Theatre Professor Craig Quintero Premieres Virtual Reality Film in Venice

One might say Theatre Professor Craig Quintero lives a double life.

During the academic school year, the professor and chair of the theatre, dance, and performance studies department teaches classes such as Directing and Introduction to Acting. But as soon as winter and summer breaks roll around, Quintero is off to Taiwan to work with his theatre company and direct virtual reality (VR) films.

Most recently, he completed his 360VR film, A Simple Silence, the last piece of his VR film trilogy Just for You. The film, which premiered at the 81st Venice Film Festival in Italy, was also screened in Taiwan, Japan, Peru, and the Czech Republic this October. The film has been applauded for its use of spatial transformations and its intentional relationship between the camera, performer, and audience.

According to Quintero, the trilogy “resists one meaning and one interpretation, providing the audience with a creative space to respond to the work.” With a constantly evolving set and intense actor performances, the film forces the audience beyond the role of a spectator.

The Journey to the Virtual Reality World

As Quintero started exploring VR, he couldn’t help but wonder how to introduce his experiences from abroad to his students back in Grinnell, Iowa.

“As an educator, I’m interested in exposing students to as many creative languages as possible. At Grinnell, we have many students from diverse backgrounds and interests. So, what are the other ways we can approach our creative work and tell our stories? To create a work that takes people out of their everyday lives?”

Quintero emphasizes that this is not just a question of what stories to tell, but how. “This integration of form and content is at the heart of our artistic exploration.”

In 1998, Quintero began to look at these questions more closely, embarking on his own personal journey as an artist. He eventually formed his theatre company, Riverbed Theatre, in Taiwan, where he began working with experimental theatre. Back then, his company’s work was expanding, leaving Quintero feeling far too removed from his audiences. 

So, he turned to directing performances for audiences of one.

“It was a very intense experience for the audience member and the performers, but unfortunately was also financially unsustainable because we had to build a set with seven or eight actors performing each time. So, we started thinking about how we could keep the same sense of connection between the performer and the audience while making it more sustainable.”

Though Quintero continues to work in traditional theatre — such as directing at the 1500-seat Taiwan National Theatre in 2021 — he was intrigued by the potential of creating accessible and sustainable productions using virtual reality.

“Even though theatre and VR are different mediums, they both address this question of ‘How do we tell a story?’ and ‘How do we engage with the audience regardless of the medium?’” Quintero remarks.

In 2022, a collaboration emerged with VR company Funique, who helped Quintero shoot and edit his first VR film, All That Remains. The film went on to premiere at the Venice Film Festival and has been shown at more than 25 film festivals around the world.

“I think there’s something exciting about VR’s ability to immerse the audience in the encounter and transport them to a world of infinite possibilities,” says Quintero. “You put on the headset in this small black box theatre in Grinnell, Iowa, and all of a sudden, you’re in some alien basement space you’ve never been to before.”

And compared to traditional theatre, Quintero notes, the relationship between the singular audience member and the performers is much more intense.

“It’s amazing that everybody has the best seat in the house with VR. When you put on the headset and the actress [in the film] lifts her head, all of her energy and focus is on you. She’s not looking at your friend or you and your friend. It enables a very intimate encounter.”

Ultimately, however, Quintero says he is not committed to one form of storytelling over another. With every creative language of storytelling he embraces, the richer his creativity becomes. In his classes, he hopes to instill this inquisitive approach in his students as they embark on their own creative journeys.

Quintero’s Performing Possibilities: The Art of Performance class, for example, will be the perfect space for students to experiment with different approaches to their work. Every student in the class will stage five original productions next semester and take on multiple creative roles, including performing, writing, and directing.

“This class encourages students to address the totality of what the audience will experience,” explains Quintero. “And it emphasizes that you’re the artist creating the encounter for the audience beyond just directing and writing a script. It’s exciting to see folks from different disciplines draw from various experiences to express their creative vision; it really generates some fantastic work.”

In the future, Quintero hopes to involve students in his work in Taiwan through a Mentored Advanced Project, whether to help on the production side of his VR films or even potentially perform.

But until then, Quintero’s double life continues. In the next few months, he’ll be developing his new XR Theatre Experience premiering next spring, all while teaching the next generation of multi-media storytellers and performers.

About Craig Quintero

Craig Quintero received his Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University. Growing up, his family lived in different parts of the world, including Venezuela, Atlanta, Boston, and the Chicago area. As a half-Venezuelan, he grew up speaking Spanish and soon added Mandarin Chinese to his repertoire. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Taipei-based Riverbed Theatre Company and has produced shows all over the world, including Korea, Japan, England, Germany, and France.

His first VR film, All That Remains, premiered at the 79th Venice Film Festival in 2022. The film won Best Immersive Experience at the 2023 Luxembourg Film Festival and Best 360VR Film at the Kaohsiung Film Festival. His second VR piece, Over the Rainbow, premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival in New York and won the Panorama prize at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema. Outside of theatre and VR filmmaking, Quintero is a sculptor and installation artist. His article, “Generous Acts: Performance for an Audience of One as a Pedagogical Practice,” appeared in Theatre Topics. 

Read more about Quintero’s work on his first two VR films and how he uses VR to immerse viewers in a whole new world.