Beginning with Uncertainty
“The mission of the theatre, after all, is to change, to raise the consciousness of people to their human possibilities.” – Arthur Miller
This quote closely resonates with the core idea of our project. At the start of the semester, we were presented with a deceptively simple equation to solve: AI + Theater = ? At this early stage, our project idea still feels intentionally vague. That vagueness came with both advantages and challenges.
On the positive side, it gave us the freedom to explore a wide range of possibilities and decide for ourselves what form the project might take and what our final deliverable could be. On the flip side, that same openness made the process difficult – there are countless ways AI and theater can intersect, many of which already exist or feel superficial, lacking a deeper reason for combining the two. We quickly realized that the real challenge wasn’t generating ideas, but identifying one that felt meaningful.
Our project space was vast and exploratory, and as a team we were pushed to grapple with foundational questions early on: Are we creating an experimental project? An interactive experience? An installation? Or something else entirely? Two key constraints guided our thinking from the beginning: AI should not be the star of the experience, and whatever we create should not feel like a gimmick. These constraints helped ground our discussions and set the tone for the work ahead.
After a fun and relaxing winter break, our team finally came together for the first time. That initial meeting focused primarily on introductions- sharing our backgrounds, what we each hope to learn from this project, what we can contribute, and where we might need support. It feels like the right moment to introduce our team:
Team
- Aidan Terry – Producer / Artist
- Di Wen (Wendy) – Technical Artist
- Elizabeth Lin (Liz) – Game Designer / Programmer
- Linda Wang – Game Designer / Programmer
- Ling Lin – Technical Artist
- Sudarshan Choudhari – Producer / Programmer
Project Instructors
- Brenda Harger
- Moshe Mahler
At the time, we hadn’t officially chosen a team name yet. However, we did narrow it down to the following options and by now, you probably know which one we ended up going with:
- ACT VI
- The Prompters
- Deus Ex
- I²
- Artificial Theater
- Artificial Improv
- Theatrical Intelligence
- ImprovAIse
- Drama Queens
- Theatrics
As part of our initial tasks, we decided to individually explore existing work that combines AI with different aspects of theater. These areas included AI + Music, AI + Lighting, AI + Character, AI + Story, AI + Dialogue, and AI + Audience. Each team member was responsible for researching one of these intersections and documenting a brief summary along with the strengths and weaknesses of the technologies involved. We realized this exercise helped us better understand the current landscape and informed our thinking as we began shaping a more focused direction for the project. We shared our findings with our instructors.
And with that, the first week came to an end.