Super-brief version of a long paper with abstract: The Metaverse Shakespeare Company (formerly SL Shakespeare Company) recounts and briefly analyzes a number of its innovations in virtual theatre—what worked, what didn't work, and what evolved into something totally unexpected. Several crucial areas in virtual theatre will be discussed in context of past productions: virtual theatre for supplementing existing RL courses; reaching out to a global audience, especially those in rural and inner city areas; SL as a platform for virtual theatre; enhancements made to SL as a platform for virtual theatre; and socioeconomic insights in running a professional virtual theatre that is self-sufficient without external funds.

1. Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education PerformanceInnovations Virtual Theatre The of Our in

2. Metaverse Shakespeare Company (MSC), aka, mShakespeareis a professional theatre company based in SL. curator of the most historically accurate theatres and architecture relating to William Shakespeare in virtual worlds. (formerly SL Shakespeare Company!) The MSC is an independent organization. Fiscal Sponsor: sLiterary, Inc. (NPO, arts in virtual worlds) Not affiliated with Linden Lab (Second Life) Not affiliated with any one institution, though many have participated, and all are welcome to participate. Origins Founded in 2007 by Ina Centaur Funded and supported completely by the residents of Second Life Introduction, Part I

3. Introduction, Part II Productions – Quality and with Passion and Innovation Main Canon: A single full-length Shakespearean play/year Several smaller productions other than the main play RSC Methods of scansion/analysis with rigorous rehearsals Embrace SL: Open auditions - Most actors have never met in RL. An innovation introduced with each main canon production Immersive Performance Environment – Cinematic atmosphere SL Globe Theatre To-Scale replica of Shakespeare’s second Globe Theatre Set in the midst of an an arts mecca in virtual worlds. Blackfriars Theatre World’s only complete replica of Shakespeare’s indoor theatre. Perfect for Elizabethan-style black box theatre.

4. Effects in Education - Setting “Open Access” Philosophy Participation: Anyone can join or witness our public events. Open Venues: sLiterary, Inc. sLiterary is a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering the arts in virtual worlds—to create “What Second Life can be!” sLiterary Venues - Always Open to the Public Metaverse Shakespeare Venues are sLiteraryVenues Over 50 venues, only some examples shown Brief preview and event listings at each venue are available at http://venues.sLiterary.org Anyone can book *their* public event for free Shared Content: Creative Commons Licensing for Not-for-profit Use of Content Attribution+Noncommercial+ShareAlike (by-nc-sa)

5. Via “Open Access”, we’ve reached both current students and “potential students” Current Students: Supplementing existing for-credit RL courses Shakespeare, Film & Theatre Courses Witness/Discuss a live Shakespearean play virtually @ SL Globe or Blackfriars (UC Davis, Bryn Mawr, MPC, Stanford, UT) New Media Courses Observations of best practices in literary artistic uses of new media (UCSC, CSU, HVCC) History Courses Lectures given in a virtual construction of a historic venue “bring history to life” (Oberlin, Princeton, Waldorf) Recreational, not-for-credit courses on SL Voice Acting courses, Hobbyist courses “RP” courses on SL Engaging the “potential student”: General Public Reaching out to unincorporated audiences in rural and inner city areas—many of whom have never seen a live theatrical performance before Effects in Education - Results

6. Effects in Education – And Research Effects, in general, for historically accurate immersive settings and activities, with/without theatrical supplements Education Engages the student in a way beyond traditional textbooks Students learn in an intimate first-hand way when immersed in a historically-accurate setting An ultimate globally-accessible form of asynchronous learning Research Provides an authentic medium for simulation of and experiments on era-activities Insights in era activities, even from passive observations Case Study – Historically Accurate, Blackfriars Theatre

7. The Bad Limited audience per sim. Not the unlimited theatre one would expect Current Solution: - 4-sim stage/theatre But, client-side lag may still strike. Down-side: Lag and Many users of SL outdated graphics cards, more users, more to render. Audience perspectives differ takes extreme toll in “User experiences may vary.” Often Haphazard or “Borked” Voice Media Stream – Variable delay between avatar movement and voice arrival SL Voice – “Instantaneous” Uncertain expectations Randomly disrupted Sometimes disabled for hours Crash! Limitations Due to Linden Lab (More to come in Part III—Socioeconomic Insights) Unprofessional (BBB F) Unexpected, haphazard policy changes Uncertain service uptime, complete or partial failure Closed-source server – no way to add mo-cap, etc The Good Proven L$-spending userbase. Possible to sustain tier even in a non-profit way (though not without its difficulties) Immersive world—while some come on SL just for the show, they can also explore the world beyond in-depth, become immersed in it, like a true alter reality—or, like visiting a new country. SL as a Platform for Virtual Theatre

8. MSC Innovations in Virtual Theatre, I Accessibility Closed-Captioning, live subtitles provided in English and other languages. Appearances Lip-synching LSL Script-based (Dec. 2007) – Regular/Sculpted-Talking Face Built-in (June 2008) House/Director-control of audience view Default-View Cushions Live Director-Control Distinctive Avatars Semi-Photorealistic Faces to convey a quintessential human element in avatar visage Tailored and Custom-Made Costumes that define each character Designed and Dressed by professionals

9. MSC Innovations in Virtual Theatre, II Optimized Sets Texture, script optimized Preload on alpha=0 and unseen sides of prims Touch-click action Multi-Sets for large audience Sets pre-rezzed Set-placer instead of set-rezzer Toggle-touch to place in/out Yet More Technological Innovations on the Virtual Stage Global Lighting Virtual Storm Usage of Physics Automaton actors Avatar-based Prim-based

10. MSC, in context of SL’s status quo and infrastructure Second Life is a very material world Island sims cost US$300/month, and setup fees for empty islands have cost up to US$1600. Nonprofit/Edu sims are discounted at 50% - $150/month, up to US$800 setup. This does not include any construction or content-creation costs. The vast majority of content and islands on SL are commercial. Most educational/nonprofit endeavors on SL are funded by external sources, whether the institution itself or grants. MSC, along with all sLiterary endeavors, involves island sims that are 100% “dedicated to the arts”—and are currently completely funded and supported by the residents of SL. Meritocracy in a miserly v.w. based on nitty-gritty microeconomics We operate on Merit Not everyone gets to create for us. We examine hundreds of thousands of creations yearly. We do blind evaluations by quality of work. We make sure to give our best back in our creations. As a result: Thousands of residents have donated to support our cause. Full Transparency Usage of any public funds are reported to a Transparency website. Script-facilitated donation beacons instantly report each donation to a public website, broadcast immediately by the official donation beacon, and accessible by all. Political intrigue Coups, back-stabbings, slander/libel, Machiavellian deviousness, the works—even if all this is happening in what you might think a “game world” real people take it very seriously, enough for these complex social phenomena to occur. Socioeconomic Insights from MSC