PXR Conference — Kingston Theatre Alliance

Virtual Reality has been on the rise as a new medium in the theatre industry for a few years now, but is it ready to take the forefront? Last weekend I had the honour of attending the 2024 PXR Conference for the second year running. This time around, I attended Journey to Octopulis: Improv or Die, hosted by Unknown Theater, and Mary Shelley Lives Here, hosted by Hummingbird Interactive. Both […]

At PXR 2024, performance meets expansive realities across physical and digital spaces. Established in 2020, the PXR (Performance and XR) Conference is Canada’s first and only conference on XR (Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality) performance creation. PXR 2024, hosted by Single Thread Theatre Company, takes place in-person in Kingston, Toronto, and Vancouver, as well as virtually, from Friday, November 8th to Sunday, November 17th—local Kingston events are in partnership with […]

Think of a world where anything is possible; where imagination comes to life. Welcome to Virtual Reality. Single Thread and Electric Company Theatre’s PXR Conference is full of exceptional talks and presentations about Virtual Reality (VR) and exploring the power of VR for immersive and interactive experiences. In my previous article, I discussed my findings attending these presentations and now will touch on some of the PXR experience events I […]

Virtual reality is a relatively unexplored area of technology that can take you to worlds beyond your imagination. This past week I have had the pleasure of attending the PXR Conference run by Single Thread Theatre Company and Electric Company Theatre. It is a ten-day hybrid conference that showcases the best of Virtual Reality (VR) and how it can be used as a tool for interactive experiences. The conference begins […]

Performance and XR (PXR) is a virtual reality conference hosted by Kingston’s Single Thread Theatre Company and Vancouver’s Electric Company Theatre. Spanning provinces and platforms, the conference celebrates digital art making and innovation through XR (extended reality—virtual, augmented, and mixed reality). This week, I’m meeting with Amanda Lin—PXR producer and former editor of the KTA  blog—to learn more about the conference.  This interview has been edited for length and clarity.  […]

Like many, the idea of an online theatrical experience doesn’t excite me like it did pre-pandemic.  The anticipation of being involved with new technology has been dimmed by having to creatively engage with it out of necessity rather than curiosity for the last two years. This was the unfortunate attitude that I held when I went into the PXR (Performance and Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality) Conference. Immediately I felt […]

[TLDR is an abbreviation for ‘too long; didn’t read’, usually followed by a brief synopsis] If the pandemic has taught us anything in the last year and a half, it has been how to adapt. While an inability to gather has seen the closing of countless theatres, some companies have turned to the internet as a means of staying afloat. By broadcasting performances and moving programming online, digitizing became a […]

On October 2nd, I had the privilege to enter the immersive world of Virtual Reality to attend the 2020 Performance & XR Conference, co-hosted by Electric Company Theatre and Single Thread Theatre Co. Performance & XR is a conference discussing the unique intersection of XR and Performance. With respect to the conference, XR is an umbrella term that can refer to Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality. While the […]

At the inaugural Performance and XR Virtual Reality Symposium, award-winning lighting, set, projection and mixed reality designer Beth Kates guides us through an experimentation of creating performance in XR.