Alice will be experimenting with technology when she next visits Wonderland next month. In fact, it will be an all new kind of "Wonder"-land, envisioned and choreographed by a joint collaboration between the University of Waterloo, the University of Central Florida and Bradley University of Peoria, Illinois.

Projects in real-time, multi-point interactive theatre over advanced networks have progressed since the first experiments in 2005, featured in the Nov/Dec 2005 edition of the ORION Research and Discovery News. The three universities have since mounted a production of Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine, which was the first full-length, fully mediatized production to be performed in real-time across the three remote locations over high-speed advanced networks and using DVTS (Digital Video Transport System) software.

The pioneers of this new form of theatre are Professor Gerd Hauck, Department Chair, Drama and Speech Communication at the University of Waterloo, and Professor George Brown of Bradley University in Illinois. These collaborative theatre experiments came about from their shared desire to fully explore the creative capabilities of advanced networks for the purpose of theatre, and to research the technical, performative and dramaturgical aspects of 'mediatizing' a play.

"The purpose is to make the technology invisible to the audience," said Prof. Hauck. "To hide the cameras and projectors, to create an illusion of the tech elements so that the audience focuses on the story and the characters of the play - that the technology would only enhance this instead of draw attention to itself."

Faculty, staff and students from the three schools collaboratively developed, rehearsed and presented a fully mediatized production, which included integrating virtual scenery, live Internet2-ORION-CANARIE broadcast, recorded video, avatar performers, and digital sound. The schools worked together over the year to conceptualize, problem-solve, establish and determine best practices to support the integration of technology into a live performance event, and create the mediatized and theatrical design elements used in rehearsals and performances. This international multimedia performance in March was the largest of its kind ever staged.

Now the universities are joining forces once again to mount a similar production next month, based on Lewis Carroll's popular classic, Alice in Wonderland. The production's experimentation with both the physical and the virtual realms echoes Alice's slipping between the real and the fantastical worlds in the play. This time there will be a live audience at each location, each connected visibly and audibly to the other two schools so that interaction is possible in each direction. In this way, it will be the first ever entirely interactive, 'telematic' performance involving connected locations across North America.

Enabled by the ultra high bandwidth of ORION, CANARIE and Internet2 that makes these multi-point interactive performances possible, the creative talent from the three locations are able to rehearse using videoconferencing technology. For the performances, however, DVTS software was chosen for its superior image and audio quality, practicality, and reliability.

DVTS is free, open source software that offers low latency, high quality audio and video. Unlike with videoconferencing technology, no compression/decompression process takes place, therefore resulting in less delay. The use of high bandwidth networks enables more space for data to be transmitted. Expensive, high-tech equipment is not required with DVTS, just connection to an average PC and standard grade video and audio equipment. DVTS enables digital video distribution over the Internet and advanced networks by simply connecting to a PC.

With so many different forms of entertainment available to the public today, and many of them digital, performance-based art appears to be decreasing in popularity, theatrical performances not drawing in the large audiences it used to. The big challenge, according to Prof. Hauck, is attracting younger audiences to theatre, and drawing them away from entertainments such as YouTube that keep them at home. It is his hope that by incorporating technology into performance and creating a new, complex form of collaborative theatre involving multiple performers connected in real-time over vast distances will attract and retain a new generation of theatregoers.

"Alice (Experiments) in Wonderland" will be performed at the University of Waterloo January 24-27 and February 1-3. For more information, visit http://drama.uwaterloo.ca/.