Stuart Harris
Encyclopedia
Stuart H. Harris is an Englishman now living in California
. He is a computer professional, an expert on IRC and has written a book on the subject, IRC Survival Guide: Talk to the World with Internet Relay Chat, published in 1995 by Addison-Wesley
, ISBN 9780201410006 . He is also a performer with three years experience as a semi-professional actor on the festival circuit, two years as a professional in London and in provincial repertory theatre, and further experience as a director in television. The aforementioned extensive cross-disciplinary experience motivated Harris to explore the potential of creating a Shakespeare performance online; namely, a contemporary production of Shakespeare's Hamlet known as Hamnet.
's Ian Taylor as the principal character. A follow-up performance entitled "PCbeth: an IBM clone of Macbeth" was created, with a world premier on the date of stimulus playwright Shakespeare's 430th birthday, 23 April 1994. PCbeth consisted of a 160-line pastiche, which instigated theuse in virtual performances of images via JPEG files offered to participants with the capability to receive and exhibit them. The production was restaged on 10 July 1994, accommodating VIP guest stars and several audio effects.
Following this, the company adapted American playwright Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire
into the IRC-revised version An IRC Channel Named Desire. The production was staged twice: on 30 October 1994, and on 12 February 1995.
Use of the name The Hamnet Players suggests Stuart Harris' intention was to create a virtual repertory theatre company, which would become steadily more established over the course of time, and several productions. However, although Harris found it beneficial to cast several regular virtual actors, who formed the foundations of the players, and supported its intentions, the collaboration better resembled an ever-expanding and interchanging assemblage of enthusiasts than one perpetually definite troupe. As such, The Hamlet Players generally experience frequent cast turnovers.
Originally founded in 1993, the online company's name resonates culturally in several ways; relating not simply to the clear play on the original script's title of Hamlet
, but, additionally, to the colloquial English term for an overzealous actor - a "ham". Stuart Harris in addition considered the potential "mixed reality" performance's wide possible levels of audience accessibility, regardless of financial or locational constraints; because the name "Hamnet Players" can also be linked to the term "pirate" or "ham" radio: unregulated channels of radio communication(made popular in the western world in the 1950s and 60s), operated by amateur broadcasters outside of the legal broadcast network; consequently enabling Hamnet's staging to also be linked to contemporary "hacker culture". The basis of IRC has all the foundations for any performance- users can choose the name by which they want to be known, and there are many hundreds of thousands of users who choose not to chat but to simply watch and read what goes on. Therefore using character names such as “Ophelia” and “Hamlet”, as well as using HTML
actions, gives the potential to introduce a very considerable alternative to traditional live performance platforms.
Harris' intention for development of The Hamnet Players' work was to ultimately create web-based formats of every stage of theatrical production, in addition to performance; including casting calls, auditions and callbacks; the entire rehearsal process; marketing and production critique.
In her paper "Curtain Time 20:00 GMT; Experiments with Virtual Theater on Internet Relay Chat", Brenda Danet says this of Stuart Harris' version of Hamlet, Hamnet:
"...gross reduction of the length of the text and caricaturization of plot and action, along with transformation of hallowed Renaissance poetry into late 20th century colloquial prose and even lowly slang ... transform the play into a kind of typed Punch and Judy show"
(Harris, 1995, 500)
Live or mediated performance is based on the idea that Mediated performance is one that is recorded or broadcast. The technique used by the Hamnet Players, initiated by Stuart Harris, is that each of the cast's script lines are numbered and no one has the full script apart from the production team. In this way, not even the players fully know what will unfold until the live chat performance.
Stuart Harris drew on his experience of IRC to create a virtual theatre company focused on creating "mixed reality" cyberperformance. One of the advantages of performing entirely online was the ability for company members to be in cross-country or even internationally varied locations simultaneously- members could rehearse at any time, from anywhere. Following around a year of online experimentation, and directed by Harris, the cybertheatre company performed a contemporary script-based version of Shakespeare's Hamlet specifically adapted for IRC in December 1993. Broadcast from an IRC channel based in San Diego, the production appeared on computer screens across the world; and was performed for a second time in February with RSC member Ian Taylor as the principal character. The usual script-based format of IRC, and its use of dialogue as the primary communication method, present the facility as an ideal platform for performing text-based drama experimentally. The online potential for spontaneity and improvisation was both realised and cursed, however, when a bot unintentionally killed Hamlet halfway through the production.
Mary L. Anglin
Advantageously, despite Stuart Harris' focus on spontaneity, the director's choice of IRC as performance format allowed copies of the production to be documented via online performance logs; granting preservation of improvised lines, character depictions and described actions offered by actors, and textual cues(such as emoticons) regularly used in net communications as a replacement for facial and vocal cues relied on in face-to-face conversation.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. He is a computer professional, an expert on IRC and has written a book on the subject, IRC Survival Guide: Talk to the World with Internet Relay Chat, published in 1995 by Addison-Wesley
Addison-Wesley
Addison-Wesley was a book publisher in Boston, Massachusetts, best known for its textbooks and computer literature. As well as publishing books, Addison-Wesley also distributed its technical titles through the Safari Books Online e-reference service...
, ISBN 9780201410006 . He is also a performer with three years experience as a semi-professional actor on the festival circuit, two years as a professional in London and in provincial repertory theatre, and further experience as a director in television. The aforementioned extensive cross-disciplinary experience motivated Harris to explore the potential of creating a Shakespeare performance online; namely, a contemporary production of Shakespeare's Hamlet known as Hamnet.
Internet Relay Chat
Harris has written several works on the use of IRC (internet relay chat) and other internet mediums. His best-known book is The irc Survival Guide; talk to the world with Internet Relay Chat In 1995 when the book was published, irc was the latest in a fast growing line of communication technologies. The downside of irc was the complicated language required to create commands (actions). However, Harris' book was written with the intention of using five simple commands to make the most of an otherwise complicated client, for those who have no background in computer or internet programming.The Hamnet Players
The Hamnet Players introduced Harris' idea of Internet-based theatre on 12 December 1993 in their performance of the 80-line script adaption, "Hamnet"; on 6 February 1994, featuring the Royal Shakespeare CompanyRoyal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
's Ian Taylor as the principal character. A follow-up performance entitled "PCbeth: an IBM clone of Macbeth" was created, with a world premier on the date of stimulus playwright Shakespeare's 430th birthday, 23 April 1994. PCbeth consisted of a 160-line pastiche, which instigated theuse in virtual performances of images via JPEG files offered to participants with the capability to receive and exhibit them. The production was restaged on 10 July 1994, accommodating VIP guest stars and several audio effects.
Following this, the company adapted American playwright Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire (play)
A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was...
into the IRC-revised version An IRC Channel Named Desire. The production was staged twice: on 30 October 1994, and on 12 February 1995.
Use of the name The Hamnet Players suggests Stuart Harris' intention was to create a virtual repertory theatre company, which would become steadily more established over the course of time, and several productions. However, although Harris found it beneficial to cast several regular virtual actors, who formed the foundations of the players, and supported its intentions, the collaboration better resembled an ever-expanding and interchanging assemblage of enthusiasts than one perpetually definite troupe. As such, The Hamlet Players generally experience frequent cast turnovers.
Originally founded in 1993, the online company's name resonates culturally in several ways; relating not simply to the clear play on the original script's title of Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, but, additionally, to the colloquial English term for an overzealous actor - a "ham". Stuart Harris in addition considered the potential "mixed reality" performance's wide possible levels of audience accessibility, regardless of financial or locational constraints; because the name "Hamnet Players" can also be linked to the term "pirate" or "ham" radio: unregulated channels of radio communication(made popular in the western world in the 1950s and 60s), operated by amateur broadcasters outside of the legal broadcast network; consequently enabling Hamnet's staging to also be linked to contemporary "hacker culture". The basis of IRC has all the foundations for any performance- users can choose the name by which they want to be known, and there are many hundreds of thousands of users who choose not to chat but to simply watch and read what goes on. Therefore using character names such as “Ophelia” and “Hamlet”, as well as using HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
actions, gives the potential to introduce a very considerable alternative to traditional live performance platforms.
Harris' intention for development of The Hamnet Players' work was to ultimately create web-based formats of every stage of theatrical production, in addition to performance; including casting calls, auditions and callbacks; the entire rehearsal process; marketing and production critique.
In her paper "Curtain Time 20:00 GMT; Experiments with Virtual Theater on Internet Relay Chat", Brenda Danet says this of Stuart Harris' version of Hamlet, Hamnet:
"...gross reduction of the length of the text and caricaturization of plot and action, along with transformation of hallowed Renaissance poetry into late 20th century colloquial prose and even lowly slang ... transform the play into a kind of typed Punch and Judy show"
Live or Mediated Performance
"Since all participants in an IRC conversation may choose whatever nickname they wish to be known by... and since an IRC channel may contain many people who watch, but contribute nothing... some of the elements of traditional theatre are [still] there."(Harris, 1995, 500)
Live or mediated performance is based on the idea that Mediated performance is one that is recorded or broadcast. The technique used by the Hamnet Players, initiated by Stuart Harris, is that each of the cast's script lines are numbered and no one has the full script apart from the production team. In this way, not even the players fully know what will unfold until the live chat performance.
Stuart Harris drew on his experience of IRC to create a virtual theatre company focused on creating "mixed reality" cyberperformance. One of the advantages of performing entirely online was the ability for company members to be in cross-country or even internationally varied locations simultaneously- members could rehearse at any time, from anywhere. Following around a year of online experimentation, and directed by Harris, the cybertheatre company performed a contemporary script-based version of Shakespeare's Hamlet specifically adapted for IRC in December 1993. Broadcast from an IRC channel based in San Diego, the production appeared on computer screens across the world; and was performed for a second time in February with RSC member Ian Taylor as the principal character. The usual script-based format of IRC, and its use of dialogue as the primary communication method, present the facility as an ideal platform for performing text-based drama experimentally. The online potential for spontaneity and improvisation was both realised and cursed, however, when a bot unintentionally killed Hamlet halfway through the production.
Mary L. Anglin
Advantageously, despite Stuart Harris' focus on spontaneity, the director's choice of IRC as performance format allowed copies of the production to be documented via online performance logs; granting preservation of improvised lines, character depictions and described actions offered by actors, and textual cues(such as emoticons) regularly used in net communications as a replacement for facial and vocal cues relied on in face-to-face conversation.
Superseding Developments
Subsequently, similar cyberperformance groups inspired by his project include:- The Plaintext Players (founded by Antoinette LaFarge): performed in MOO's and mixed reality spaces. Earliest performance: "Xmas" (1994)
- ParkBench(Nina Sobell; Emily Hartzell): collaborative performance and artwork space, incorporating live video with a web browser UI( User Interface) (1994)
- Desktop Theatre (Adriene Jenik; Lisa Brennies): waitingforgodot.com (1997)
- Avatar Body Collision (Helen Varley Jamieson; Karl Ptacek; Vicki Smith; Leena Saarinen): Online performance collaboration featuring use of internet-based cyberperformance software programme "UpStage" (2002)
Published Works
- The IRC Survival Guide: Talk to the World with Internet Relay Chat (Addison Wesley Publishing Company, 1995)
- Netscape Quick Tour for Macintosh: Accessing and Navigating the Internet's World Wide Web (also published with CD-ROM as Special Edition) (Ventana Pr, 1995)
- Official HTML Publishing for Netscape: Windows Edition (Ventana Pr, 1996)
- Official Netscape Dynamic HTML Developer's Guide (Ventana Pr, 1997)
- Dreamweaver UltraDev for Dummies(with CD-ROM) (For Dummies, 2001)
See also
- CyberformanceCyberformanceCyberformance refers to live theatrical performances in which remote participants are enabled to work together in real time through the medium of the internet, employing technologies such as chat applications or purpose-built, multiuser, real-time collaborative software such as UpStage...
- The Hamnet PlayersThe Hamnet PlayersThe Hamnet Players, founded in 1993, perform virtual theatre using IRC chat.-Overview:On 12 December 1994, a dozen people gathered at an event which made cyber-history: an experimental performance on IRC–Internet Relay Chat of a parody of Shakespeare's Hamlet, irreverently renamed "Hamnet."...
- William ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
- Avatar Body Collision
- Antoinette LaFargeAntoinette LaFargeAntoinette LaFarge is a new media artist and writer known for her work with mixed-reality performance and projects exploring the conjunction of visual art and fiction.-Biography:...