Craigslist Cantata was a critically acclaimed presentation of a re-imagined livestreamed version of this musical based on the texts of real life “Best of Craigslist” ads, created by Veda Hille, Amiel Gladstone and Bill Richardson.
The Digital Storytelling Team brought the original Craigslist ads into The Cultch Gather space, and invited audience members to post show conversations with writer/director Amiel Gladstone and choreographer Amanda Testini. This was the first time we invited the public to our virtual Cultch space on Gather, and a first digital transmedia creation for Amiel.
Process and Key Outcomes
Working on Craigslist Cantata, allowed the Digital Storytelling Team to achieve the following goals:
Collaboration with Amiel Gladstone to explore the value of digital transmedia and consider appropriate representation of show’s themes and content within the Gather platform
Creation and iteration with Patrick Blenkarn of interactable poster objects to represent the Craigslist ads; investigations of wayfinding, legibility, scale, cohesive style
Audience re-engagement with content of the show in an alternate medium (text) by actively searching out the posters, reviewing and reinforcing the themes of the show. In a densely worded musical, some lyrics can be missed by a viewer, and further review can fill in the gaps
Embedding of collaborative playable piano and drumkit objects on the virtual stage, as a playful representation of the show’s orchestration. It was an opportunity for audiences to put themselves onstage virtually
Design and placement on the virtual stage of avatars representing the actors, as a novel form of access to the performers bios
Audiences attended the directors talk in the Cultch virtual space, a first experience with the Gather platform for virtually all present
Audiences engaged directly with the director and members of the cast and creative team on a casual, social level. Many discussions further to the themes of the show were observed