Commedia and Robots

Robotics finding its way into theatre is the subject of a New York Times feature story today. The story quotes department of theatre and film studies head David Saltz on the reality of robots and live theatre:

Comedy seems to come easily to robots, whose exaggerated features and stilted movements make them natural stooges. “The more you try to imitate a human, the more creepy it can get,” Ms. Knight said. “Sometimes if you make it more cartoonish, the audience can be more forgiving.”

In a more formal comedic vein a University of Georgia theater professor, David Saltz, is developing a robotic interpretation of commedia dell’arte. With its short scenes, broad characters and absence of scripted dialogue, these archetypal sketch pieces make nearly perfect dramatic vessels for robot actors.

The story also features a video of Saltz describing his robotic collaboration joining robotics with the 500-year-old tradition of commedia dell'arte. Congratulations to Saltz on the attention for this project and for keeping the UGA theatre program at the leading edge of developments on the stage.