Shakespeare-VR

FAIN: MT-284693-22

Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3815)
Stephen Wittek (Project Director: June 2021 to November 2023)

Prototyping of an interactive virtual reality (VR) experience to explore Shakespeare’s plays  through the role of a performer.

Shakespeare-VR is an interactive virtual reality experience that will enable users to step onstage in an Elizabethan theater, assume a role in a Shakespearean play, and perform in conjunction with professional actors or fellow users. When the experience is complete, it will be available for download worldwide at no cost whatsoever. In the same spirit of public accessibility, the project’s groundbreaking lending program will make quality VR headsets available to participating instructors at high schools, colleges, and universities across the US. The total amount of the funding request is $100,000. The project director is Dr. Stephen Wittek, an Assistant Professor in the English Department at Carnegie Mellon University. Over the past three years, Dr. Wittek has brought together a team of collaborators that includes pedagogical specialists, virtual media producers, theatrical practitioners, and Shakespeare instructors at universities in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Associated Products

Sweet Sorrow (Game/Simulation)
Title: Sweet Sorrow
Author: Stephen Wittek
Abstract: This new prototype from the Shakespeare-VR Project at Carnegie Mellon University simulates the experience of performing Shakespearean drama in an immersive, historically accurate simulation of the indoor theater used by Shakespeare's company. See Shx-VR.com for lesson plans, etc.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://sidequestvr.com/app/10887/sweet-sorrow-romeo-juliet-in-virtual-reality
Primary URL Description: SideQuest (virtual reality platform)
Access Model: https://sidequestvr.com/app/10887/sweet-sorrow-romeo-juliet-in-virtual-reality
Source Available?: No

Open Access Collection (Open Access eBook or Collection)
Publication Type: Open Access Collection
Title: Shakespeare and Virtual Reality
Year: 2021
ISBN: 9781009007061
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Author: David McInnis (ed.)
Author: Stephen Wittek (ed.)
Abstract: Teaching Shakespeare through performance has a long history, and active methods of teaching and learning are a logical complement to the teaching of performance. Virtual reality ought to be the logical extension of such active learning, providing an unrivalled immersive experience of performance that overcomes historical and geographical boundaries. But what are the key advantages and disadvantages of virtual reality, especially as it pertains to Shakespeare? And more interestingly, what can Shakespeare do for VR (rather than vice versa)? This Element, the first on its topic, explores the ways that virtual reality can be used in the classroom and the ways that it might radically change how students experience and think about Shakespeare in performance.
Primary URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/abs/shakespeare-and-virtual-reality/0AB7528A5DDF43B9A700646B93BD1AE1
Primary URL Description: Cambridge University Press website
URL 3: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Shakespeare_and_Virtual_Reality/14lZEAAAQBAJ?hl=en
URL 3 Description: Google books
Type: Edited Volume

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