I am a playwright and actor living in New York. I also am a resident in the Second Life community. (I refuse to call it a game: it is indeed a virtual world.) A couple of months ago I auditioned for—and was cast in—one of the first live theatre performances in Second Life. Each person is represented on the computer by an “avatar,” and by using a headset and microphone, we each have speech capability. We use keyboard controls to move our avatars.

We rehearsed for about a month. In the audience—also live—were people from countries around the world who assembled via the Internet. They reacted as an audience would— with applause and laughter. There was even an opening night cast party.

Acting in Second Life, to me, was far more difficult than in real-life theatre. Although memorizing lines was not a problem (I had the script in hand and was sitting at my desk,) moving around on stage was. I am not a geek, and found reading on-screen cues and instructions as well as my lines—plus moving my avatar and being aware of where others were on stage—a definite challenge. But… and this is a biggie… people around the world, not just those in the audience, saw the performances.

Yes, the evolution of Second Life as a viable performance medium is scary… but I think it is an important part of theatre’s future.