Performing Comedy in the Virtual Space; Helping Society Get Over Itself
Proposal Type
Workshop
Location
Narratives & Worlds
Start Date
July 2026
End Date
July 2026
Abstract
Torn from today’s headlines — conniving, bragging, and preening — the age-old satiric characters of Commedia dell’Arte are as funny and true as they ever were. Refined by centuries of artists to connect with everyday people while leaping over the heads of the clueless powers-that-be, these archetypes are defined not only by their character traits – the vain miser, the bragging coward in the fine uniform, the bloviating pseudo expert – but by traditional gestures and body language. In this workshop VR comedy movement expert Mandy Canales joins netprov producers Mark C. Marino and Rob Wittig for a session of physical play and satirical strategies. If you don’t have a Quest headset, great! Just join us in zoom! If you have a Quest, all the better, join us there at the same time! Mandy will build on Mark and Rob’s recent Commedia dell’Netprov project to invite all participants to embody the sharp, gentle fun of laughing over our shared human foibles. Netprov is networked improvised narrative, an evolving collaborative practice of making stories with words and images in available media. Need to get up out of that chair and goof around? Newcomers welcomed! Beginners celebrated!
Performing Comedy in the Virtual Space; Helping Society Get Over Itself
Narratives & Worlds
Torn from today’s headlines — conniving, bragging, and preening — the age-old satiric characters of Commedia dell’Arte are as funny and true as they ever were. Refined by centuries of artists to connect with everyday people while leaping over the heads of the clueless powers-that-be, these archetypes are defined not only by their character traits – the vain miser, the bragging coward in the fine uniform, the bloviating pseudo expert – but by traditional gestures and body language. In this workshop VR comedy movement expert Mandy Canales joins netprov producers Mark C. Marino and Rob Wittig for a session of physical play and satirical strategies. If you don’t have a Quest headset, great! Just join us in zoom! If you have a Quest, all the better, join us there at the same time! Mandy will build on Mark and Rob’s recent Commedia dell’Netprov project to invite all participants to embody the sharp, gentle fun of laughing over our shared human foibles. Netprov is networked improvised narrative, an evolving collaborative practice of making stories with words and images in available media. Need to get up out of that chair and goof around? Newcomers welcomed! Beginners celebrated!
Bio
Rob Wittig is an e-lit author. In 1983 he co-founded the IN.S.OMNIA system and chronicled its collaborative experiments in Invisible Rendezvous: Connection and Collaboration in the New Landscape of Electronic Writing (1994) after studying electronic literature with Jacques Derrida. Rob created Web fictions such as The Fall of the Site of Marsha (1998) and the subscription email novel Blue Company (2001-02). His netprov projects with Mark C. Marino treat everyday platforms as stages for collective storytelling. His Netprov, Networked Improvised Literature for the Classroom and Beyond (2021) documents, and shares recipes for, many fun netprovs.
Mandy Canales is an Assistant Professor of Digital Technology and Culture at Washington State University and a VR theatre practitioner. She explores how comedy translates in the virtual space, utilizing full body tracking, traditional mask work, and Commedia dell'arte techniques. She is a teaching artist at the Virtual Reality Dance Academy, instructing physical comedy, improv, and jazz dance. Her work has been showcased at OnBoardXR, Raindance Immersive, VRCon, The Gray Area, and ImmersiveX, and she has been a speaker at Indicade Playable Theatre, VRTO Spatial Media World Conference, and SF Design Week.
Mark C. Marino is a writer and scholar of electronic literature living in Los Angeles. His works include “a show of hands” (https://hands.literatronica.net), “Living Will” (https://markcmarino.com/tales/livingwill.html), and "The Ballad of Workstudy Seth" (https://www.springgunpress.com/the-ballad-of-workstudy-seth). His recent work includes Mrs. Wobbles and the Tangerine House (https://markcmarino.com/mrsw/), a collection of interactive stories that he is writing with his children. He is the Director of Communication of the Electronic Literature Organization. (portfolio here:https://markcmarino.com) He currently teaches writing at the University of Southern California where he directs the Humanities and Critical Code Studies Lab (https://haccslab.com), a collaboratory exploring the explication of computer source code. Whether masquerading as Spencer Pratt or Heidi Montag on social media or creating Reddit threads for One-Star Reviews, Mark creates netprovs with Rob Wittig in Meanwhile… Netprov Studios.