Bradley University Theatre pushes the edge of technology as they continue their 2006-2007 season in the Hartmann Center for the Performing Arts with a fully mediatized production of Elmer Rice’s THE ADDING MACHINE, opening on March 6th in the Meyer Jacobs Theatre.

Written in 1923 by Pulitzer Prize winning author Elmer Rice, THE ADDING MACHINE is a funny and slightly nightmarish look at advancing technology and its effect on human relationships. The play chronicles the life of Zero, a hapless cog spinning aimlessly in the corporate world. His career as an accountant at a behemoth firm has languished at the bottom rung for 25 years, his marriage is a charade, and his friends live cloned copies of his life. When Zero is replaced by a machine, we follow him on an amazing journey through life and beyond.

Bradley University Theatre’s production of THE ADDING MACHINE is an innovative interdisciplinary, inter-institutional collaboration that joins students, faculty, and staff from the Department of Theatre Arts and the Multimedia Program at Bradley University with students, faculty, and staff from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada and the University of Central Florida in Orlando to collaboratively develop, rehearse, and present a production that integrates virtual scenery, broadcast video via Internet 2, recorded video, avatar performers, photographs, graphics and sound into Elmer Rice’s expressionistic play.

Work has been documented on the project website: http://addingmachine.bradley.edu/.

One of the more interesting aspects of this production is the use of Internet2 technologies to collaborate with performers hundreds of miles away. (In the case of Florida, 1125 miles distant.) Performers in these remote locations are playing major roles in the show and performing "live" through a DVTS (Digital Video Transport System) hookup and keyed into the composite video backgrounds being developed in the graphics program, Vue6, at a resolution of 3072 x 768. (The projection surface in the set is 36 ' X 9'.)

The production team has developed several other innovative media elements for this project including a fully composite scene in which two actors play 13 other characters; the use of wireless “lipstick" cameras embedded in the scenery and filtered through a video processing program (Isadora) to allow the characters to speak their inner thoughts/subtext live on stage; the staging of a "virtual" execution; just to name a few.

THE ADDING MACHINE performs at 8 p.m. on March 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. A single matinee performance will be given on March 11 at 2:30 p.m. This production has a limited one-week run due to the heavy technical requirements. All performances will be held in the Meyer Jacobs Theatre in the Hartmann Center for the Performing Arts located on the corner of St. James and Elmwood Streets.

Single tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for faculty/staff and seniors, and $5 for students and are available by calling the Cultural Events Box Office at (309) 677-2650.