PlayOn! Bulletin, Issue One, June 2022

PlayOn! Bulletin
New Storytelling with
Nz.1
issue one June 2022
Immersive Technologies
9 theatres from 9 European
countries in cooperation with
9 universities exploring the
artistic challenges of digital
transformation 2019–2024
STORYTELLING
FOR THE HERE
AND NOW -
INTERVIEW WITH PLAYON!
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
DIRK NELDNER
https://play-on.eu
CONTENTS
Project coordinator
and tech partners page 2
UTOPIA –
Here and Now page 3
HOPE – A creative online
forum: How two years of digital
conferences brought theatres and
technologists together page 4/5
PARTNERS & SPOTLIGHTS
From VR to escape rooms and
interactive props page 6/7
The network looks into
the FUTURE page 8
Co-funded by the
Creative Europe Programme
of the European Union
CONCRETE
­UTOPIAS
IN THE
DIGITAL
AGE
Dirk Neldner speaks with Lucy
Hammond, Projects Producer
(Pilot Theatre, UK) about the PlayOn
network, an ambitious project
exploring the future of storytelling
with technology.
L: How did the idea for this collaboration
between theatres and immersive
technologies begin?
D: Theatres are experts in storytelling.
But their way is usually one-sided: the
artists on stage with the audience
listening, watching. Only slowly is
an understanding developing for
new storytelling, for interactive story
structures. This is the interface to the
game industry and thus to many digital
technologies. To reach the audience of
tomorrow, theatre must become even
more active.
L: How would you describe the way the
PlayOn! network brings together experts
and makers?
D: We have two target groups that we
want to address. Firstly, theatre- makers
who want to open up and expand
their theatre language with (digital)
immersive technologies. And secondly,
digital artists and experts who have
mastered these technologies and are
perhaps discovering a new medium in
live theatre.
L: So the network aims to enhance the
skills of both technologists and theatre
makers through shared learning and
practical application?
continue on next page
Richard Hurford | UK
CONCRETE UTOPIAS
IN THE DIGITAL AGE
is the artistic inspiration at the centre
of the PlayOn! project – and an immediate
provocation. It’s surprising to find
the oppositional words Concrete and
Digital together in one phrase. Throw
in the wild card idea of Utopias and it
becomes even more intriguing. So, what
does it all mean and where can it lead us?
The concept of the Concrete Utopia was
created by Ernst Bloch, the mid-20th
century German political philosopher. At
first sight, it may seem strange. If Utopia
means an imaginary perfect state or
social system, and concrete means real,
then it appears we have two conflicting
principles impossible to reconcile -
“imaginary” versus “real”, “realistic”
versus “unrealistic”. So does PlayOn!
mean to challenge us to chase after the
impossible? No - in fact it’s the opposite.
Common modern usage of the term
Utopia tends to refer to something that is
inherently impossible, unrealistic, naïve.
If an idea is called Utopian it’s dismissed,
insulted or treated like a joke. But why?
Utopia was the name chosen by 16th
century English writer Thomas More
for his fictional perfect island state, part
satire, part provocation. More created
the name Utopia by combining two
Greek words meaning “no” and “place”.
However, when spoken aloud it sounds
very similar to the two Greek words
meaning “good” and “place”. And here
perhaps we have the roots of Utopia as
an unrealistic fantasy; the “good place” is
“no place”. It does not exist, which
very easily becomes “It cannot exist”.
Some claim the whole idea of Utopia is
against human nature itself. Of course
theirs is a very specific viewpoint usually
based on an absolute certainty that
human nature is fixed. Their argument
depends on believing that what human
beings are today, they were yesterday
and they will be forever. The world is as
it is. Human nature is as it is. Therefore
change is impossible – so they say.
Clearly there are those people who want
the world to stay exactly as it is, since it
works perfectly well for their tiny portion
of humankind. But what about the
rest of us who have no good reason to
reject Utopia? Shouldn’t we at least ask
ourselves some Utopian questions?
What does Utopia look like? Do we want
Utopia? If we want Utopia, how do we
get it? Just because Utopias don’t or
even can’t exist today, there is no reason
they won’t or can’t exist in the future -
because things (can) change.
continue on page 3

2 3
Continued from page 1
Continued from page 1
STORYTELLING FOR THE HERE AND NOW - INTERVIEW WITH L: There have been some really exciting methods. The training aspect of the network
will be an interesting and valuable are longing for profound debates, for
of the hopelessness of the times. People Richard Hurford | UK
PLAYON! ARTISTIC DIRECTOR DIRK NELDNER
But isn’t Hope the oldest con-trick in when is always Today.
Recently I came across the British immersive technologies ... the hope for
projects coming out of the network so
CONCRETE UTOPIAS the world? Was Bloch asking us to Our Today is the Digital Age and this is literature professor Terry Eagleton and improvement drives us, trial and error
D: Yes the real challenge lies in the field And we need mediators between the far. Pilot’s experience as a theatre company
for young people has been that it is as the project reaches its midway point? sions in a time when we are afraid of
IN THE DIGITAL AGE believe in fairy tales? Certainly not. just the start. For some people it’s been his book: Hope without Optimism. is our process of hope and failure.
legacy for the project, what is your hope guidance, for critical and open discus-
of training! There are - at least in Europe two worlds: Theatre and digitality. You
Bloch’s hope is not the hope of
a bad beginning. For others, the good I don't know if he would approve of Eagleton notes that there can be hope
- no offers at schools for directing and can't imagine how difficult it is to bring a new way for us to explore storytelling
war, of climate change, of pandemics, of
By accepting that Utopias are possible,
the connection with the word has gone. Nor is it the passive hope of are not built by trusting to fate or by pro-
because when I googled him, I read his present. However, a future that could
desperation when everything else outweighs the bad. But Concrete Utopias me mentioning him in our context, only if the future is anchored in the
acting that introduce young artists to representatives of these two worlds into for our audiences as well as appealing D: Theatre has often proven in the past the tearing apart of our societies. When
the new immersive technologies. This is a common working process. Because to those who may be excited by being that it is able to adapt to new technologies,
to use them to tell stories even language formats and explores these
theatre is open to learn new artistic
“ concrete” no longer feels like a paradox wishful thinking. This is Hope redefined jecting dystopian visions of today into article "Why I never use email", which be fairly described in the language of
where bridges need to be built. So far in there is still a big gap in understanding, it active or part of the live experience. It
or a problem. If a Utopia can exist, then as a problem to be solved. We hope for a the future. Today it is only natural for us is more than critical of everyday digital the present would have too much in
our experience in our network - where is so hard to convince theatre-makers to has also been a good opportunity to see more intensely. But the reason I really themes, the future of storytelling is not
obviously it must be able to be concrete perfect system and then use that hope to to fear another wave of the pandemic. applications. However, when I searched common with the status quo, to be
theatre and digital universities meet - open up. The same is seen on the other the inventive ways our partners across have such great hope that theatre plays only exciting but important in helping us
- real, not abstract. How? Because things drive our actions towards a solution. Today it is understandable to feel despair further I came across his book "Culture" considered a real future at all. And with
students of technical disciplines are also (digital) side.
Europe approach these technologies and such an important role today is because navigate the world that we are living in. ´
changed.
In fact it’s a whole system constructed
from many solutions that must against the people of Ukraine.
to myself
destroys
at the brutal aggression unleashed and thought
that, Eagleton
very interested in artistic realisations.
Human beings constantly make plans
my
PROJECT COORDINATOR
https://vatteater.ee
PLAYON! TECH PARTNER
VAT Teater | Tallinn/Estonia Akademie für Theater und Digitalität |
Dortmund/Germany
Est. 1987 as the oldest Estonian independent theatre
15 permanent employees + over 30 freelancers
Shows per year (during the pandemic) 150
Spectators per year 15000
VAT Teater is a small theatre with a big... ...reach!
A NEW APP
FOR PLAYFUL
INTERACTION -
BEN KIRMAN | UK
Many theatres within and beyond
PlayOn are interested in how mobile
phones can be integrated into their
productions. This is a complex topic and
it can be difficult to understand what is
possible and the creative opportunities
presented by this platform.
To help, Ben Kirman (Digital Creativity
Labs) has made a demonstration app
toolkit that can be helpful in thinking
about different kinds of ways mobile
phones can be used apart from the
familiar. It is a playful tool that might
help give some ideas of unusual
interactions.
The demo app is only available for
Android, however the features work on
iPhone too.
You can download the app on an android
device, and instructions are available
on the webpage at
https://ben.kirman.org/stuff/
playon_app.html
There is also a short video demonstration
of a couple of the features:
https://youtu.be/_dCTcEGSyY8
The app has a selection of features to explore.
Of particular interest for thinking
about "concrete utopias" is the "location"
tab, which finds out some features of
your current location, and the "remote
data" tab, which allows you to give
feedback live to a server. On your computer
(or another device) you can see
the output of this on this control panel:
https://playon-demo.web.app/
The app and the control panel are
connected live - changes in the control
panel affect everyone with the app
imme diately. You can send notifications,
change messages and colours, trigger
events and there is a simple voting
system. Note it might be confusing if
many people are using the control panel
at once!
This liveness gives interesting possibilities
- events triggered when certain
numbers of audience members are
in different locations, or even tied to
external systems like lighting cues or
other displays.
Ben is happy to talk more about the
creative potential of this platform
ben@kirman.org, you can also see
more of Ben's work at: https://ben.
kirman.org
https://ben.kirman.org/
stuff/playon_app.html
Est. 2019
10 employees + associated member
The Academy focuses on technical and artistic research and exploration of Digitality. We enjoy
Complexity and Interdisciplinarity.
The institution is characterised first and foremost by the artistic-technical research work of the
(international) fellows. The invited artists, technologists and coders spend five months conducting
prototypical and application-oriented research on the development of digital tools and methods
between sensor technology, actuator technology, XR, VR, AR and artificial intelligence (funded by
the Kulturstiftung des Bundes). This is complemented by a pilot project the academy has launched
with the Helmholtz Association as a research scholarship, as an encounter between science and art.
The research and development is accompanied on one hand by technology-oriented further
education, on the other hand by the initiation of the master's degree program "Digitality in the
Scenic Arts" (working title) with the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
As part of the Theater Dortmund, the academy regularly cooperates with the five other divisions
of the house, as most recently in the context of PlayOn! for the KJT's production: "The Future".
PLAYON! TECH PARTNER
University of York
Digital Creativity Labs | York/United Kingdom
Est. 1963
22020 students from 150 countries
Staff 3800 across 30 departments
https://theater.digital/en
https://digitalcreativity.ac.uk
The University of York is a research university and the home of the Digital Creativity Labs, £18m
multidisciplinary lab for technology and storytelling, with internationally recognised research.
that require new techniques, technology
or thinking to deliver. So we simply
apply this to the idea of the Concrete
Utopia and understand
that all
our thinking, our
planning and our
actions must be
for the future. The
important thing
is to understand
that a Concrete
Utopia is not fixed
by today’s situation
or what happened
yesterday, last year,
last century. It all
depends on what
we can make happen
tomorrow - if
we change things.
Ernst Bloch put it like this: Concrete
Utopias are possible but Not Yet. Not
Yet is not the same as Never. Never shuts
everything down. Not Yet keeps the way
forward open.
On the way there will be mistakes. That’s
fine. We don’t give up today because our
Concrete Utopia is not yet possible. We
build it piece by piece every day so that
tomorrow it will be one day closer.
But what can possibly drive the creation
of a Utopia that we will most likely not
live long enough to see? Bloch’s answer
is clear: the book that first introduced his
concept of Concrete Utopias is called
The Principle of Hope.
We are proposing a once in a lifetime
ritual for the people of Naarm (Melbourne)
to speculate about the next
century and consciously emphasise with
future generations who will inherit our
society. It’s called Child of Now.
We ask people to imagine
the next century through the
eyes of a child born today
to contribute to a massively
co-authored story about the
next century and the most
ambitious portrait of our
population ever created.
But before we continue,
it’s protocol in Australia to
Acknowledge Country, to state where we
are. We write from the stolen, unceded
lands of the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung
and Boonwurrung people of the Kulin
nations. We acknowledge the cultural
elders of the Wurundjeri people of the
past and the elders keeping culture alive
in the present.
We invite you to think about where you
are. Do you live and work on the lands
of your ancestors? How did you come to
be there, have you been displaced? Did
work together in harmony. And work
for every person. Utopias must be
ambitious. OK for some people, even OK
for most people is not good enough. It
must be the “good place” for all people,
which can only be imagined and created
by the ongoing input of all people
towards this common goal.
Clearly such a consensus is not possible
in today’s world, but that is not an
obstacle. We just focus on finding the
solution to make it possible tomorrow.
Concrete Utopias are always historically
specific and no Concrete Utopia model
can be imposed on another time and
place; one size does not fit all. Every
Concrete Utopia must begin in a specific
place at a specific point in time. The
place is a matter of choice and will, but
you or your ancestors displace others or
take part in colonisation? Utopias are in
tension with colonisation.
A utopia, if it ever can exist, belongs in
the future. This is the important work
of speculative fiction, to see the future
and from that future to examine the
now. We send messages back and forth
through time, using what anthropologist
W. E. H. Stanner, in his 1953 essay ‘The
Dreaming’, called ‘everywhen’, the Aboriginal
Australian concept of time in which
the abstract concepts of past, present
and future do not exist. In this sense the
future is a utopia, it does not exist. In
the everywhen everything that can exist
already does, it’s just waiting for it’s time
to unfold, to reveal itself. We don’t create
a future, we discover it. Child of Now is a
However Today is only really significant
as the time and place to identify what
Photo: R.Hurford
specific hopes we
have for a better
world. Then we
must move on
to address those
specific problems
we must solve to
get there.
PlayOn! is hopeful
that within our
Digital Age are the
seeds for Concrete
Utopias to grow
into the good places
of tomorrow for
everyone. We can
choose to accept
that technology
will just build a digital version of the old
world with all its failings and injustices.
Or we can choose to hope and identify
the problems that technology can solve.
We can choose to see that the past is
really “no place”. We can learn from
it, but we must not allow it to stop us
hoping for something different and
better. “Concrete Utopias in the Digital
Age” is definitely not a call to imagine
the impossible. Instead it’s a challenge to
search for the huge, wonderful, limitless
potential of the possible and to choose
to make it all really happen, one day at
a time. Let’s hope.
CHILD OF NOW -
Imagining the next century
through the life of a child
born today Robert E Walton
and Claire G Coleman | Australia
way we can encourage this discovery.
We write from the collaborative creative
process of our interdisciplinary Extended
Reality (XR) artwork Child of Now,
a project that speculates on radical
variations of how the next century might
unfold. It focuses collective attention by
enacting rehearsals of
possible futures. Our
aim is to foster embodied
experiences
of indigenised, equitable
and sustainable
societies, to explore
how the future might
feel.
The artwork does this by combining
narrative and portraiture to imagine the
life course of a child born today. We invite
14,400 people to step into the Child
of Now’s shoes at key moments in the
future to help make decisions. The sum
of all the decisions creates a collaboratively
authored future history of the next
century. The holograms we create of
each person’s performance as the Child
of Now form an animated portrait that
ages sequentially, one body at a time,
¬- here is a
connection
to PlayOn!
in terms of
content. But
this book is
a takedown
of culture as
we know it;
in Eagleton’s
eyes culture
is "overrated". The self-identified Marxist
complains: "In some places, culture
has become a way of not talking about
capitalism". A culture to Eagleton's taste
would have to create a utopia beyond
capitalist reality.
Hallelujah, here are the utopian ideas we
are looking for – in a relevant context!
Yes, Eagleton’s approach still appears
dressed in the linguistic costume of
Marxism: property, exploitation and
class struggle ... But honestly, there’s not
much wrong about that for my taste.
In "Hope without Optimism," Eagleton
draws a distinction between hope and
simple wishful thinking idealism, or a
blind faith in progress. Unlike hope,
professional optimism is not a virtue
and it cannot be supported or justified
with serious thought or rigorous study.
He illustrates this by referring to North
Korea and the United States of America,
where optimism is almost a state
ideology. Optimism in the US is often the
same as patriotism. As Eagleton says, a
US-president telling Americans that their
best years are already behind them is
unthinkable; it would be at least political
suicide and possibly even put their actual
life in danger.
HOPE WITHOUT
OPTIMISM
Dirk Neldner | DE
For Eagleton simple optimism is banal.
Hope, on the other hand, requires reflection
and clear, rational thinking - and
always holds the possibility of failure. His
conclusion that Hope drives people and
states to peak performance brings us to
the core issues of our work. We are all
confronted with the possibility of failure
when we make theatre, when we use
one minute each, through a whole life
course. Then, 14,400 minutes (ten days)
later, the Child of Now will die, approximately
one hundred years in the future.
Child of Now is an exercise in co-authorship,
that begins with the two of
us, Claire and Robert, and will grow
and unfold to include thousands more.
Our utopian aim is to preserve the
idiosyncrasy of each voice, gesture,
turn of phrase, body, skin tone, language
and perspective of every contributor
in the Child of Now’s future
archive. This portrait of the Child of
assumption
that we can
really deal with
utopias in theatre
– because
we simply lack
the language
to do so. If I
understand
this correctly,
we can hope,
but we must accept that hope cannot
predict the future, and just be content if
we succeed in reflecting where change is
needed in the present.
This confrontation with Terry Eagleton
gave me a lot of pleasure, even if it’s a
dark pleasure. That's why at the end of
his book I just felt like browsing again
through Ernst Bloch and his main work
"The Principle of Hope". Just to confirm
that my longing for utopias is not entirely
wrong. Bloch calls longing the only
honest quality of man. And he gives me
courage by saying that it is important
that we learn to hope. Because if we stop
hoping, what we fear will come to be.
When it comes to the cooperation
between theatre and the digital world
optimism alone cannot help us. These
worlds sometimes feel like two antipodes,
truly hard to connect up. It
demands the investment of a lot of hope
to imagine we can find a way to develop
creatively together. But it is my firm
conviction, that here such an investment
in hope is really worth it. We must train
ourselves to bring these two creative
worlds closer together. Again, it is about
hope without optimism. Clear visions
must be developed on both sides so that
a common, very concrete utopia can
emerge.
We are the storytellers and we have
the obligation to always develop new
narratives for people. And, in doing so,
also show the audience the opportunities
of our time in expanded spaces,
so that the audience can dive into our
stories and the possibilities they contain.
Now comprised of thousands of people
and their observations of the future
will be radically plural, it will not be
homogenised. Specific plurality is
important.
Have a look at the diagram. The public
will engage in the project in two parts.
In part one, ‘Gathering’, 14400 Melbournians
would come through our
immersive installation to create what
we call the “future archive”. This
experience includes
continue on page 5

4 5
HOPE CONFERENCE
BRINGING THEATRE MAKERS AND TECHNOLOGISTS TOGETHER
In 2021 and 2022 PlayOn! created an innovative online conference bringing together
leading creatives and technologists exploring immersive technology and storytelling.
Sourcing speakers from all over the world audiences were able to register for free to
engage with the activities. From AR scavenger hunts to large scale installations the
work showcased also traversed artforms including opera, theatre and our favourite
subject ‘utopias’: Content is also available to stream online for free.
https://play-on.eu/creative-forums/
HOPE 2021 | RELAUNCHING THEATRES ON THE TRANSMEDIA STAGE
Still from Hope Conference 2022 Pola Weiß
HOPE 2022 | IMMERSIVE THEATRE IN EXPANDED SPACES
TWITTER THEATRE –
MOTHER HOPE AND
HER CHILDREN
co-production: Burgtheater Wien (AT),
Berliner Ensemble (DE),
Teatr Ludowy (PL) and PlayOn!
This was a performance that took
place in the imaginations of the audience.
Using the hashtag #HopeVorstellung
Hope conference attendees gathered
on twitter collectively creating the
experience of travelling to the theatre to
sitting down and watching the play. The
audience were supported and fired up
on Twitter by actors from the three coproducing
theatres as well as the other
PlayOn! companies. This was a communal
experience that enabled people to
travel (not) to Berlin and Krakow and
visit (not) a guest performance – and
all in one evening!
macro and micro movements of different
bodies. The workshop demonstrated
how a performers movement could trigger
a whole range of on-stage effects.
BERLIN@PLAY –
AN INTERACTIVE
AR-THEATRE GAME.
A joint adventure by Akademie
für Theater und Digitalität (DE),
Landesbühnen Sachsen (DE),
Platypus Theatre Berlin (DE)
Berlin@Play is an AR theatre game that
takes place in urban space. It asks the
questions: What is the city around me?
What role do I play in it? The staging
of the piece in public space with digital
technology aims to reinterpret each
place the audience encounter, turning
the spectators into players and putting
them in Kafkaesque situations.
SEKLAKI
HANDS ON WORKSHOP
Claudius Lazzeroni,
professor for Interface Design at
Folkwang University Essen (DE)
Audience interact with their environment
using a tablet exploring a narrative
based on Kafka’s novel “The Castle”, the
audience are told stories, have to find
places, evaluate them and make their
Berlin @ play
own decisions.
In his workshop, Claudius presented
Watch the trailer.
SEKLAKI, a system of different sensor
Through AR, they experience a digitally
watch?v=PhYU_e1nPS4
and tracking possibilities adapted for
staged space. The beauty of this project
an easy use on stage with little techno-
is the potential for it to be played in
You can play the game in Berlin in
logical knowhow. The goal is an easy
other cities, using technology to bring
summer 2022
control of sound, light and visuals with
the storytelling into the urban space.
https://games.platypus-theater.de
Continued from page 3
CHILD OF NOW - Imagining the next century
through the life of a child born today
Child of Now Prototype
recording moving holograms and audio
experience to immerse visitors within
messages addressing the future. We
the archive. In the coming years we will
have just finished the first prototype of
develop the Gathering to collect 14,400
Laila Finnish National Opera
‘Gathering’ at Arts Centre Melbourne.
holographic and audio portraits.
Once we have collected 1000s of
holograms we are ready to perform
The embryonic, almost impossibly large
Laila Finnish National Opera
AI AS A STORYTELLING
CO-CREATOR
Guy Gadney (UK)
Guy is co-founder and CEO of the
ground-breaking storytelling platform
charisma.ai, a toolkit for creating
interactive stories with believable virtual
characters. How can artificial intelligence
become the co-creator of new storytelling
formats? Guy’s technology
allows characters and audiences
to communicate in dynamic and
compelling ways.
https://charisma.ai
MAÑANALAND: AN
AR STORYTELLING
SCAVENGER HUNT.
Lorne Svarc (The TANK NYC, USA)
Mañanaland is an interactive transmedia
piece that explores a utopian alternate
universe where the social and political
conflicts of today are a thing of the past.
The story is experienced in a hybrid virtual-physical
world through a virtual news
network and a series of AR hunts across
three of the five boroughs of New York.
The piece made good use of the existing
AR game app Scavengar for theatrical
storytelling. Seeing new applications for
existing technologies was particularly
interesting with this project.
https://thetanknyc.org/
mananaland
REIMAGINING
DIGITAL STAGES
Annastina Haaparsaari (FI)
As project manager of Opera Beyond
Annastina presented a unique
and ambitious project for the Finnish
National Opera and Ballet, based on
their recent production Laila, an immersive,
interactive installation, which won
the 2020 FEDORA Digital Prize. By combining
arts and technology without prejudice
or preconceptions, Opera Beyond
builds an ecosystem of independent
actors that gives rise to unusual combinations.
The Laila installation changes
and moulds its music and visuals when
audiences interact with the piece. “In
Laila, you are not the audience, but
one of many actors shaping reality.”
https://operabeyond.com
part two, ‘Existence’, a ten day public
performance ritual. We shuffle the holograms
into age order from 1-101 years,
and replay them 1 minute at a time over
10 days on top of Hamer Hall, the city's
largest stage. Each day this collective
portrait ages by a decade. After 10 days
the Child of Now dies in a life affirming
vigil with fireworks and festivities.
It is in this way that the project embodies
the art of speculative thinking
– generating a portrait of the current
population engaged in the act of
imagining the next century. Our utopian
aim is to create a portrait that
reflects the diversity of current and
future Naarm, Melbourne. It is therefore
critical to consider who contributes to
the archive of portraits to ensure the
project captures the diversity of the
current population and also reflects our
estimation of the future population.
scale, public art project Child of Now will
be many things: a sculpture, an experience,
a publicly and personally owned
mass ethnography, a work of performance
art, an archive.
We have an impulse towards utopia and
a certain knowledge that only through
examining the past (the now that has
happened) can we improve the future
(the now to come). The project itself is
utopic by nature, founded on the belief
that with enough collaborators the near
impossible can be performed.
This is in the true tradition of utopia
as Thomas More perhaps saw it, an
impulse towards something that might
be impossible, towards a world that is
better than the one we live in, towards
an archive and an ethnography that is
decolonised, owned by its subjects and,
finally, free of the racist impulses of insti-
and pluralistic, so it could be delivered
anywhere the human species are found,
anywhere people dream, anywhere we
can imagine. We are looking for collaborators.
New cities, new populations, new
children of now.
Please get in contact if you would like
to join us on this adventure.
Find out more:
http://robertwalton.net/project/
child-of-now/
The technology required to make Child
of Now did not exist when we started
work on the project in 2017. Over the
years we have worked with our collaborators
at University of Melbourne
and Phoria to create a holographic
portraiture system, 3D models of 10,000
years of past and future life along our
tutional collecting.
We desire to create a new type of art,
knowing it might be impossible and
knowing we might change the discourse
if we can indeed achieve our aims. In
this way we are defining the artistic
impulse as a striving towards a place
that does not exist, knowing perhaps,
that it’s better than here. Child of Now
FINAL THOUGHTS AND HOPES
HOPE 2021 and 2022 were attended by over 1550 people taking part in workshops,
talks and socialising in our online networking bar. What began as a need to go online
out of necessity due to the pandemic became an opportunity to engage with theatre
makers, technologists and creatives all over the world.
Perhaps there is scope for a Hope Conference 2023? Watch this space.
city’s river, interactive systems and a VR
was born in Melbourne but it is myriad

6 7
PLAYON! PARTNERS & SPOTLIGHTS ON PRODUCTIONS
During PlayOn! the partner theatres go through three production periods: In phase 1 they developed new forms of storytelling, building on
narrative structures used in the gaming sector. In phase 2 they merged these new forms with a variety of immersive technologies creating
innovative and impressive productions out of these working processes.
THE THEATRES are now preparing for the third phase of the project. They will leave the stage and look for immersive
outreach applications. In order to exploit all the opportunities offered by the new story-world-building, they will experience how to engage the
audience with points of intervention and participation in the public urban space. Immersive technologies offer a kind of flexibility, which enables
theatres to exceed limits of space and time. Thematically they will further explore the topic of concrete utopias in the digital age.
http://obando.pt/pt
https://www.landestheater-linz.at
https://www.pilot-theatre.com
https://kolibriszinhaz.hu
Teatro O Bando | Palmela/Portugal
Landestheater Linz | Austria
Pilot Theatre Company | York/United Kingdom
Kolibri Színház | Budapest/Hungary
Est. 1974
17 permanent team members
Shows per year: 120
Spectators per year: around 20 000
We are working as a collective future-oriented theatre; the focus of our projects
are freedom, territories and minorities.
FUTEBOL
(co-production with Teatro Montemuro) is a theatrical reflection about the ancestral and the anthropological
roots of the relationship between a human being and a ball. Joining two different teams
on stage we pretend to mix the well-known codes of modern football with the historical research of
Portuguese writer Álvaro Magalhães. Published in 2004, the author’s The Natural History of Football
is a multidisciplinary essay which delves into the most intimate aspects of the game to discover its
essence, exploring the motivations inherent to it and its essential categories. Following the PlayON!
challenge, we developed an app (developed by Ben Kirman, more info on page 2) with specific
contents to captivate the audience and to allow them to become an active “supporter” of this
theatre game, following the results of the season of the show through videos and other types
of media contents.
Est. 1803
Size of the team: around 1000
Shows per year: 800-900
Spectators per year: around 320 000
Departments: Opera, Dance, Musical, Drama and Theatre for Young Audience (TYA)
5 stages (90 to 1 200 seats) + online “netstage”
ALIENATION
Nikola is hiding in her room avoiding expectations to conform, while trying to connect to others
online. The outside world is only present via smartphone videos, sounds and written chats, while she
tries to manifest an utopian society in a video game world. The audience can interact with each other
via reaction.link emojis (https://www.reactionlink.de) and help build the gaming environment
through their decisions.
Alienation builds upon our first experiments with live theatre online, ranging from very little interactivity
to the audience being responsible for progressing the story, a development we feel is vital for
the audience-performance relationship in online theatre. For the gaming worlds we teamed up with
students of the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria.
Est. 1981
Size of the team 4 full time, 3 part-time + many freelancers
Spectators per year: around 15000
As a touring company, we make theatre and art with and for young people and
inspire and champion creativity. Think harder, feel more!
MONOLITHS
in collaboration with One to One Development
Three women. Three voices. The northern landscape.
They are monoliths – standing stones – powerful and influential forces.
In Monoliths, three stories open the world of the northern English landscape in virtual reality, what
it means to come from it, live in it and belong to it.
Monoliths is a VR experience that combines the soundscapes of real locations in the north of England
with the stories of three northern women. The piece is an exploration on how landscapes can be
radical spaces for expression and reflection. Premiering at re:publica, 2022.
Est. 1992
81 permanent workers + over 30 freelancers
Shows per year: 550
Spectators per year: around 50000
“We grow up together!” – This motto conveys our mission to offer each age
group high-standard productions that are suitable for their mental and emotional
development, and to accompany children through the stages of artistic experience.
WATERGATE
is an interactive theatre game about the negative effects of climate change. The story takes place in
two similar Time Crypts, that come from an imagined future, an age when humanity’s drinking water
supply has decreased drastically. Our audience are active participants of the game, revealing some
details of the impending social and climate catastrophe themselves with the help of messages from
the future. Whether their mission succeeds, whether they can prevent a forthcoming danger, depends
on them. The future is in their hands.
You can hear an interview with the director and designer of the production by scanning the QR code.
https://re-publica.com/
de/session/monoliths
https://youtu.be/
eNIpsOrpOe4
Teatr Ludowy | Krakow/Poland
https://ludowy.pl
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=MmfcApcI9E8
Est. 1955
96 permanent employees
Spectators per year: 101 000
Shows per year: approx. 580
A theatre that expands its operation and creates new fields of art.
Teatret Vårt | Molde, Ålesund/Norway
Est. 1972
Size of the team: 40 permanent + 30 freelance
Spectators per year: 35 000
Shows per year: approx. 270
Teatret Vårt is an ambitious and innovative theatre touring the north-western
region of Norway with home base at theatre houses in the towns of Molde and
Ålesund producing a broad range of plays for audiences of all ages.
The production DREAM GAME is using an interactive stage created by microcontrollers that
provides an unusual theatrical experience for a young audience aged 8+.
https://www.teatretvart.no
1984 MINISTRY OF LOVE
Decide! Accuse! Judge!
In 1984: Ministry of Love the audience become part of the jury who will pass judgement on the accused.
The audience have access to a unique mobile application reaction.link and court files. Pressing a
button to change somebody’s life.
The performance, whose starting point is the novel by George Orwell, 1984, places the audience, as
a judging body, they are able to decide, along with the course of the interrogation, which of the four
perspectives of the story they want to see. They will democratically vote on whom to grant or whom
to take away the right to vote. The performance asks what the power of audience responsibility becomes
in the oppressive situation of the invasion of someone's memory.
Elsinor Centro di Produzione Teatrale | Forlì,
Florence, Milano/Italy
Est. 1999 as three theatre companies, active from the 1970s, merged together
15 permanent staff members + around other 140 per year involved in projects
Shows per year: 363
Spectators per year: 50500
Elsinor’s driven commitment is focused on the exploration of contemporary theatrical
prose, and the exchange and synergies inspired by traditional and new approaches.
FRANKENSTEIN
https://www.elsinor.net
This production is a feminine interpretation of the famous book, which tells of an era in which being
women and artists was much less than an exception, in which one could feel "monstrous" if she gave
birth to books instead of children, in which a Creator confronts herself with the fear of being such and
with the genius of her Creature: a masterpiece that has transcended its time creating one of the greatest
topos of the contemporary age. A dreamlike journey into the novel and the emotionality of its author,
and at the same time a technological immersion in a dramaturgy with an interactive component.
Theater Dortmund | Germany
Est. 1904
700 permanent employees + freelancers
Shows per year: 680
Spectators per year: 220 000
Theater Dortmund is one of the largest theatres in Germany with over
500 employees. It is divided into the six divisions (drama, opera, ballet,
Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy for Theatre and Digitality, KJT - Theatre
for Young audience), each of which has its own artistic direction.
THE FUTURE
https://www.theaterdo.de
Our main idea is to develop a play that refers to the current situation of humanity. Young people
are facing a future that looks to be chaotic, dark, overwhelming and disturbing. Due to the Coronavirus
we extend further into digital worlds without structures and ways to connect. The production
is a collage of voice, body, sound, and surroundings in order to depict the immediacy of digital
environments but also to explore strategies to face the future with courage and joy.

New Storytelling with Nz.1
one June 2022
issue
Technologies
Immersive
HALF OF THE
PROJECT IS
DONE.
HOW PLAYON! - PARTNERS
LOOK INTO THE FUTURE?
Motion- or movement-tracking?
For a theatre practitioner these terms
seem very similar. In reality though
these methods mean quite different
possibilities, problems and even technological
bases. The first step is to decide,
which road to choose, the second step is
to find a working balance between tech
and art. VAT Teater (EE)
The living challenge of creating spaces
in which artistic research and aesthetic
production are related to each other,
in which people of different artistic and
technical provenance experiment on
a sensual and meaningful theatre of
the future. Akademie für Theater und
Digitalität (DE)
Theatre as an agile, creative, flexible art
form, that brings people together, helps
them communicate, problem solve
and find understanding and common
ground is as relevant as it ever was. And
smart uses of technology within theatre
are maybe the rocket fuel for enabling
this connection and understanding and
problem-solving ability to spread around
the planet, at a time when we need those
things the most. Pilot Theatre (UK)
Our goal is to be a unique center for
impulse-giving art and at the same time
to develop it further as an interface between
contemporary art and a changing
society. Theater Dortmund (DE)
We´re focusing on audience development
and trying to find open forms or
digital tools that immerse audiences into
our storytelling. Landestheater Linz (AT)
We are finding ways to apply cutting
edge technology research to help
storytellers in film, games and theatre.
University of York | Digital Creativity
Labs (UK)
the most
tragic
form of loss
isn't the loss of security;
it's the loss of the
capacity
to imagine that things
could be ­
different.
ernst bloch - german philosopher
HOW DO
WE PlayOn!
DIRK NELDNER
(ARTISTIC DIRECTOR PLAYON!)
With PlayOn! we aim to establish new
links between the theatre artists, the
professional training and the industrial
sectors. We are creating synergies
by pooling resources, by receiving
high impact training, and by multilevel
networking to benefit most.
Within 5 years we will under take
experiments and research in how
theatres can develop the content and
aesthetics of their work as an artistic
asset. We will establish professional
connections with the digital industry.
New technologies always need
new ideas (content) for application,
practical and playful use. That’s our
speciality as theatres. And in this way,
theatres face the challenges without
losing their task of communicating
and engaging with the audience.
Content in combination with technology
can become a win-win situation
for all players.
IMPRINT
Newspaper one | PlayOn! New storytelling
with immersive technologies
Editor Odette Bereska, Lucy Hammond
Layout & Design sign.Berlin
Communications GmbH | www.sign-berlin.de
Printed by Druckhaus Sportflieger
Picture Index Richard Hurford (UK),
Klaudina Schubert (PL), Jörg Metzner (DE),
Kari Ylitalo (FI)
© PlayOn! New storytelling with immersive
technologies is a European Theatre Network
supported by the European Commission. The
views expressed in this publication are only
the views of the authors. The Commission cannot
be held responsible for any use, which may
be made of the information contained therein.
Contact Odette Bereska | odette@play-on.eu
Project Coordinator VAT Teater | vatteater.ee
Our current challenges are to integrate the
needs of the different technologies with
the standard production methods, and to
integrate and bring together the different
audiences (more attracted to technology
or traditional theatre) on new paths.
Elsinor Centro di Produzione Teatrale (IT)
Our main goal is to find a way to
survive as a cooperative and as a
collective of artists, while trying to
transgress the borders between rural
and urban, adult and child, schooled or
popular, national or universal, dramatic,
narrative or poetic, digital or analogue.
Teatro O Bando (PT)
We look forward to the challenges and
fresh perspectives offered by the two
international projects – PlayOn! and
MAPPING – that are running with our
participation, in continuing a series of
highly productive co-operations.
Kolibri Színház (HU)
We are looking for new artistic tools
to make our theatre more open for
every kind of audience. We try to find a
balance between traditional structures of
theatre performances and new forms of
participation. Teatr Ludowy (PL)
Our goal is to develop and produce a
program that connects with, and initiates
development within a diverse audience
in the county of Møre and Romsdal.
Teatret Vårt (NO)