming performances
for greater accessibility and
incorporating media into performances
in a way that reflects the technologically
varied nature of 21st century existence.
At what point the role of video becomes
part of the expected internal infrastructure
of a company, like lighting, sound,
sets, or costumes, is still unclear.
For example, the Louisville Orchestra
The Bengsons in Where the Mountain Meets the Sea by Jeff Augustin, part of the 2020 Humana Festival of New
American Plays. | Photo by Jonathan Roberts, courtesy of Actors Theatre of Louisville.
was able to utilize physical infrastructure
rather than staffing in its COVID-19
pivot. Relocated from its primary place
of performance, the Whitney Hall at the
Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts
(a 2,377-seat concert hall), the Orchestra
found itself performing at Old Forester's
Paristown Hall for the season, a venue
traditionally reserved for traveling indie
rock concerts. The musicians had
to operate socially distanced in new arrangements
with filters over the top of instruments.
Fog machines and plexiglass
barriers were built and installed to test
how air would flow in the room, and occasionally
only performances involving
the strings could be recorded to avoid any
potential risk for the spread of the coronavirus.
Why go to such lengths? Paristown
SUMMER 2021 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | 11

Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2021

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