Second Life Scripting Guide

The calm before the (second) storm

The whole process was demanding, enthralling, fascinating and a whole ream of other adjectives that I could exhaust to their full extent in an attempt to encapsulate the truly unbelievable experience I was lucky enough to have. I’ve made friends for life, built a lifetime connection with Glasgow, learnt so much about the value of community theatre and how it can change lives, and most definitely had my life changed in one way or other.

Last time I spoke (or rather wrote) was when, as a company we were right in the heart of rehearsals. It seems an absolute decade ago. At the time, we were struggling to find a collective way to present a complex story, whilst distinguishing between what it was to be a community member and what it was to be a National Youth Theatre member. As we learnt later on, there was no real distinction. We fed off of each other in entirely different ways. There is so much to be said for not necessarily receiving formal training, but building off of what you are naturally given. Encased in those brick walls, for those three weeks was an unprecedented amount of talent. Even now, when I think back to the journey we had in Glasgow, or indeed look into my journal, it’s incredibly difficult to recollect all that we did in those three weeks. The second two went inextricably fast.

After only being back in the country for four days, I’m clink-clunking along another train track on my way to another part of the country. It does have to be said that upon arriving home on Sunday I was astounded and re-awakened to the sheer beauty of Cumbria on a bright and crisp afternoon. It really doesn’t compare to anywhere else I have journeyed to in the past year on various theatrical endeavours. That aside, I definitely need to update you all on the progress of the phenomenon that was the ‘Ghost Office.’

My last blog finished at the end of the research and development process. The changes had been made, the script finalised and the play cast. The latter wasn’t a problem in the grand scheme of things. We were informed from the beginning that the focus of the project was on the ensemble and how they work as a chorus, rather than on the principle parts. This is a philosophy that the National Youth Theatre values itself on. They are merely there to guide the audience and provide a coherent storyline. Following those decisions, it was the responsibility of the company to devise and collect the processes and techniques we’d developed to create believable printer characters. However, it is worth me explaining the main body of the storyline. Katy is a 30 year old woman living in London with her boyfriend John. They’re currently experiencing relationship difficulties and Katy has just been made redundant; an issue that ignites an interest into her mother, Patricia Bailey’s past as an editor at the Herald. Katy moved from Glasgow and knows little of her parentage and wants to know more about her father. Whilst online she finds George, whom she travels to Glasgow to meet. George was the best friend of William, Patricia Bailey’s father, who tragically died in a boating accident. No-one really knows what happened in the boat whilst on holiday in Girvane, but Mary, Katy’s Grandma still blames George entirely. Whilst George hints at, he doesn’t directly tell Katy anything about her father. So she travels through the past with her mother’s help. She looks back into the Editor’s office, the redundancies and the archives; providing a great opportunity to create these visceral and engaging spaces with music, movement and the whole ensemble. The pieces swiftly transported from the past to the present, and the casting of three Mary’s and three George’s helped the audience to differentiate these. This also allowed for an apparent inter-generational collaboration onstage. We never learn of Katy’s parentage, and its left open to the audience’s interpretation. However, I have an inclination that Patricia resigned from the Herald as a result of dealings with George. She couldn’t face to stare into the immorality of the situation involving her father’s death and so resigned. It is indeed a complex script that hoped to incorporate as many elements of the past, the future, relationships between families, and the printer’s stories whilst voicing the hardships of Glasgow in the 1980’s.

A Practical Guide to Secondlife Part VIII – Bridging the Gaps

Software exists (a ruby script written by Evgeni Sergeev called SketchLife) that will let you import 3D objects from Google SketchUp. The design process is easier and produces better results, although the workflow can be quite complex to move a textured SketchUp object into Second Life. This is offered as a cost per upload service in Second Life. You need to both download the script for SketchUp and have a scripted object within Second Life. You pay the in-world SketchLife Importer in Linden dollars for each upload.

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