Three Christmas Plays by Avatar Repertory Theater
Michelle Fowler

Does your Christmas look less like Norman Rockwell and more like Norman Bates?  Does your family put the "Diss" in "Dysfunctional"?  Does your Uncle Fred use the Andy Williams' Christmas Albums for target practice?  Well, welcome home Buckaroo!  The actors of the Avatar Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) invite you to "The Real Christmas Story", starring Y.A.D.F. (your average dysfunctional family).  These original Christmas stories will premiere on Friday, December 11, at 5 pm California time (pst) at Rockcliffe’s Dove Theater.  Two other performances will be presented on Saturday, December 12 at 3 pm pst, and Sunday, December 13 at 2 pm pst.

Like I told ya before

Inworld-outworld party at my retirement community

When: Sunday, Oct. 25.  12:30 to 3 pm California time. 
Open to the public. 

Where In Second Life inworld:    Brigadoon theater,  hovering above the line between Cookie and ThInkerer Quests, providing a 2-sim venue.  Like Brigadoon, this theater only emerges from the mists in response to theatrical need.  At other times it remains in two holodecks. 

Theater Credits:

• Jubjub  Forder, designer and builder
• Cheshyr Pontchartrain, Horizons Holodeck

Where in the outworld:   Franklin Park at Cityview,  Fort Worth, Texas
In the Activity Room.   Refreshments served by Cholly Gordon, Activity Director here.

Guest blog by Michelle Fowler

If you still haven't heard about the Avatar Repertory Theater's production of "13 Object's: Studies in Servitude," then I'm glad to have your attention now.  If you have heard of the production, then this is your reminder.  With the support of Coventry University, A.R.T. will be performing this exciting work on Oct 20th at 4pm SLT and on Oct 21st at 2pm SLT, and trust me, this is a performance you will not want to miss.

All it takes is a big TV screen to bring your Second Life party into your living room.  At least that is what I claimed a while back: Real Entertainment from the Virtual Village. 

And Eva Moon Ember did something like that with the release of her new CD:  Eva Moon Goes Blended World

And here are some more of my outrageous claims: Scenarios for a Killer Ap

Now I am going to try out this idea in the retirement community where I live. 

When: Sunday, Oct. 25.  12:30 to 3 pm California time.

Autumn Writers' Exhibition

The Autumn Writers' Exhibition opened in early October. This annual event is organized by Jilly Kidd and her group, Written Word.   Tents, huts and other spaces may still be available.  There's a 5000 Linden prize for the best display, a writing competition with prizes of 5000 Lindens  (see posters at AWE for details) and a week of events at the end of October. 

Policies: Exhibits must be writing-related.  Anything offered for sale must be writing or items that are (genuinely!) helpful to writers.  Authors can offer their own books for sale. However, the exhibit must be primarily a showcase for writing, rather than a commercial shopfront.

A.R.T. COMPANY IN WORLD-WIDE EVENT

Coventry University presents Avatar Repertory Theater's staging of "13 Objects: Studies in Servitude" by Howard Barker as part of an international festival celebrating the work of this prestigious playwright.  Performances will be on Oct 20, 4pm California time and October 21, 2pm California time

A.R.T.'s virtual theater is presently offering public rehearsals in the ART plays around show (every Friday, 5-6 PM California time, at the Archon Theater on Cookie).  The pictures in this section are of sets rezzed for rehearsals on the Archon stage.  Changing sets takes about 15 seconds.  The first picture shows the Archon stage with no set.  

Goal-oriented networks need much better communication support than you need in games like World of Warcraft.  If you have long-term goals, you need communication support that keeps long-term archives.  Businesses and educators have their own systems to meet their needs.   Networks that are emerging in Second Life will have to find or develop similar communication support.   Here is a case study of one such network -- a collaboration network.  That is the kind of network that needs the most in communication support. 

Avatar Repertory Theater goes outside the (SL) box

About a year ago, some thespian friends of mine formed a repertory theater troupe.  The goal of such a troupe is to develop a repertoire of performances that they can provide on demand.   The troupe has well-rehearsed plays with each part backed up by several actors.  It has a collection of stage sets and props that must be managed and moved to a performance site by stage/prop managers. And it runs a weekly presentation in experimental theater:

As I hinted last week, a few people are already offering commercial video services with video capture from virtual-reality.  Here is an interview with AWM Mars, who has been doing that for years.  His web site is at  WBA-Advertizing.

This interview was done entirely in Second Life, on the modern equivalent of paper (notecards).  I gave AWM a set of questions and he supplied written responses.  I have only made cuts to focus on the current topic and to avoid subjects that cannot adequately be handled in one article.   I may get back to him in a follow-up interview on some of these topics later.    

This article continues previous articles about the implications of OnLive for the future of Second Life.:

People are known by the communities they keep.  Note that plural.  People rarely live in just one community.  You will immediately think of work and home communities.  Or take my article last week about how video work could be moved to a private grid.  The video production could be moved to a private grid because at that point it does not need a large network like Second Life.  It does need a larger network for a casting call.

Mixagrid  A name I made up for the current state of things.   Part way to hypergrid.

Our previous episode described a new player the table, Onlive.  Onlive offers the prospect of a major change in the infrastructure used to deliver online games and the virtual reality that they live in.    This episode examines the prospects for this change and some of the futures it may offer.

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