當代歐美劇場藝術與虛擬現實影像技術的融合,指向劇場藝術在數字媒介時代的跨媒介未來。20世紀六七十年代,擴展電影潮流激發了跨媒介劇場實驗;在擴展電影影響下,更晚近的當代劇場實踐還發展出現場電影這一劇場新概念。從1990年代開始,基于數碼虛擬現實技術、嘗試擴展現實本身的虛擬劇場逐漸興起;通過厘清虛擬現實技術發展史上的不同分類法,可以有效區分虛擬現實劇場、混合現實表演和增強現實表演。除此之外,以互聯網為依托的線上劇場也是數字媒介時代虛擬現實技術與劇場藝術結合的當代趨勢之一,新冠疫情期間的線上劇場探索尤其預示著某種未來劇場新生態。

The convergence between contemporary Euro-American theatre and the technology of virtual reality points towards the transmedia future of theatre in the age of digital media.In the1960 s and 1970 s,intermedia theatre thrived as a branch of expanded cinema,which has also inspired the new theatrical concept of live cinema in recent decades.Since the 1990 s,moreover,a variety of virtual theatres based on digital technologies of virtual reality have emerged to expand reality itself.By clarifying the classification of such technologies,it is possible to distinguish VR theatre,MR performance,and AR performance.Besides,multiple Internet-based online theatres have attempted to converge virtual reality and theatre art in cyberspace.During the Covid-19 pandemic,especially,experiments with live streaming are shedding a new light on the ecology of future theatres.