What is To Be With Hamlet?
Project Overview
To Be With Hamlet is a live theater performance in Virtual Reality that allows anybody, anywhere in the world to have an intimate experience with Hamlet, one of the greatest plays ever written.
By utilizing several groundbreaking technologies, the experience will enable audiences to walk the battlements of Elsinore Castle with Prince Hamlet as he confronts the ghost of his murdered father and learns of his uncle’s treachery.
In order to bring the immediacy and intimacy of theater to the virtual space, we are using Ikinema software with Optitrack face and motion capture technology to create a live, photorealistic avatar of Prince Hamlet. A 3D scan of the actor will be applied to a virtual “skeleton” made from the motion capture data to create a virtual Prince Hamlet that is as dynamic and realistic as a live actor. The project’s M3diate technology will allow up to fifteen audience members to perceive each other as they explore Elsinore Castle together.
For nearly half a millennium, productions have given you the chance to see Hamlet. This is your first chance To Be With Hamlet.
Meet the To Be With Hamlet
Production Team
Javier Molina
Creator/Producer
Javier Molina is an engineer, actor and media artist based in NYC, working with Virtual Reality, Motion Capture, Performance Art and Experimental Film. He is a professor teaching motion capture with performance art and the director of the VR Lab at NYU Tandon School of Engineering in MAGNET, a facility researching live performance and social virtual reality.
Email: Javier.molina@nyu.edu
David Gochfeld
Director
David Gochfeld creates performance experiences at the intersection of the real and virtual, drawing on classical and contemporary theatrical techniques, experience design, and cutting-edge immersive technology. He has created and performed pieces internationally and has recently shown work at the Tribeca Film Festival, The Future of Storytelling Summit, SXSW, the Daily News Innovation Lab, Come Out And Play, and Creative Tech Week NYC. He won an Emmy award for his work on the VR documentary Zero Days VR, and co-created FutureMate, a transmedia immersive theater piece (winner: StoryCode Transmedia Hackathon; nominated: New York Innovative Theatre Award.) He holds a Masters from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications program, is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab (2012), and trained with Jacques Lecoq, Philippe Gaulier, and at the National Shakespeare Conservatory.
Email: dagoch@nyu.edu
Zachary Koval
Cast - "HAMLET"
Originally from Portland, Oregon, Zachary received his BA in Acting at The University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA. In NYC he worked and trained for three years with Theatre Group Dzieci, an experimental theatre ensemble dedicated to exploring the sacred through the act of theatre. His recent production of an acro-dance-theatre piece entitled "Babel," premiered in January off Broadway (www.babel.build).
Roger Casey
Cast - "GHOST" / "Hamlet"
Roger Casey (GHOST/HAMLET) is a NY based artist. Recent Theater credits: CasablancaBOX – Humphrey Bogart/Rick (HERE Arts), H5: Life after Death – Steffon – (Schomburg Center), Good Girl Gone Bad – The Man – HERE Arts, You Should Be here – Dexter – (The Amoralists), God is a Verb - Bob/Undergrad – (Hook & Eye Theater), Lunchtime in Heaven - Freddie Gray - (48hrs in Harlem, National Black Theatre), The Return - Adam - (the Metropolitan Museum of Art), Tyson Vs. Ali - Mike Tyson & Muhammad Ali - (3-Legged Dog & Foxy Films), Coal Run Road - Caleb Cobb - (Kraine Theatre), The Misanthrope - Acaste - (Shakespeare Theatre of NJ), 12th Night – Antonio (Shakespeare Theatre of NJ), Tragedy! A musical comedy - Aaron the Moor - (Lucille Lortel Theatre).
Email: urcasey@gmail.com
William Sturdivant
Cast -"Ghost"-
The Acting Company: X, or, Betty Shabazz vs The Nation, The Comedy of Errors, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet and Henry V. Pearl Theatre: Henry IV Pt. 1. Guthrie Theater: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice,Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing. William is a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and Co-Founder of 668Productions.com. Originally from North Carolina he currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. Training: University of Minnesota/Guthrie Actor Training Program (BFA).
T.K. Broderick
Sound ENGINEER
T.K. Broderick is a sound designer, film composer, and creative technologist. He is a graduate of USC's film production program and recently completed his master's degree at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), where he focused on developing real-time movement controlled sound, music, light, and image applications, driven by a fascination with ways in which the body can become a media interface and controller for live performance. His current project, ResonantBodies, explores the phenomenon of vibration in the body during vocalization as it relates to practices in classical Indian vocal music. The listener experiences a singer's voice as vibration in their own body during a live vocal performance.
Email: tkbroderick@gmail.com
Bas in het Veld
technical Director
Bas is a freelance programmer specialized in artificial intelligence and game development, currently lead programmer for two upcoming game releases. By combining creativity and technical know-how, he believes he can create a better world, even if that world is merely a virtual one. Being a real stereotypical nerd, he naturally loves things like riding his motorcycle, jumping from planes and drinking coffee. Just like M3diate, To Be With Hamlet is an exciting piece of technology combining many different technical challenges, all waiting to be tackled.
Email: basinhetveld@gmail.com
Mike Okerson
Chief operations Officer
General Technical Support for Hamlet VR and staff.
His prior experiences have been as a Director of Retail Operations in a Fashion Brand and prior service in the US Army.
He is a self proclaimed fanatic of all things pertaining to VR.
Email: mokerson@me.com
Alexis Trevizo
Production ASSISTANT
Alexis Trevizo is a virtual reality enthusiast, engineer, and artist based in New York. He most excited about recent advancement in technology as they have proven to be awesome tools for storytelling. He hopes to become a media producer in the near future.
Email: Alexis.c.trevizo@gmail.com
Alba S. Torremocha
composer and SOUND DESIGNER
A former resident composer of the NYU Symphony, Alba graduated in Composition as the valedictorian of her class. At only 23 years of age, her pieces have already been premiered in several countries, such as Spain, Ireland, Portugal, France, and the US. In 2009, she was honored by Rotary International with the Prize “Main Protagonist of Tomorrow” with the JOSCS Symphony Orchestra. In 2013, her piece Berrehun Oroitzapen won the Donostia 1813 Composition Competition. In the field of electronic music and sound design, her piece MindPalace was selected by the International Festival of Electronic Music and Sound Art: Synchresis. As a film and multimedia composer, she has scored numerous short films, documentaries and video games, such as Puntu Itsua, short film premiered last September in San Sebastian International Film Festival (Spain).
Email: ast403@nyu.edu
Noah Harrison Kellman
Composer and Mix Engineer
Noah is a music composer and producer for film and multimedia based in New York City. He is working as both a composer and mixing engineer on To Be With Hamlet. A lover of narrative music, he creates cinematic soundscapes that intersect the acoustic and electronic worlds. This compositional blend has garnered him attention across numerous media, including a feature on Indie Shuffle when he released his song Just Let It Go under his stage name, “Nozart.” Noah has won numerous awards for his ability as a pianist and as a composer. From 2009 to 2010, he was selected as the pianist for the Brubeck Institute, and also received two ASCAP Young Jazz Composer awards, including one in 2009 for his composition The Piemaker. He has also been awarded eight Downbeat Student Music Awards. In 2015, Kellman toured the country as keyboardist/synthesist for Elliot Moss as they opened for the Cold War Kids on their winter national tour.
Email: nhk274@nyu.edu
We want to thank and acknowledge friends and professionals who have contributed their time and expertise at various points during the project: Brett Moody, Ifeoluwa Lawal, Tatiana Pilon, Ido Lechner, Kevin Dubois, Owen Bell, Ken Perlin, Clara Fernandez, Zhen Liu, Todd Bryant, Thomas Meduri, Raul Carvajal, Jane Rosenthal, Loren Hammonds, Fred Volhuer, Adaora Udoji.
Special thanks to the Faculty and staff of NYU's Integrated Digital Media: Luke DuBois, DeAngela Duff, Eric Maiello and Elton Kwok.
Meet the M3diate Production Team
The To Be With Hamlet production team is partnering with the M3diate team to deliver the Hamlet experience to audiences across the globe. The M3diate platform allows up to fifteen audience members to perceive each other as they explore the virtual Elsinore Castle together. It also provides the experience with spatialized audio. Below, you can find the profiles of M3diate's creators and managers. For more about M3diate, click here.
Christian Grewell
M3diate Creative lead
Christian is an adjunct professor of Interactive Media Arts and Business at NYU Shanghai and the partner of their Program on Creativity and Innovation. Christian’s current research and projects involve the creation of networked, realtime spatially accurate audio and music creation in virtual reality environments. Christian lives in Shanghai, China and spends his time exploring the intersections of management, creativity, art and technology. He enjoys convincing really talented students to work with him. Christian has spent the past 16 years at NYU with a B.A in Economics and an MBA from the Stern School of Business.
Email: christian@nyu.edu
Ted Lee
MEDIATE OPERations lead
Ted is an operations director at NYU Abu Dhabi focused on demand and project management. Ted has focused on building alignment between the academic departments and administrative services, in many cases, developing and delivering on joint initiatives offering new and creative opportunities for students, faculty, researchers and staff at NYUAD. M3diate was created via one of these initiatives.
Email: theodore.lee@nyu.edu