What interesting times we are living in! As the Covid-19 pandemic leads to global pandemonium, borders snap shut and airlines crash into bankruptcy, the internet is taking on even greater importance in our daily lives. But can its fragile infrastructure cope with the sudden increase in working from home, audio-visual conferencing and panicked communications zapping through the ether? The vulnerability of globalisation has been laid bare. So to artists’ dependency on audiences – as everything from rock concerts to operas to fringe festivals fall victim to the new desire for social distance, it’s time for UpStage and cyberformance to step into the spotlight.
On Monday 23rd March, break out of quarantine and dive into UpStage for the Pandemic Party and open walkthrough. Enjoy some socially distanced intimacy, hanging out in close virtual contact with or without face masks. Tell us how it is where you are, swap conspiracy theories and ponder the wonderful benefits to the environment of plummeting carbon emissions and banished cruise ships. The fun starts at 9am CET / 9pm NZ time (find your local time here).
You can participate as audience (no log-in required) or as a player (log in here). If you don’t have a player, please email info [@] upstage.org.nz and request a guest log-in for the session. We will show you how to use UpStage during the party (that’s the “open walkthrough” party).
The party and walkthrough takes place here: http://live.upstage.org.nz:8081/stages/walkthrough.
Monday 23rd March 2020, 9am UK / 9pm NZ. Find your local time here.
Important: many browsers now require you to MANUALLY ENABLE FLASH in order to enter the stage. If the stage does not load (i.e. the loading indicator goes round but does not show increasing percentages) then you will need to manually enable the Flash plug-in. In Firefox, this is done by clicking on the icon in the URL bar that looks a bit like a lego block, and selecting “Allow”:
