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Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Hamlet 360: Virtual Reality Shakespeare

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Folger Shakespeare Library

Arts

4.7 • 837 Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2019

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You don’t need a ticket to see the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s most recent production of Hamlet. You don’t even need to leave your house. All you need is a virtual reality device. Hamlet 360: Thy Father’s Spirit is an hour-long virtual reality adaptation of Shakespeare’s play that puts you in the center of Shakespeare’s tragedy. We asked Commonwealth Shakespeare Company director Steve Maler and cinematographer Matthew Niederhauser of the virtual reality company Sensorium about creating the experience. They talk about the joys, challenges, and opportunities that come with adapting Shakespeare for virtual reality. How can VR augment the experience of watching Hamlet? What makes watching Hamlet in VR different from watching the play onstage or on your TV? Can VR make Shakespeare’s plays more accessible? Maler and Niederhauser are interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. Hamlet 360: Thy Father’s Spirit is a co-production with Google, and was created in partnership with public television station WGBH in Boston. Watch Hamlet 360: Thy Father’s Spirit at WGBH.org/Hamlet-360 or on YouTube. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published April 16, 2019. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “I Am Thy Father’s Spirit,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano and Evan Marquart at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California, Kevin O'Connell at the PRX Podcast Garage in Boston, and Larry Josephson and Ben Ellman at The Radio Foundation in New York.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Could this really happen? You're sitting at home, but for all intents and purposes, you're also at the theater,

0:07.0

sitting on the stage, in the middle of the play. Could you do that?

0:13.0

Well, yeah, kind of.

0:16.0

From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited.

0:25.8

I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folgers director.

0:28.6

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company in Boston did a performance in January 2019 in partnership

0:34.3

with Google, and I want to give you a sense of the experience of watching it.

0:40.8

You're in your bedroom.

0:42.9

You slip on a virtual reality helmet and push a button.

0:53.7

And you're on stage.

0:55.0

All around you, there are the props.

0:58.0

You can look, 360 degrees all around.

1:02.0

In 3D, a rocking horse, a giant water tank, a car all around you.

1:09.0

The lights start to blink.

1:12.6

Angels and ministers of great defendants.

1:16.6

And slowly it dawns on you that you're not just watching Hamlet.

1:21.6

You are part of the action.

1:23.6

Now comes in such a questionable shape that I will speak to thee.

1:28.3

I'll call thee Hamlet.

1:31.3

King, Father, Royal Dane, oh, answer me.

1:38.3

Mark me!

1:40.3

You're the ghost.

...

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