CCM actors build skills for the digital age

The Digital Performance Lab, housed within UC's Digital Features building, serves as a cutting-edge hub for research, production and training in motion capture, AR/VR/XR, bio-sensing and other emerging digital performance technologies. Through this facility, CCM Acting students gain hands-on experience that bridges theatrical performance and interactive digital media.

"One of the most exciting aspects is watching our students engage with tools that expand beyond stage and screen," said Professor D'Arcy Smith, Director of the Digital Performance Lab. "The lab environment lets them explore how movement, voice, and digital space combine and that opens doors to careers in gaming, simulation, virtual production and more."

The CBC article by Rick Pender highlights how CCM is leveraging the Lab's resources to enhance curricular and co-curricular work in the BFA Acting program. Students are collaborating with industry partners and using space to storyboard, capture and render performance sequences that merge live action and digital technology.

For CCM students, the significance is clear: these experiences prepare them for careers in a rapidly expanding entertainment and media ecosystem. Motion capture and interactive performance now rival traditional film and theatre in scale and demand. Actors who know how to work in this medium will be able to engage with companies that need trained performers for this kind of work.

By anchoring performance training within context of digital innovation, CCM is preparing students for broader possibilities. The Digital Performance Lab is a visible symbol of this shift where creativity, technology, and performance converge.