BMO Lab for Creative Research in the Arts / en Artist residency at U of T helped actor Sébastien Heins develop innovative new theatre performance /news/artist-residency-u-t-helped-actor-sebastien-heins-develop-innovative-new-theatre-performance <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Artist residency at U of T helped actor Sébastien Heins develop innovative new theatre performance</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-05/P1000488-crop.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=q9R7LNW_ 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-05/P1000488-crop.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=hYUod2cx 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-05/P1000488-crop.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=INoeKhiS 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-05/P1000488-crop.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=q9R7LNW_" alt="David Rokeby (right) works with actor and former BMO Lab artist-in-residence Sébastien Heins"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>siddiq22</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-05-04T12:40:55-04:00" title="Thursday, May 4, 2023 - 12:40" class="datetime">Thu, 05/04/2023 - 12:40</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p>U of T Assistant Professor David Rokeby (right) is working with actor and former BMO Lab artist-in-residence Sébastien Heins on No Save Points, a stage show using cutting-edge technology (photo by Tara Maher and David Rokeby)</p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/bmo-lab-creative-research-arts" hreflang="en">BMO Lab for Creative Research in the Arts</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/technology" hreflang="en">Technology</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>An innovative new theatre production created&nbsp;by actor <a href="http://outsidethemarch.ca/our-team/">Sébastien Heins</a>&nbsp;that was developed at the Ƶ's&nbsp;<a href="https://bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca/">BMO Lab for Creative Research in the Arts, Performance, Emerging Technologies and AI</a>&nbsp;will premiere in Toronto in June.</p> <p><a href="https://www.cdtps.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/david-rokeby">David Rokeby</a>, associate director&nbsp;and assistant professor, teaching stream&nbsp;at the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdtps.utoronto.ca/">Centre for Drama, Theatre &amp; Performance Studies</a>&nbsp;in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science,&nbsp;collaborated with Heins –&nbsp;one of BMO Lab's first artists-in-residence in 2020-2021 –&nbsp;on <a href="https://outsidethemarch.ca/the-experiences/no-save-points/#/"><em>No Save Points</em></a>, which runs from June 6 to 25 at Lighthouse ArtSpace.</p> <p>The <a href="https://www.canadianstage.com/artistic-programs/artist-residencies/bmo-lab-residency">residency&nbsp;program</a> is a&nbsp;partnership between the BMO Lab and Canadian Stage, in which two artists are selected to immerse themselves in the lab’s technologies and experiment with ways to apply them to live performance.</p> <p>Rokeby and Heins also worked together on a workshop of&nbsp;<a href="https://bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca/?p=2514"><em>The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui</em></a>&nbsp;by Bertolt Brecht in April 2022.</p> <div class="align-left"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2023-05/NSP-Poster-FINAL1-2-1-800x1200.jpg" width="300" height="450" alt="No Save Points poster"> </div> </div> <p>Video games, theatre and memoir collide in the fast-paced adventure narrative of <em>No Save Points</em>, as&nbsp;Heins places the control(er) in the hands of the audience&nbsp;– entrusting them to pilot his performance using state-of-the-art motion-capture and haptic technology.&nbsp;</p> <p>“It's really exciting as an artist to be able to link up with somebody with as much experience as David,” Heins said.</p> <p>“Oftentimes technology seems like an impediment, but interacting with somebody who is capable of turning technology into art inspires everybody&nbsp;to see technology as a fluid, very human tool.” &nbsp;</p> <p>The use of a motion-capture suit was just one of the technologies Rokeby and Heins experimented with during the residency. The suit shadows a person's motions and sends information to a computer from sensors at 100 times per second&nbsp;–&nbsp;these sensors detect three-dimensional orientation and movement of the person wearing the suit. That&nbsp;data are then mapped onto a corresponding digital avatar or character that can be projected onto a screen. &nbsp;</p> <p>The play's story was inspired by real-life events –&nbsp;following his mother's diagnosis of Huntington's disease, Heins found himself contemplating&nbsp;the loss of control such illness imposes on people's lives, bodies and emotions.</p> <p>The situation reminded him of his childhood, when he would chafe against attending events with his parents and his mother would allow him the escape of playing video games on his Game Boy.</p> <p>“I started to wonder how my love of theatre, video games and my mother could intersect,” Heins said. “I found myself wanting to escape from the truth of [her] diagnosis – and so the Game Boy became a symbol of taking back control.”</p> <p>In the&nbsp;one-man show, Heins plays up to 10 different characters, using&nbsp;the motion-shadow suit, a hacked Game Boy and a controller&nbsp;to weave his way through the narrative of&nbsp;what happened to his family. Amid a series of monologues, the main character escapes into a game that represents the psychological processing of his experiences.</p> <p>“The use of technologies as a metaphor here is really key, because it shifts it from being, ‘Here's a cool thing you can do,'&nbsp;to ‘Here is a way this character is working through things,'” Rokeby said.</p> <p>“The best uses of technology and art are when they are not just as spectacle, but there is a metaphorical relationship to the content in the story&nbsp;so that the technology is adding to the texture of what the audience is thinking and experiencing, rather than just adding something cool.”&nbsp;</p> <p>The audience has a key role in the show as well. The hacked Game Boy system allows an audience member to use a gaming controller to send signals to buzzers that are placed on Heins’ body through a haptic feedback system. Each buzzer tells Heins which direction to move in – or if he should jump or duck&nbsp;– in the video-game world, while those motions are reflected in a digital avatar representing Heins as his 10-year-old self. The scene is projected onto the show's set&nbsp;– a 15-foot-tall Game Boy.</p> <p>Heins experiences the buzzer sensations as akin to receiving a text message on a cellphone in his pocket&nbsp;– and will be anticipating those signals during the performance so he can respond in the moment.&nbsp;</p> <p>Rokeby describes such moments as similar to a sprinter in a race waiting for the starting pistol to go off&nbsp;– he notes the physical demands of Heins'&nbsp;show are incredibly high, but the usage of&nbsp;such new technologies&nbsp;in theatrical performance makes for an inspiring challenge.</p> <p>As Heins and his theatre company Outside the March rehearse in preparation for <em>No Save Point</em>'s opening in June, he will continue working with Rokeby to test the game on players to improve the audience experience.</p> <p>“Having the mixture of a live performance in motion capture and this other world that the actor is also participating in creates this really interesting tension, which speaks to the fact that we now live so much of our lives at the precipice between the physical and the virtual,” Rokeby said.</p> <p>“If played properly, that disjunction of the virtual and the real actor together speaks&nbsp;to a very contemporary experience.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-add-new-author-reporter field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Add new author/reporter</div> <div class="field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/tara-maher" hreflang="en">Tara Maher</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-add-new-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Add new story tags</div> <div class="field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/centre-drama-theatre-performance-studies" hreflang="en">Centre for Drama, Theatre &amp; Performance Studies</a></div> </div> </div> Thu, 04 May 2023 16:40:55 +0000 siddiq22 301487 at