A Night at Gatsby's

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A Night at Gatsby's

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A Night at Gatsby’s is an invitation to attend one of Jay Gatsby’s fabulous Jazz Age parties and learn some of his story by listening to the characters’ conversations over five scenes.

07/27/2026

The 80-page A Night at Gatsby’s play/novelette paperback and the 18” x 24” poster of the playbook cover will be distributed to interested high school and college attendees at the Nov. 19-22, 2026 National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) annual conference in Philadelphia. I’m now working on a tri-fold brochure to illustrate how the augmented reality Gatsby video will support viewer agency through character and object immersion and interaction. This AI image is an initial attempt to visualize the AR glasses, holographic actors, and optical see-through aspects of the video production.

Luckily, the summer is still young!

05/31/2026

“Hollywood’s next big star” may be AI-generated Tilly Norwood (left), suggests a fascinating article in the May 31 New York Times Magazine that describes a possible Brave New World for actors, unions, and audiences.

Like Tilly, my A Night at Gatsby’s Girl in Yellow character likeness (right) was partially created using ChatGPT. Performed in the initial AR production by a live actor, the unnamed Girl appears in scene 1 directing some of her lines to the Guest (you), and in scene 4 walking up to you and asking to dance. As a pre-recorded performance, she extends her hand, smiles, then shrugs and walks away—regardless of your reaction.

But when consumer finger and wrist haptic devices are commonly available, I hope to use an AI-generated Girl in scene 4 to tailor her interactions to your response (see my April 18 FB post.) If you don’t accept her dance offer, she’ll just smile, shrug and walk away. But extend your hand to hers and you’ll have the visual, aural, and tactile experience of dancing at Gatsby’s party!

Shall we dance?

04/18/2026

“May I have this dance?” asks the Girl in Yellow as you watch A Night at Gatsby’s on AR glasses, shown here with an optical see-through view to a real world setting. Wearing finger or wrist haptic devices, you’ll see and feel one device-equipped hand hold the dancer’s hand and extend your other device-equipped hand around the dancer and touch her back. To the spatial audio music of the foxtrot “Jimmy (I love but you),” you’ll have the visual, aural, and tactile experience of dancing at Gatsby’s party!

And you thought the Holodeck was 23rd century tech!

03/22/2026

The ChatGPT Pro image below shows how the A Night at Gatsby’s video would appear to a seated Guest (you) wearing AR glasses. You are sharing the table and interacting with actors sitting just a few feet away, creating a heightened sense of intimacy and participation in Gatsby’s story.

The production will use a volumetric capture stage with a circular array of cameras and microphones to record holographic-like video and spatial audio of the actors’ performance. The diameter of the stage’s capture area will be large enough to accommodate a circular 4-seat table and sufficient open floor space for up to four actors simultaneously.

When walking to the table from any direction, the actors will materialize when entering the capture area and will disappear when exiting it. Beyond the area, unseen but heard, are virtual spaces (orchestra and bar) and virtual objects (window, bookcase, wall photos, telephone) that the actors look toward and comment on.

You are Invited!

03/02/2026

The search now begins to interest technical/marketing staff at Meta, EssilorLuxottica (maker of the Meta-Ray Ban smart glasses frames and lenses), or AR developers in producing and demonstrating an AR Gatsby app at the A Night at Gatsby’s exhibit booth during the Nov. 19-22, 2026 National Council for Teachers of English annual conference in Philadelphia. The demo would promote faculty-school adoption of 2027 Meta AR glasses for their Gatsby (and other subject) lessons and generate subsequent purchases by some of the 2.5 million high school and college students who study the novel annually.

The image shows a volumetric capture stage with an array of dozens of cameras arranged in a circle to record 3D video and spatial audio of the actor performing the 2-min. Gatsby script (https://anightatgatsbys.com/gatsby-ar). The data from all cameras and microphones would be processed to create a volumetric AR Gatsby app for downloading to NCTE attendees at the booth.

Similar outreach will be made to Google, Samsung and Apple staff pending their 2026 AR glasses announcements.

02/27/2026

Just saw the mixed reality play An Ark at The Shed in midtown, starring Ian McKellen and three castmates directing their thoughts on the cycle of life to each MR glasses-wearing member of the encircling audience. The MR actors appeared to be just a few feet away, with audience members dimly visible behind them. In addition to enjoying the performance, I was continuously assessing the technology as it might be applied to an augmented reality production of A Night at Gatsby’s.

An Ark used commercial Magic Leap goggle-like MR glasses that probably demonstrated the quality of 3D holographic imagery likely to be displayed on consumer versions of true AR glasses available in 2027-28. Only when viewed straight-on did a character appear bright and solid, if somewhat low-resolution. Viewed away from dead center, characters were increasingly transparent and dim. Note to self: Tightening character spacing will improve actor appearance.

With the MR glasses narrow field of view, only two An Ark actors were visible at a time in the display, resulting in a lot of tiring head-turning as the four alternately spoke. Throughout A Night at Gatsby’s, no more than four actors (out of the eleven-member cast) appear on the practical set simultaneously, and my An Ark experience emphasized the need to position pairs of speaking actors next and close to each other.

The production’s sound came from ceiling speakers, leaving audio cues directionless and increasing the head turning. A Night at Gatsby’s will use spatial audio delivered through the open-ear speakers in AR glasses, enhancing viewers sense of immersion and alerting them to dramatic shifts within the presentation.

Overall, 45 minutes well spent.

01/01/2026

322 days and counting until the Nov. 19-22, 2026 National Council for Teachers of English annual conference in Philadelphia. Marketing access to the 2.5 million high school and college students who study The Great Gatsby annually is enabled by the NCTE and state affiliate memberships of the nation’s 50,000 Gatsby instructors. A Night at Gatsby’s will have an exhibit booth staffed by two experienced Gatsby instructors introducing NCTE attendees to the drama-prose-audio-video adaptation’s potential for increasing student engagement through in-class dramatizations, character analyses, and school plays.

Leading up to this, I’ll be working to partner with Meta, Google, or Apple to demonstrate a 2-minute AR Gatsby app https://anightatgatsbys.com/gatsby-ar at the booth using their latest AR glasses. The app visualizes how the complete A Night at Gatsby’s five-scene immersive video appears on AR glasses in classrooms and other spaces. The demo will promote faculty-school adoption of AR glasses for Gatsby lessons and generate subsequent purchases by their media-savvy students. Today’s $30 billion K-12 education technology spending is forecast to double by 2033.

Meanwhile, Have a Happy New Year!

12/11/2025

With Google’s Dec. 8 demonstration of three upcoming extended and augmented reality smart glasses, 2026 will be a real Meta-Google slugfest for our eyes and wallets — plus Apple still in the wings. I’ll sure be watching!

The top image shows the A Night at Gatsby’s patio-library practical set and flanking digital orchestra and bar spaces displayed on XR glasses with a 70-degree field of view. The lower left image shows the practical set-only performance displayed on AR glasses with a 30-degree FOV. The lower-right image shows an AR glasses performance without the practical set background and positioned in a real-world setting, such as a classroom, public space, living room, or any indoor/outdoor area with an open floor.

12/01/2025

As I plan for testing immersive video on AR glasses for A Night at Gatsby’s, I’m reminded that this month is the 30th anniversary of the initial delivery of my NYU Virtual College graduate certificate in information technology to 20 students in the tri-state region. The Virtual College was the first all-digital online program—readings, discussions, laboratories, and video (10 years before YouTube arrived!)—and was delivered over the fastest digital network then available to home PCs.

The images show the overall Virtual College network and a typical student PC display screen with the digital video player in lower right. Fun Times!

Address

250 East 87 Street
New York, NY
10128

Website

http://anightatgatsbys.com/

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