What if you had a “software bus” for routing text between applications that convert or translate text, so you could easily create meta-applications that perform multiple conversions or transformations in series in real time. (Hal has already built a prototype of this, and we’d love to see anybody in the DPI community experiment with it.)
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We’re trying to produce a version of Brighton Beach Memoirs, cast with robots, but we need the author’s permission, brokered by Samuel French. We’re still waiting for that permission. If we don’t get it, what can we do?

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So what role can a robot play on stage, in a narrative production? We’re attempting to cast robots as humans in Brighton Beach Memoirs. What other possibilities are there?

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We’re trying to produce a very human, naturalistic play … Brighton Beach Memoirs, by Neil Simon. So how naturalistic (humanoid) should the robots be?

Here’s one perspective: it’s a slippery slope to try to imitate a separate and distinct reality. Once you begin to imitate, what’s being judged is the quality of the imitation, not the inherent power of your artistic choices.
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The stage directions for Brighton Beach Memoirs describe the hero, Eugene, as wearing Keds.

It turns out they have a long and distinguished history, and using Keds in our robotic production would help to ground it in a particular time, place, and ambience.

But what model did Eugene actually wear? And how will they look on our robotic performers, only 24″ tall, and mostly with wheels rather than feet?
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Posting a casting notice for a robotic performance of Brighton Beach Memoirs in BackStage still seems like a big hurdle for our project. Or perhaps more like throwing down the gauntlet.
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I tried out the Samuel French script on a couple of the robots around the office, and it certainly made a difference.

That official-traditional format seemed to make them into performers, just by its presence.

We need to figure out how the auditions should be structured.
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