Video and Hyperdrama

[cdeemer]

Does anyone know of anyone adapting hyperdrama principles to video? (Hyperdrama uses branching narrative storytelling so that each individual observer must choose how to move through the story.) I'm making a hyperdrama video for showing at the Hypertext 08 Conference in Pittsburg this summer and am curious what others are doing. Ten years ago I could count the number of writers working in hyperdrama (in the world!) on two hands but the form has become more popular since then, especially in Europe. Any info appreciated. Thanks.

[Chuck Engels]

This sounds really interesting Charles, I would like to know more about it.
I will be watching this topic with great interest.

Is there a sample short Hyperdrama on the web somewhere that you know of and could point us too?

[cdeemer]

Ask and ye shall receive! As it happens, I've had 8 hyperdramas produced and some are on the web ... the starting point is http://www.ibiblio.org/cdeemer/hdrama.htm and I recommend the short one, "The Death of Violeta Parra" first, which I developed with a company in Chile as "an electronic playwright in residence" -- we developed it in a chat room!

My most ambitious one, the one I'm proudest of, is my retelling of Chekhov's "The Seagull" as a hyperdrama, also at the link above. So are several of my essays on the form -- the most fun to read is "Watch Out, Mama...!" and the most informative about the new theatrical form is "The New Hyperdrama."

I became obsessed with this form in 1984 when I was commissioned to write one and there really was only one around, Tamara in LA. The most commercially successful, although I consider it a variant of the form, is "Tony and Tina's Wedding."