Join us as we delve into Brendan A. Bradley’s creative process, explore his unique artistic vision, and gain insight into the dynamic world of immersive theater and XR experiences. Don’t miss out on this inspiring conversation with one of the most innovative artists of our immersive community!
- 00:00 – At the intersection of VR and live performance.
- 06:45 – About his current play NON-PLAYER CHARACTER
- 13:12 – Combining VR and audience participation.
- 21:28 – Onboard XR, his virtual “cabaret” show + an upcoming season!
- 31:47 – The American live art scene
- 38:03 – Addressing an international audience
The uprising of live (connected) theatre post-Covid
Brendan Bradley – I’m an actor and a real “Scrappy storyteller” (link), used to performing at the crossroads of cinema, videogames and immersive shows. I pivoted during the 2020 shutdown into live multi-user content. And that included releasing a free 3D playhouse called FUTURE STAGES (link) that anybody could put their first performance inside of, and then that transitioned in 2021 into Onboard XR, which is a think tank and incubator for any creative in the world to stand up their first VR prototype. We’re actually entering our sixth season right now with six new prototypes, which is very exciting.

B. B. – for OnBoardXR, There’s nothing off limits, nothing off the table. And that’s what’s been so fun about OnboardXR. We’ve supported over 35 world premiere prototypes that range from theatre to dance, to comedy, to puppetry, to painting, to mime, to installations, to animation, etc. It’s really about ayour creator’sive vision and how theyyou want to bring theiryour physicalized, traditional creative practice into this new medium. That’s gonna ultimately illuminate something that no one’s ever seen or thought of before. In some ways, it’s not about trying to replicate or reinvent something in the medium: it’s about how you bring your authentic experience in it.
B. B. – Out of that incubator, I began developing an original musical called NON-PLAYER CHARACTER, which is a Musical play performed in virtual reality. In 2022 I began taking NPC to physical venues. And because we used web-based VR, basically any web-connected device can enter the experience, so we can project the virtual world onto a large screen, whether with a simple projector, inside of a cinema house, an IMAX screen… We’ve done it all at this point. And that way we can allow a seated, traditional theatre audience to experience the virtual reality world without putting on a headset.

B. B. – It’s always a challenge to bring any work of art into the world. During Covid-19, we experienced excitement around new VR and immersive technologies and tools for live storytelling, because there was no other option. Now doors have reopened, we’re all exploring the hybridity of location-based entertainment, how to feed off of a live audience with innovative content. Still, we need to scale this stories for a global connected audience – and allow everyone to be a part of that tradition.
NON-PLAYER CHARACTER: a set-up
B. B. – We presented NON-PLAYER CHARACTER in St. Louis last March during the USITT (United States Institute for Theatre Technology) 2023 conference. We had two audiences: a physical one (theatre makers who embrace new technology obviously), and an online general audience. The first ones are people who are really invested in the latest cutting edge for audio, visual, virtual production, etc. Most of our audience had never encountered virtual reality (in a live show) before, they aren’t a gaming native audience either. But they are able to witness what it is to be fully immersed inside of a story and have agency over what is happening. Music is another great way to elevate and maintain control during the show. We all know the piece, and how to interact with each other live. Maurice is improvising with me, based on the audience response, when needed.

B. B. – We rely on the physical audience first. The show starts by calling four audience members to join me on stage, while the seated audience can use a program on their phone to vote on key moments during the show. We’re constantly relying on their participation, even though they’re not in a headset in the world. It’s highly participative for everyone! We’ve always wanted to include the audience inside the experience. From what we saw during our live sessions with OnboardXR, not every audience member wants to be a participant. Some of them just wanna sit in the dark and watch. And that’s me when I go to see a show!
B. B. – So we worked around NON-PLAYER CHARACTER to make it available to both kinds of audiences. However, when we began performing it, we noticed that the seated audience slowly began having more interactions. That’s where Michael Morran and I really explored this idea of a second screen experience for audiences to be able to have some levels of interactivity directly inside the virtual world.
B. B. – NON-PLAYER CHARACTER is a cloud-based show. All our assets are online, which is a great deal with international tours! We’ve pared down all of the equipment to a single check-on suitcase. The more instruments we have on location, the better it is. Maurice Soque is playing all the music for NON-PLAYER CHARACTER, and he travels with us as much as possible. His participation is crucial, as he brings the show to another level. This is a musical after all!

Creating a business model… or using an old one?
B. B. – I think the temptation (regarding live and immersive shows involving a lot of technological innovations) is to try to invent a new model versus looking to the past of how previous ticketed events have captured their audience. What’s exciting is from OnboardXR, we now have about three years of audience data and audience feedback to understand how they value that experience. OnboardXR is a “pay-what-you-want” event, and we’ve noticed that 19% of that audience pays $20 or more. Almost a fifth of the audience values this experimental / avant-garde online cabaret of prototypes as a one act festival!
B. B. – We’re also not seeing that be specifically tethered to active participation or avatar in-world experience. That $20 ticket is kind of agnostic. Some people are paying that to watch the video live stream. Others are paying that for very active participation. Others are paying that to be an invisible avatar and not be a part of the show. Audiences just want the invitation to feel included and then they can choose how they prefer to experience . The value of that content remains pretty consistent – VIP tickets to be on stage with us sellfaster! But the seated audienceis wherevenues find a comparable business model.

B. B. – When we first began, traditional venues had no idea what I was talking about. You have to understand the interplay between the physical audience, the online one, myself and the musician.. and it’s live! This is where the scalability of a virtual experience takes time to be understood. Going back to a physical venue, we can offer this secondary live stream, i.e. That leverages a lot of opportunities, amongst others. But we’re trying to really minimise our footprint and the logistic burden of the show on the venue in these early days. Our priority is really to work out a partnership with a venue that makes this monetizable for everybody. Once we start a collaboration with a venue, most of the time they want us to come back.
Let’s do a musical. With VR.
B. B. – I’m a musical theatre nerd. Always have been. Working on intimate dramatic shows inside VRChat (with the Ferryman Collective on WELCOME TO RESPITE and GUMBALL DREAMS), I know the extraordinary intimacy and presence of those stories. For NON-PLAYER CHARACTER, we’re trying to find a way to welcome a bigger audience at every show with a musical spectacle, which is much more about entertainment, performance, comedy, and big venues.

B. B. – It’s lots of different characters and big scene pieces, and we change through five different worlds during the play.Being able to tour in the cloud is a really great way to bring spectacle at scale. I also think that as a performer in this interactive space, the audience doesn’t necessarily know when it’s their turn and what their role is. NON-PLAYER CHARACTER’s songs allow me to have a much more casual guided conversation with the audience, where I let them drive from time to time. I improv with them, I play with them, but I can also take back control.
Immersive performance is a complete art
B. B. – NON-PLAYER CHARACTER is the most exhaustingly intellectual show I’ve ever done. There is something about being in three places at one time, a triple presence of my physical self (wherever I am on stage, making sure I don’t run into a wall etc.), then there’s the virtual self (not breaking the illusion of the virtual world), and finally the marriage of the two. This is what excites me every time, because this is just puppetry, virtual puppetry. I know that the audience is going to be able to see me, and behind me, my character. they love to see the actor puppet the character, watching that craft and that work is part of the show.
Meeting with an international audience
B. B. – I notice that in Europe and Asia there is an established appreciation and a deeper vocabulary in how to respond to a multimedia experience. Interactivity is something many of those audiences are already familiar with – More so than in America. The one barrier is the language barrier, but in some ways storytelling transcends language. This is an embodied experience with intonations, sounds, music and gestures. We can fill that gap (of understanding the show) a little bit.
B. B. – For me, Non-player Character is really exciting because I don’t actually know what the audience is going to do. I have to trust them and they have to trust me. It’s kind of like falling in love. Most of the time this starts exciting and energetic, but it slowly can become very quiet, comfortable. As long as you’re both feeling love, then it doesn’t matter what the expression of that love is. And I think that’s true with storytelling inside of an immersive technology, as it doesn’t necessarily matter how to express it – It’s responsive content, so any response is an invitation for connection. . The most important thing is to have the same intention and a true investment in each other. That’s the real promise of any socialised technology.

OnboardXR, season 6
B. B. – With OnboardXR, every six months we launch an open application online, for free. Then we meet in our Discord community for about a month, asynchronously, on each team’s schedule, setting certain milestones and check-ins so that artists can inspire each other and share knowledge. We really want to foster a sense of community between our participants that will ultimately present their work all together in a single evening and URL. The best part is for several OnboardXR prototypes, not only do we pay the artists through ticket sales, but some participants get funded, produced, and toured… Or get hired following our show!
B. B. – It’s fascinating to see this incubator-like spirit energising a quick first vertical slice of an idea, to help an artist get to that finish line and present it for a live audience. For our sixth season, we saw a lot of participants wanting to explore generative media and AI. These may become future tools for collaboration, for creation, for even more connection and more efficiency.
You can watch the official XRMUST livestream of Non-Player Character: Live from St Louis or submit an application for the seventh OnBoardXR season this Fall!
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