It’s easy enough to make fun of the promotional video. It's every bit as breathtaking as a PowerPoint presentation. It looks like they raided Shutterstock looking for the right footage. Watching it makes me feel kind of like I’m in a convention hall with a packet of statistical information and promotional copy. I half expect to be addressed by someone in business formal attire after I’ve watched this thing, but judging from the above video, Stagecloud may have the right idea.
Granted, it’s easy enough to laugh at the idea of someone trying to make money off of streaming live theater shows...that is until one realizes that there’s already money being made doing this for really big-ticket Broadway performances. Personally I couldn’t imagine it having quite the same impact as live theater, but Stagecloud has the potential to open-up new markets for live, local performances in a big way. Streaming pre-recorded live shows to shiny, glowing screens has the potential to present local talent to a large audience in the same online promotional venues in which most people get commercials for cars and soft drinks and alcohol and apps and online games and things. Thanks to Stagecloud, we might just see more people attending live local theatre, which is really, really important. As comically, clumsily corporate as “an essential new theater platform for the 21st century,” sounds, it might be just the right link that helps local theater thrive.
Stagecloud (okay, now I’m just laughing at the name...) makes its local debut at In Tandem’s Tenth Street Theatre with The Hyperreality Show: A Few Plays on the Media and Pop Culture. It appears to be a series of comic shorts. There's one involving couple of screenwriters (Aaron Sorkin and somebody named Brad judging from the title) arguing over an upcoming movie about tech startups. There's an internet conversation about science and religion. There are spoofs on telenovelas and Disney fairy tales. It could be a normal sketch comedy show were it not for the fact that it’s also being recorded to be streamed to (hopefully) a whole bunch of people who aren’t in the theatre at the time.
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Honestly, though, the biggest reason to see the show is the talent, which includes Alex Johnson, Jolie LeBell, Joe Picchetti, Nate Press, Elodie Senetra, and Mitch Weindorf. These are some really great actors. Honestly I don't think I'd take the idea of Stagecloud seriously at all were it not for at least a couple of the people mentioned in that last sentence. If people like Picchetti, Press and Weindorf are involved, this is probably going to be a good show. And it's all new material, which is always a good sign.
The Hyperreality Show runs Aug. 7 - 16 at the Tenth Street Theatre on 628 N. 10th St. For ticket reservations, visit Brown Paper Tickets.
