3pointD.com

Live theatre has been a bit of a dead issue in the virtual world of Second Life until now. Occasional projects come and go, but nothing of any scale seems to get off the ground — perhaps because of the difficulty of operating avatars and “listening” to a performance in chat. Reuben Steiger’s virtual world services company Millions of Us is determined to see it done, however, and is holding an evening of live theatre tonight in the Millions of Us sim. Rather than produce its own plays, though, Millions has issued a challenge to SL residents — complete with cash prizes — to create plays they can perform live at the New Globe Theatre this evening.

The performances will begin at 6pm SL time, though there’s apparently been only one full scale entrant so far. “From the Shadows” was written by SL resident Enjah Mysterio, and features a cast including Eilen McTeague, Lucipher Baphomet, Selador Cellardoor and Ida Keen. The performance will be directed by Osprey Thereian, who also designed the sets. [UPDATE: Reuben has posted a video of a portion of the production on YouTube, complete with voice added in. Check it out.]

The performance will take place in text, using a heads-up display attachment created by Vlad Bjornson. It will be interesting to see exactly what this consists of, and how well Vlad’s system can make sense of chat, which is normally difficult to disentangle when more than a couple of people are speaking. SL events tend to be plagued by an enormous amount of chatter from audience members. But if the HUD can somehow make the players’ “voices” stand out, it should be an interesting performance.

In addition, a prize will be given out for best SL-related joke or anecdote that can be told or performed in under three minutes. Each prize is in the amount of L$42,300 (over US$100), commemorating the fact that William Shakespeare was born (and died) on 4/23.

RSVP to SL resident Green Fate for admission, as seats are limited. See you there.