The Research On Design Of The Virtual Theatre Performance “SADKO”

Virtual theatre is a new type of the theatre which is possibly can become a new genre in the future and which development has started already. As any other kind of art, the theatre always needs to be in a development and a progress and that’s the main reason for research for the new concept and instruments. The idea of the virtual theatre is an idea of uniting new media technology and the traditional theatre, using virtual reality as an expressive medium for creation artistic illusion.Western theatre originated in the Ancient Greece, from where has taken most of its basic principles and terminology, genre classification, characters, plot elements, themes, which became accepted as canons. Beginning from the 20 th century, revolutionary in many senses, digital technology enters every day’s life. Human consciousness and, therefore art, can’t be the same. Artists are looking for new expressive media, while spectators want to be more interactive, be co-creators. That makes the use of virtual technology in theatre a new reality.Immersion is a new level in creating artistic illusion but effects of new media still haven’t been researched properly. Every time inventing new ways, artist should remember that effect on a spectator can appear overstrong and harmful for senses. Technologies give more new opportunities. Disembodience approach lets actor use a “digital costume” – a projection of an art image or robotic marionette, which with the technology development will have better options to convey the artist’s idea. Disembodied, actor easily chooses any shape and the artistic talent is not restricted but expressed with the help of technology. Virtual theatre using new media still can be considered a ‘life performance’. It’s improvisatory and unique every time, digital technology is controlled by human and can’t change the liveness of the creative process. The virtual dramaturgy and scenography introduce new visual elements to the theatrical stage, immersive and interactive decorations, faster and easier change of them, and extension of theatrical space.“Sadko” is a Russian medieval epic bylina, the tale inspired many different authors. Purposes of the creation design are an attempt to find if there are enough means and technics to create a virtual theatre performance, if a classical story can be adopt for digital story-telling and explore ways to create a performance for the virtual theatre. For this design project were programmed a robotic puppet and modeled, textured and rigged a 3D virtual actor, which placed in a scenery, created in Unity 3D and projected in CAVE where is connected to Kinect.Finally, a questionnaire method for investigation the audience’ experience, shows the feasibility of the virtual theatre concept design, exploring ways of creation and main characteristics features.