Adding Machine

National media exposure for Bradley came from more than the men’s basketball tournament last March. A 1923 play that gave new meaning to the term “high-tech” quickly grabbed the attention of Discovery Channel News. For theatergoers and technology gurus, The Adding Machine was the hottest ticket in town. And not one of them had to wear 3-D glasses to watch the special effects. The BU theatre department is no stranger to rave reviews, so what accounts for an 84-year-old play to be heralded as such a standout? For starters, a live actor was “beamed in” from a Canadian university 500 miles to the northeast; another performed live almost 1,000 miles away in Florida, yet appeared in front of a Peoria audience. Having virtual actors onstage was definitely a first at Hartmann Center for the Performing Arts—or almost anywhere in the world for that matter. Another first was that much of the larger-than-life virtual scenery was created by almost two dozen multimedia students at Bradley—not with hammers and paintbrushes, but with computers, innovative software, and HD cameras. more information