Tonight, I'll be watching a performance from NT Live, here in this Munich cinema. It's a dance piece called John, by the world renowned dance company DV8 Physical Theatre. And it will be broadcast live in this cinema. This cinema is one of hundreds of locations around the world. The Metropolitan Opera in New York also broadcasts live opera to over a thousand locations in 66 different countries. There's also a new development called live streaming. This means you can watch theater or performance on your own computer at home, usually for a price. [NOISE] Well, what, what's your feeling about this kind of new technology? This new kind of experience? >> I think it, it's a great idea, as long as the quality is kept up. I'm kind of not a fan of Vox pop. But what's happening in the cinema is what's happening on the theater somewhere else. And they're professionals. So I think it's, I think it's a cool idea. If it gets people more involved in real theater by means of an artificial medium. The Internet and, and, live streaming, then I, I, I think, it's not going to [INAUDIBLE] good. >> You okay? I mean, obviously, it's not theatre and it's not cinema. Is it something in between? Or, how do you, sort of? What, what sort of experience is it for you? >> I think, it's a totally new idea, actually. So, maybe, even what this live stream guys see. Might be even better than sitting in the actual real performance. I don't mean to say the real but they, yeah you know what I mean though. >> Yeah. >> The kind, being actually there, this might actually be better. >> It takes quite a bit of convincing to tell people you know, this is a worthwhile experience that is. As good as theater, in the live, you're being there present with the performers. It's different, but some of the things you lose, you gain in other ways. And it's visceral it's engaging. >> Neil, as far as I understand, you in a sense started off this live casting here at the cinema in Munich, right? You were the driving force behind it. >> Driving force, maybe. I, I initiated it. It was my idea to bring it to this city. And, after the first show, the audience was maybe a little disappointing by, by my standards, and I found myself spontaneously just standing up, making an impromptu speech. And, asking people, basically, to tell their friends to support it. And as a result of that, a cooperation of all, between myself and this, venue. And I have animated audiences, driven audiences up, until we are either the most successful or the next to most successful venue in Germany. And now the series is safe, it'll stay here without me having to put any energy in. >> Was there a, a degree of financial risk involved, for the cinema or for yourself to get something like this going, I mean? >> For the cinema themselves they, they're the ones who have the commercial ties and sign the contracts with the agency, I don't. So from their point of view it's, do they run a block buster film? Or do they put this on that may draw, I mean tonight we had 150. Sometimes we have 400, but it can vary. We're usually somewhere around 200. Unless it's Shakespeare. In Germany, there's Shake, Shakespeare in a big way. >> Have you kind of been getting an idea of people's reactions to this, really quite new medium, I think it is. >> I'm going to just put something in. You might wish to cut this bit out. It's very hard to get your students here. And when they come they too are surprised, which is some of the other people I talked to on the streets and in, in close and so on. And they say, oh we thought is was going to be like we have to watch all the time for the things for us to do this. It's different, it's so much better. >> Yeah. >> I said yeah, that what I've been trying to tell you. [LAUGH] >> Yeah, I've been trying to tell them too. >> And its very different to watching theater or television or maybe online for a number of reasons wish I could go through. >> Yeah, tell us what are,what are the reasons? >> Primarily the tech, technology the technology is five cameras that take the best seats needed in the house. The audience are told beforehand that they're playing second fiddle. And the remaining seats are sold. There are two rehearsals for each show technical rehearsals that is and they put a lot of work in making sure that the people in the cinema have the best experience they could possibly have. So everything is changed for, you know that experience. So it's, it's high definition technology that means that the makeup has to be different, the lighting has to be different, it's all done to make sure that what comes across in the cinema is really good. The sound design changes so the cinema people have the best that cinema can offer, which is different to what your computer offers, obviously, and so. We're getting a experience that is the same performance from the actors, but the technical side is tailor made for, for us here. And this creates an excitement that is surprising. >> Tell us something about the actual broadcast technology that's been used to bring these productions into the cinema. >> There is a live satellite up link from the theater in the UK, and we take a satellite feed live here. So if anything goes wrong, we're the first to know. And on one production, the up link was lost and we, I think we lost it for about five minutes. At their end it was lost. They started over for us. So it's a live, bi-satellite technology, which means that the, the receiving venue has to have that technology, not only, tech, digital technology for projection, which is high definition compatible, but also the satellite link up on the. >> And the future? Where's it going from here? Well, in terms of the National Theater and its domestic audience, I mean, it, it, it's secured, it's incredibly successful, and I see an increasing need in the UK as budget cutbacks mean that many regional theaters won't be able to put on shows sometimes of the scale that the National can do. Internationally, it has been a great success. The model works. The National is making a very slight profit feeding that back in. So I see no problem with us receiving it or the states. [MUSIC] >> This sounds like the newest development, unique to the Internet age. But is it? Not long after the telephone was invented, an ingenious French entrepreneur had the idea of transforming the clumsy medium into a stereo phonic telephone that could transmit music, which he christened the theatrophone. By 1881 entire operas were being regularly transmitted to public music rooms or to private households across Paris and London in exchange for a listening fee. We are standing on the threshold of new possibilities to distribute and receive theatre. This challenges many of our assumptions about theatre I know. But theatre has always been dependant on technology, and has always adapted to it. The challenge for the future will be, how we engage with this new technology in our training, our research, and our practice. The satellite technology used for cinematic live casts is still, however, western focussed. London and New York broadcast to the rest of the world. The next stage would be internet streaming, where any producer can make theater accessible to anyone, anywhere, with a good broadband internet connection. We may soon be seeing experimental, avant-garde theater in high quality versions as well as Shakespeare and Frankenstein. The global theater of Morris Banyan was dependent on steam ships and telegraphic communication. The global theater of tomorrow will require digital technology or whatever comes after it. >> [INAUDIBLE] They are, they are speaking. >> Yeah. [NOISE] Can do that? >> No but they do dance. >> [CROSSTALK] The globalization of theater. >> They, they dance as well. They do both. >> Well then as long as you know what you're doing. >> I know I've seen the before
