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'Game Play' theater festival combines gaming and performance art
Brooklyn-area nerds are about to receive a special gift from the cultured world of indie theater. For the majority of July, The Brick Theater will play host to "Game Play," a theater festival comprised of gaming-oriented stage productions, musical performances and interactive performance art, among other things. The schedule is pretty wild and ranges from what you'd expect (chiptune dance parties), to what you wouldn't (nerd-culture burlesque shows.) For instance: Romeoo and Julietet, a modern interpretation of Shakespeare's classic, will be performed entirely within World of Warcraft, while Modal Kombat uses real-ass guitars to control Mortal Kombat characters, as seen after the break. The venue has even turned one event, their Rock Band Karaoke Night, into a fundraiser for Child's Play, granting free admission to anyone with a Child's Play donation receipt. The festival runs from July 7 through the 31, and tickets are available now. Hit the source link to check out the full schedule, but be careful: there are some seriously-almost-entirely-nude naked people on this website. You have been warned!
Brooklyn theater putting on plays inspired by video games
Just because we're video game fans here at Joystiq doesn't mean we don't appreciate the more classical forms of art -- as long as they're related to video games, that is. Like this series of shows at the Brick Theater in Brooklyn, NY, for example. It's a whole month of some quality live drama, all driven and influenced by video games. There's Grand Theft Ovid, which tells some of the Roman poet's tales using everyone's favorite carjack simulator (along with a few other popular games). Modal Kombat features a set of guitar controllers that are used to play non-music games. The best, though, might be the Theater of the Arcade, which takes old games like Duck Hunt and Donkey Kong and presents them, re-imagined, as short theatrical vignettes. O Mario, Mario, wherefore art thou? The shows are going on at the Brick through the rest of July. Performances are just $15, plus there's also a Rock Band Karaoke night and a few other game-related events sprinkled throughout the run. If your significant other is complaining that you're spending too many nights in front of the TV and not enough out enjoying the arts, this seems like a perfect compromise. [Thanks, Edward!]
IndieCade 2009: The finalists
IndieCade 2009 was held in Culver City, CA this past weekend, and the local art galleries and restaurants were filled with independent games and their developers from all over the world. The festival billed itself as the "video game Sundance" and lived up to this self-made reputation, putting 29 different indie games on display, both throughout the weekend and during a Thursday night opening ceremony MC'd by Uncharted 2's Richard Lemarchand (shown above with festival founder Stephanie Barish).We've rounded up the festival's finalists in the gallery below. You may be familiar with a few of them, including Twisted Pixel's The Maw and a selection of well-known iPhone titles, but all of these titles deserve your attention -- and a playthrough!%Gallery-74606%
