Virtually Be: Interaction between Physical and Virtual Actors in Theatrical Performances

The convergence between classical theatre and new technologies such as motion capture is opening up new artistic practices. In this interdisciplinary study, situated at the crossroads of experimental science and creation-research projects, we designed an experiment to assess spectators’ perception of physical and virtual actors performing on stage. We were interested in investigating the way each actor would elicit a sense of social presence, with a particular focus on three sub-dimensions: co-presence, attentional allocation and perceived affective understanding. Spectators were exposed to three short scenes representative of different acting situations. Two asymmetric scenes depicted a situation where either the physical or the virtual actor was performing in a dynamic way, while both actors were active in the third scene. Results revealed significant interaction effects between the actor type (physical or virtual) and the acting dynamic for the considered dimension of social presence. However, we observed no significant difference when actors were performing simultaneously, suggesting that physical and virtual actors can harmoniously share a stage in active situations. It is noteworthy that the results indicated that a passive virtual actor received more attention than a passive physical one, at a level comparable to that of an active physical actor. These findings has implications for the staging of theatrical performances that leverage the potential of motion capture and 3D character animation.