Nate Greene’s May 2, 2016 Masters performance, titled THRESHOLD I, tells the story of two characters: Pepe’ the Hero (in white) and his nemesis, Quetzl the Dragon, who chases Pepe’ through the world. The Dragon was a video-projection-mapped dragon character with live texture-mapping.
THRESHOLD was a motion-mapped, augmented, participatory theatrical piece. With projections on both the Hero and Dragon, it brings into question how technology might “extract individual identity” by overlaying alternate realities. This hero’s journey explores the self-aware transformation required to fulfill a quest.
A three-piece orchestra provided a live soundtrack. The performance also involved an online component called “the Participatron” that people could use by uploading tagged images to Instagram. These were then mixed into the projected video.
The story involves an awakening with the hero in dream-like light. This is followed by a jungle and failure then falling. The situation is resolved with a reawakening and balance. Here is Nathan’s video of the show:
This project evolved from the Pepe the Lamp Hero project, part of AME 598 Understanding Activity in Fall of 2014, performed in December 2014 at the Digital Culture Showcase. Nathan used our motion mapping code and the Lamp Hero experience as a base for THRESHOLD to great effect.
My role was as co-producer & stage manager for the main performance, project consultant and motion-capture & video technician. Here is time-lapse documentation of the show, shot on a Canon T3, 28mm lens and Polaroid timer.
The full crew involved:
Costumes – RuthAnne Greer/Renee Aguilar/Nathaniel Jack Green
Participatron – Aaron Hill, Nathaniel Jack Greene
Music – Written by Alex Kohli, Randy Greer, Stephen Helms Tillery, Nathaniel Jack Greene
Mocap – Pavan Taruga, Varsha Iyengar, Nathaniel Jack Greene, Qiao Wang
MotionMapping – Nathaniel Jack Greene, Varsha Iyengar, Prashant Seshasayee
3D Rigging and Mesh – Zachary Robinson
Technical Director – Nathaniel Jack Greene
Virtual Puppetry Performance – Nathaniel Jack Greene
Quetzalcoatl – Georgann Prince, Ruth Anne Greer, Varsha Iyengar
Stage Manager – Joshua Gigantino
Projection Systems – Andy Stavro and Roaddogs Show Pros, Phoenix, AZ
Projectionist – Cooper Sang Yoo, Nathaniel Jack Greene
Video equipment – Broadcast Rentals, Tempe, AZ
Executive Producers – Xin Wei Sha, Todd Ingalls, Nathaniel Jack Greene
Special thanks to the Katherine K. Herberger Scholarship, School of Arts, Media and Engineering
Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts |Fulton Schools of Engineering
Arizona State University
Director – Nathaniel Greene
