Hummingbird: Live Theater Adventure Empowering Collaboration in Virtual Reality

Hummingbird is an innovative, award-winning performance engaging participants in active storytelling that bridges live theater and collaborative interaction through virtual reality (VR). Hummingbird's story celebrates courage and coming of age through the eyes of a gutsy teen who must outsmart her mother's egotistic boss and survive a dangerous new technology in a live, immersive adventure. Developed at the University of Illinois Chicago by faculty and over 30 students from the departments of Computer Science and Design in partnership with professional theater producers, directors, actors, videographers and composers, this project advanced interdisciplinary collaboration, provided a unique learning environment and broadened the research experience for several cohorts of students. Over 500 people attended Hummingbird's performances at the Tony Award-winning Goodman Theatre's New Stages Festival, Chicago Children's Theater and SIGGRAPH 2022 in Vancouver, Canada, with over 200 active VR participants. In each performance, five VR participants actively collaborate with each other and a lead actor within the VR adventure, contributing problem-solving, collaboration and teamwork, while a greater audience simultaneously follows the virtual performance aspects on a large video wall in real-time. Discussion sessions and audience evaluations followed each performance, informed the Hummingbird team on script, design and interactivity to improve future performances. Through qualitative analysis of audience experiences and insights from our collaboration, we discuss key considerations and design recommendations for integrating VR with live theater. Hummingbird demonstrates how VR can revolutionize theatrical storytelling by enabling traditional theater to narrate epic stories that were once considered too ambitious for traditional stage by extending live theater and making VR accessible to a broader audience. This project serves as a prototype for successful partnerships between nonprofit theater and interdisciplinary research institutions to increase opportunities for cross-disciplinary student education.