NON-PLAYER CHARACTER

When a video game hero dies, the audience must guide a Non-Player Character (performed by a live, singing actor) through several virtual worlds of their grief. The line between reality and virtual reality blurs as audiences influence the journey, either wearing a VR headset or watching on the big screen.

Live musical theater meets video games as Creator and Performer, Brendan Andolsek Bradley, invites two-tiers of audience to enter and impact the story arc and help a character without agency navigate their grief through interactivity, immersion and song.

An experimental prototype for hybrid location-based events, on-site audiences may choose to experience either as a Participant wearing a VR headset (in groups of four) or as Spectators watching the world(s) and characters projected onto the theater screen. Meanwhile, remote audiences may navigate the virtual world with the participants as “ghosts” without an avatar or microphone.

The project is currently in development with workshop rehearsals for a "Prototype Preview" at The Mugar Omni Theater in Boston. Official Premiere dates have not been set and the project may be considered for 2022 Festival and Awards.

  • Brendan Bradley
    Writer
  • Brendan Bradley
    Key Cast
  • Michael Morran
    Technical Director
  • Maurice Soque
    Musical Arrangement
  • The Museum of Science, Boston
    Institutional Affiliation
    (attn: James Monroe)
  • Brendan Bradley
    Director
  • Project Type:
    Virtual Reality, Installation, Game, Interactive Film, 360 Video
  • Genres:
    Musical, Dramedy, Interactive
  • Minimum Runtime:
    15 minutes
  • Maximum Runtime:
    20 minutes
  • Average Runtime:
    16 minutes
  • Variable Runtime Details:
    Real-time audience interactions and choices influence the story arc and what worlds/characters they encounter, varying the runtime and experience. Live performer also improvises with the audience which can be paced up or down dependent on audience's comfort and responsiveness.
  • Completion Date:
    December 1, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    50,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Mugar Omni Theater
    Boston
    United States
    December 2, 2021
    Museum of Science, Boston
    Limited Hybrid Event
  • Rich Mix London
    London
    United Kingdom
    November 26, 2022
Director Biography - Brendan Bradley

Brendan Andolsek Bradley is a multi-award winning actor and creator, known internationally as "America's Scrappy Storyteller" (AR Post) with 100+ film and television credits, 50M+ views online and a leader in the virtual theater movement using open-source tools to reopen theaters. He established The Integrative Technology Lab at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, co-founded The 5th Wall Forum, and is the Artistic Director of #OnBoardXR, a seasonal anthology of live performances within a single web browser. More at brendanAbradley.com/npcmusical

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATE STATEMENT:

Non-Player Character is an exciting new project that allows our team at the Museum of Science, Boston the opportunity to welcome visionary creator Brendan Bradley back to our institution, this time pushing the potential of our Mugar Omni Theater to innovative new levels. This work sits at the intersection of art, science, and technology combining immersive VR filmmaking and live theater to take audiences on a one-of-a-kind journey, placing participants fully in the driver’s seat. Displayed in real time on our Omni screen for a live audience to witness the story as it unfolds in the VR world, this project has the potential break down the barriers around the use of VR and technology in live performance, enveloping audiences in the experience whether in headset or not.

It’s been a goal of our institution’s to fuse together VR and performance in organic ways that transcend any experiences currently on the market, and we have found the perfect partner in Bradley and his singular artistic eye and vision. Together we plan on developing this piece for an exclusive prototype premiere for a limited audience in December 2021. With the opportunity to take several participants through the work, while a larger general audience views on the Omni screen, we can stress test the piece and equipment and continue to elevate the project based on participant experience and feedback.

Looking to the future, we hope to stage a world premiere run in either our 2022 or 2023 programmatic season, followed by the opportunity to tour the final show. To do this, focus will be placed upon making this work scalable to provide an easy and light lift for interested producers or partners around the globe, as well as to break down the ever present question around VR experiences- how do we make sure the work is financially accessible? Through our prototyping period, we will focus on developing a final product that can tap into scalable audience models to invite groups of all sizes into the world of Non-Player Character.

We hope you will join us on our journey in bringing Non-Player Character to life- the opportunity to expand our prototyping period and bring the work to different audiences through festivals and conferences, will allow us crucial feedback and insight throughout the many design stages of the piece. Together we immerse the physical and digital worlds together in revolutionary new ways, expand the possibilities of our industries and ensure that on this particular journey, everyone has a story to tell and a role to play.

James Monroe,
Producer, Adult Programs & Theater Experiences
Museum of Science, Boston