Nomad Theatre Company, a production company that holds plays in real-life settings other than a stage, is nearing the end of its first full season since becoming a nonprofit, year-round organization.
This weekend, Nomad will bring The AI Plays to The Coffeehouse & Deli in Uptown Normal.
Along with projects like this one, Nomad produces short, original plays submitted by playwrights from around the country and locally. The project was formed in 2019 by Illinois State University staff members Connie Blick and Cristen Monson. They said the project was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but now they have rebuilt the company as a nonprofit organization.
“The sky is the limit as far as where you can produce theater. We have lots of big ideas for sure,” said Monson, highlighting the company’s chief concept.
Nomad Theatre Company hosts performances in various places which match the setting of the scripts, aiming to create a more immersive environment to showcase the story.
The AI Plays uses AI-generated prompts for the performance. Monson said she experimented with ChatGPT after a show which included a vampire character at the beginning of Nomad's opening season.
“I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be weird if we put into ChatGPT, write a short play about a vampire trying to find something in Walmart,' — just gave it the parameters — and I did that and it came up with this really funny little skit,” Monson said.
“I thought, ‘This is just crazy; I had no idea that ChatGPT could create something so creative,’ but they were still kind of wonky.’ We thought, ‘What if we did something like that to show how creative it could be but also why it’s not a substitution for an actual human being?’” Monson continued.
Blick said one of the goals is to showcase how AI can be used ethically as a tool for theater.
“We used AI for some of our brainstorming sessions for this. [We gave] it the prompt and in four seconds it gave us 20 different brainstorming ideas that we would have sat there as a group together for maybe half an hour trying to think of,” Blick said.
Blick said AI-generated prompts lack the creativity that people bring.
“It cannot replace us as actors or writers,” Blick said. “It’s missing a human element. There’s something that is different than reading something that is really written by a person.”
Monson agreed. She said comedy, in particular, cannot be replicated by AI.
“I think ChatGPT often goes towards the most vulgar or the most obvious funny thing that it can get from the internet, but it doesn’t replace the cleverness of a writer and using references from life to make something funny. It’s definitely not the same,” Monson said.
Nomad Theatre Company’s newsletter said there is the possibility of a robot uprising during the performance.
“It might happen. You never know,” Blick said.
Spontaneous theater
Blick said the first act of the evening will see performers act out pre-rehearsed scenes generated by AI. The second act will use ideas submitted prior to the show for actors to perform on the spot. The third act will use ideas from the audience, similar to a sketch comedy show.
Blick and Monson said Coffeehouse was selected as the venue because they wanted an open mic-style setting.
“Coffeehouse is also in a college area where we could maybe attract people that would be stopping by and go, ‘Oh, there’s an event going on,’ and that’s part of our mission too — for people to discover live theater in all different ways,” Monson said.
Monson said she gave ChatGPT a prompt to create a graphic of AI plays being performed at Coffeehouse. She said they turned out badly.
“Again, there are some things that AI just cannot do,” Monson said.
The AI Plays will start at 7 p.m. with a family-friendly show and then transition into a more mature adult-oriented show at 10 p.m. on Saturday, April 26 at The Coffeehouse & Deli, 114 E. Beaufort, Normal. Tickets are $10 at nomadtheatre.org.
