Small theatre company (STC), as the name suggests, is in fact a small theatre company, founded by four friends, three of whom graduated in Puppet Theatre Acting in the class of Prof. Jeni Pashova and the fourth one – graduated  in Puppet Theatre Directing in the class of Prof. Slavcho Malenov. In 2013 the puppet quartette decided to create their own theatre subject, which would help to fulfill their puppet theatre ideas. In this way the following shows were created: What the Old Man Does is Always Good, From the Tower; several creative workshops – Vegerionettes, which helped children and parents to  create their own marionettes; Puppets from the Tower – a workshop  on creating puppets from waste materials, which complemented the show of the same name, which was focused on recycling and protection of the environment; Puppet Farm – a workshop for creating puppets made of fruit, vegetables and other natural materials, which  drew children’s attention to those healthy products, while  playing with them. All of these social projects  show  a vision and attitude  way beyond the mere  need to act and show up in front of an audience. And this is the  story up to 2017, when the Company  was at a crossroad and had to decide what to do. After having listened to a lecture of Guy Kawasaki about business innovations and their importance for the development of each enterprise, the Small Theatre Company concluded that technology was becoming a bigger and bigger part of the creator’s world. That is why they asked each other the question: how can we introduce technology harmoniously in a puppet show? After a period of seven months  testing and investigations,  this exploration led them to the choice of a mixed reality, i.e. technology, which they could manage to use in the production of their next project – Treasure island v. 1.0. That was the first puppet show, using mixed and virtual reality (MR/VR) and played in the House of Humor and Satire in Gabrovo.

Let me say a few words about the technology world. Physical reality is the real environment that we inhabit. We can speak of a virtual reality (VR), when environment and objects in it are created entirely artificially. In mixed reality (MR) we have virtual objects, fixed in real space, and we have the possibility of interaction with them. Augmented reality (AR) is the best-known subtype of MR, in which virtual objects populate real environment.

Having an idea, conception and a team, the Small Puppet Company chose to present the classical novel of R. Stevenson in a totally non-classical way. How was this possible? The mixed reality they chose had several important advantages. Its perfection had been worked for years, there were existing tools  to make it happen and besides it allowed a collective experience, so typical for the theatre.  Besides, each modern smart phone should have this integrated module of augmented reality. That is why they managed to conceptually establish the way realities mixed.  To begin with, the real play of actors and puppets  is  videoed  using  smart phone cameras. The camera shots  are complemented by virtual  scenes and objects in real time, by means of a mobile application, specially created for the show.  After that the ready mix  is shown on the display. In order to create a more impacting experience, the Small Theatre Company decided to  supplement smart phones with AR/VR headsets, which covered all visual field of the spectator. The additional advantages of these devices were the stereoscopic picture, which managed to achieve a better sensation of volume, depth and perspective. This was also how the stereo headphones contributed by providing the opportunity for a  better sound effect for the viewer. The use of AR/VR headsets let the team present scenes from both mixed and virtual reality in Treasure Island. In this way the viewer had different points of view  of  what was happening on the stage and also a different  level of experiencing the action. In the scenes of mixed reality the audience observed the characters in a passive way, by standing on their side. In the scenes of virtual reality the viewer was standing next to the main character Jim Hawkins and started to see and feel on his own. This gave the audience a much more active role and a possibility to feel the tension in the scene and the fear of all the characters much better.

All the technologic  ideas used in Treasure Island v 1.0 definitely give new possibilities for the construction of the scenic narration. The path to them is long, related to lots of tests  to achieve mixed reality, by means of existing software  tools and others, which the team will add in the future, to develop the project. But what matters here is something else. A group of young puppeteers decided to trespass the borders, reserved for the so called ’puppet theatre’. They decided to pass into another reality and to  reach for the new technology and software which  manages integrally sound and 3D design integrally, very typical for computer games, but not theatre. Thanks to the AR/VR headsets they began to make corrections, following the line of the stage setting in the virtual  scenes, by directing actors, puppets and virtual objects. And if we put our virtual glasses  now and  see Neil Armstrong alive, he will probably say that this  may be a small step for the Small Theatre Company, but definitely a giant leap for puppet theatre in Bulgaria. I am  inclined to agree with him, in this reality and in another one too.