Digital Theatre

[Queen Mab]

www.digitaltheatre.com/

Digital Theatre are producing high quality digital recordings of theatre productions.

The DT format is slightly annoying (you have to download the DT programme which runs the recordings on), but neccesary to prevent the piracy of the recordings, so I can forgive them.

Currently available is a recording of the RSC's YPS Comedy of Errors (in association with Told by an Idiot). It's well worth the £8.99 asking price. It was originally available for free with a purchase of the Guardian. Newly released yesterday is a behind-the-scenes documentary about the production, featuring Artistic Director Michael Boyd, director Paul Hunter and members of the cast. I haven't downloaded it yet, but at £5.99 I probably will. You can by both in a bundle for £11.99.

Also available is a recording of RSC Alumnus Kathryn Hunter in the acclaimed Kafka's Monkey.

They've also produced a free app for the iPhone-enabled of us, which lists every theatre across the land, either alphabetically or in distance from you, with phone numbers, website links & lists of current productions AND has access to all the DT trailers. Love.

Feel free to discuss the recordings etc here. They've just announced some new partnerships so hopefully we'll be seeing more from them soon. Perhaps they've even recorded the new YPS Hamlet?

ETA - I've just been speaking to them over Twitter, they're looking in to adding a theatre search (at the moment you have to scroll through an alphabetical/geographical list) and a production search, maybe even a cast search too.

[Lorannah]

Been meaning to reply to this for ages. Finally got round to downloading both the play and the documentary last week and they are excellent and a great idea.

The production is one of my favourites and works well for the format - very bright and fast moving and lots to spot - plus it's very physical. I'm not sure how a more verbal play would work, but I'd be intrigued to find out. It also feels like a very instant performance, so still feels fresh on a rewatch. Would definitely reccomend it.

The documentary is interesting too - maybe a little too much footage from the play itself, so you're probably only getting 15 or so minutes of new material but some good stuff. There was a little rehearsal footage and several interviews, mostly with the director, Paul Hunter.

I'm always sort of fascinated by the way different directors approach rehearsals. Greg Doran apparently has the cast reading others peoples roles for the whole first week. Paul Hunter was explaining how his first week was spent with the cast telling the story non-verbally, which I think is evident in the finished production.

There were also a few interviews with the cast - though I think only James Tucker, Richard Katz, Jonjo O'Neill and Dyfan Dwyfor were really featured - concentrating on how they created the twins, given that they don't look alike. Some discussion of costumes (apparently they just had a rail of clothes that they could pick and choose to wear during rehearsals and see what stuck) and how they don't look alike (Jonjo pointed out that this was actually a good thing, a point I hadn't considered before but completely agree with) and how they borrowed bits from each others performances. The last was particularly interesting as they used video footage to show parallels that I hadn't noticed before.

Generally with digital theatre I love the idea, but think there are still kinks in the format. I'd prefer a smaller quality I could have on my mp3 or phone than being restricted to the computer. I also think they need more productions, the work is high quality so I can understand the time it takes but there just isn't much choice right now.

This is a minor point, but I also wish they used social media better. Dusthouse I think is a great example of how to do this right - I tend to follow them more on twitter than facebook, but on both they seem to encourage discussion and response and they manage an excellent balance between advertising, giving teasers and those weird little snipbits that make them feel like actual humans. I wish more companies were like them. Digital Theatre could definitely benefit in particular from the teasers - I've got no idea what they've got coming up and I miss that, I don't even know if they'll be doing another RSC production in the future. Just saying something like 'We're off filming with the RSC today' - would be great, get the excitement building and not give any real details away.

Ah well, think this will definitely improve with time

[Queen Mab]

That's something you could definitely suggest to them on Twitter (I've found them to be very approachable). I saw they'd tweeted about new partnerships with several theatres, but nothing more specific.

[Queen Mab]

They recorded RSC's As You Like It last night. Very very good news!

[Witch 1]

Yep! I'm so getting that one ;D

I had a chat with Charles Aitken about the forumat, and he said they are using another forumat in the USA where performances are simulcast to movie theatres across the country. He said the way it is set up the actors tend to start performing for the camera, and I also mentioned the problam of time zones. So, we agreed Digital Theatre is better, because they do their best to capture the theatre feel ;D

[Queen Mab]

Sept 14, 2010 19:56:24 GMT Witch 1 said:

Yep! I'm so getting that one ;D

I had a chat with Charles Aitken about the forumat, and he said they are using another forumat in the USA where performances are simulcast to movie theatres across the country. He said the way it is set up the actors tend to start performing for the camera, and I also mentioned the problam of time zones. So, we agreed Digital Theatre is better, because they do their best to capture the theatre feel ;D

Yes the National Theatre do something similar, broadcasting the production to various cinemas. I wanted to see Phedre last time but missed it.