#Venetonight: An Evening at the Theatre, with virtual Reality

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Take to the stage of Teatro La Fenice, choose the scenography and sing with an actor? This will be possible during Venetonight, at the PlayVR desk, virtual reality for the world of theater.

PlayVR is an educational experience for theater, using the means of immersive virtual reality designed by Fabio Pittarello, with the contribution of Eugenio Franchin.

At the PlayVR desk, set up amongst the Exhibition Spaces of Ca' Foscari for Venetonight, visitors can enjoy a virtual reality experience and explore a realistic simplified model of the Teatro La Fenice through an Oculus Rift stereoscope. Those wearing the mask may move around within the theater, even within areas that are not normally open to the public, whilst accompanied by a voice that will explain the various functions and secrets of the theatre. Thanks to a sensor that can read the movements of one’s hands, visitors can also use gestures, body movements and actions, seeing a projection of their own hands at the scene. Once on stage, the viewer can browse the lectern, choose a script and see fragments of the opera. Finally, the viewer will experience ‘The Rusteghi' by Carlo Goldoni first hand as it is projected onto the screen. Spectators will also be able to see what the main viewer is experiencing from a large monitor connected to the mask.

This video gives a taste of the experience:

In addition to researchers at Ca’ Foscari, various people from different areas of disciplinary skill have converged with this activity: for the definition of the theater, an optimized reworking and simplified 3D model was created (Camillo Trevisan - IUAV); the definition of the sets are drawn from models made by students of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice; the animation of the characters that populate the stage is created by Andrea Chiarato.