ACT III –  FUTURES IN PLAY

Photo: vog.photo

STAGED REALITIES

Lecture & Talk

ACT III –  FUTURES IN PLAY

FUTURES IN PLAY: AI AND IMPACT IN THEATRE

Magda Romanska (US), Nora Krahl (DE), Hermann Schneider (DE/AT), Paulien Geerlings (NL)

When AI enters the stage, how to future-proof the theatre ecosystem? The last panel of the conference day devoted to AI and theatre turns a critical lens on practical, institutional, political, and ethical implications of AI. In the new landscape, what is needed for sustainable growth and future resilience? As automation enters the stage, what new skills are needed? How might AI reshape labor, authorship, and the economics of production? With an operational perspective, the conversation also explores algorithmic bias, equity in creative datasets, alongside the politics of machine-made narratives.

POSTCITY, First Floor, Conference Hall
Sat 6. Sep 2025 15:30 – 16:30

Language //

EN

  • Magda Romanska

    Magda Romanska is a professor at Emerson College, affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center, and chair of the Transmedia Arts Seminar at Harvard. Her research explores how AI reshapes authorship, labor, and ethics in theater performance. She leads the Digital Access Research Project on streaming, equity, and algorithmic bias at metaLAB at Harvard, and her forthcoming book explores legal and structural challenges of digital theater worldwide, with a focus on access, sustainability, and global policy.

  • Paulien Geerlings

    Paulien Geerlings, a Dutch dramaturge/writer and ETC board member, studied Philosophy and Theatre at Amsterdam University and graduated at DasArts, a post-master program for performance. She is the head dramaturge at Toneelmakerij theater company for young audiences. Her work focuses on new repertoire and new technologies in theater. She publishes regularly on representation and inclusion and has recently written a play for the main stage on the Dutch colonial history in Indonesia.

  • Nora Krahl

    Nora Krahl is a director, cellist, and composer dedicated to contemporary music and digital forms of theater. She is the artistic director of MiR.LAB and has primarily worked with technologies such as motion tracking and XR. Her productions have taken her to the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburger Bahnhof, as well as to Istanbul and New York City. Her recent works include the VR opera Am Ende der Welt and the avatar puppet play Jede Menge Unsterblichkeit.

Presented in the context of ACuTe. ACuTe is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

Please note: The program for the Ars Electronica Festival 2025 is still in progress.
We are currently preparing all the information for the website and plan to put the full program online in the coming days – stay tuned!