University develops virtual stage sets

All the world's a virtual stage

Stage sets generated by a computer and projected onto stage are being developed by university researchers.

The use of 'virtual' scenery in live theatre is being explored by the University of Kent, which would allow sets to be changed at the press of a button and elaborate designs to be attempted in small theatres.

Later this year, the university hopes to use the system for a student production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare.

The use of computer animation is well established in cinema, with virtual images mixed in with live performances.

Now techniques are being developed to create a virtual-reality experience for a theatre audience, in which images can be placed on stage.

'Free from physical confines'

The work is being assisted by Mark Reaney, a visiting academic from the University of Kansas in the United States, where he is head of the Institute for the Exploration of Virtual Realities.

Mark Reaney has been working on interactive sets in the United States for six years - and is spending six months at the University of Kent, where he will work on A Midsummer Night's Dream with the School of Drama, Film and Visual Arts.

The computer sets can give designers greater freedom of expression, "freeing the stage from its physical confines", he says: "You can have apparently solid objects moving through the air."