{"id":21540,"date":"2016-10-14T00:29:49","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T07:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=21540"},"modified":"2016-10-13T10:18:10","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T17:18:10","slug":"stop-zombie-vampires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2016\/10\/14\/stop-zombie-vampires\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop zombie-vampires"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rowan Jang provides an example of the zombie-vampires audiences can expect to encounter in The Zombie Syndrome: Dead in the Water<\/em>. (photo by Emily Cooper Photography)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Last year, I was one of a group of \u201cspecialists\u201d who gathered outside Trout Lake Community Centre to embark on our mission, which related to a downed alien spaceship. While the details of that mission must remain confidential, one aspect can be revealed \u2013 it was loads of fun. It was also a great cardio workout, not just because of the running from zombies, but the screaming, both from fear and excitement.<\/p>\n

This year, the Virtual Stage is gathering teams (audiences) of 18 on Granville Island every 30 minutes from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. nightly until Oct. 31 to help find Special Forces operative Frank Johnson. As per the mission description, Johnson \u201cwas hunting down former government geneticist Mattias Van Cleave when he fell off the radar. Van Cleave, a suspected vampiric psychopath, is believed to be responsible for a string of recent murders, and the sudden appearance of zombie-vampire mutants across the Lower Mainland. The audience must determine Johnson\u2019s whereabouts and ensure his mission to stop Van Cleave is completed at any cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with the four previous Zombie productions, The Zombie Syndrome: Dead in the Water<\/em> makes use of the latest technology \u2013 this year, it\u2019s Apple\u2019s new location-based iBeacon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very interested in how emerging technologies can excite live audiences and breathe new life into theatre as an art form,\u201d Virtual Stage artistic director, Zombies series creator and Jewish community member Andy Thompson told the Independent<\/em>. \u201cI am very narrative-driven as an artist, and the iBeacons have been a delightful tool in the creation of The Zombie Syndrome: Dead in the Water<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision about what technology to use, Thompson said, \u201cinvolves a process of questioning what is readily accessible and available, not only for myself as a producer, but also for today\u2019s audiences. What is free within smartphones today? What is new and exciting? How can these gadgets drive a story forward? What can people afford? What can our company afford?<\/p>\n

\u201cI am also constantly imagining what the next big thing in technology might be, as well as its potential future societal impact,\u201d he added. \u201cMy vision of concern for the future with \u2018social media on steroids\u2019 in my musical Broken Sex Doll<\/em> is one example of this. I am also assessing what exciting new technologies are present today and how they may aid in live storytelling. In the particular instance of this show, the iBeacons roll out narrative content in a very interactive and engaging way as the audience moves from site to site.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the audience moves quickly along \u2013 both because they are \u201cracing against the clock\u201d and because there are scary things lurking in the dark \u2013 the possibility of an accident, miscue or technical glitch is much higher than for a standard production.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe rehearse as many possibilities as we can,\u201d said Thompson, \u201cbut the most important preparation we have is to be ready for anything: the \u2018known unknowns,\u2019 as Donald Rumsfeld might say. So far, the audiences have been completely surprising to us in how they navigate the problems we present to them. So, it is fresh and exciting every performance. The personalities of the individual audience members also greatly affect the flow and feel of each show. We did a lot of improvising in the rehearsal process so the actors are very prepared and on their toes.\u201d<\/p>\n

One unexpected moment \u2013 of which Thompson said \u201cthere have been many\u201d \u2013 took place during last year\u2019s mission, \u201cwhen the entire site flooded on our closing performance at Trout Lake. We had about one hour to physically relocate most sites to higher ground, rehearse it in the new areas, and get as many technical elements in place as we could. We managed to pull off a derivative of the show, which was a miracle and a testament to our amazing crew and performers.\u201d<\/p>\n

As to what participants can expect this year, Thompson said, \u201cAudiences will be traveling by sea at one point, which we are thrilled about. They will be confronted with a new breed of mutant zombie-vampires that cannot be killed. The iBeacon technical aspect to the show is also a Canadian theatre premi\u00e8re, so people will be testing that tech out with their smartphones in a live entertainment environment like they have never done before. And yes, there might be running….\u201d<\/p>\n

For mission tickets, visit thevirtualstage.org\/zombies. Participants should dress for the weather and moving quickly; the show is rated PG-13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rowan Jang provides an example of the zombie-vampires audiences can expect to encounter in The Zombie Syndrome: Dead in the Water. (photo by Emily Cooper Photography) Last year, I was one of a group of \u201cspecialists\u201d who gathered outside Trout Lake Community Centre to embark on our mission, which related to a downed alien spaceship. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[5867,1881,6469,2433,4623],"class_list":["post-21540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-interactive-theatre","tag-technology","tag-vampires","tag-virtual-stage","tag-zombies"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}