ROOT (Running Out Of Time)

About the Project

In the near future, everyone (including you) gets three months of digital Life Extension. That’s three months to live digitally after death… unless you can afford more.

Pluto bought more. A LOT more.

Now at her ascension ceremony – part funeral, part celebration – she’s trying to convince YOU that what she did was necessary. That immortality is worth the cost.

But the masses are here for a reckoning.

You’ll use your phone* to see ghosts, eat cake and experience the future in this Mixed Reality play: ROOT (aka Running Out Of Time)! Call (951)GET-ROOT to learn more!

*Bring your smartphones for the most complete experience!

For discounts, promotions, and a preview of our play, sign up for our mailing list at http://roottheplay.com

Content Warning: Themes of Death and Ascension, which is the transition from the physical life to a digital existence.

I apologize! There were immersive elements to this play that got cut due to time and now it is a more experimental traditional play. You will still use your phones to see digital humans but you won’t participate as much as we originally intended and so it no longer exactly fits the “immersive” category. I’m really sorry!

AI Disclosure:

ROOT’s story began in 2019 after I first watched San Junipero. Well, I guess it began earlier, when in 1999 The Matrix BLEW MY MIND. Since then, I’ve been obsessed with science fiction and the nature of reality. San Junipero and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (weirdly) brought the idea of ROOT to my mind. Since then, I’ve been reading climate change books and looking for a way to survive. I wrote this story in a hundred different ways for many different mediums (feature film, VR TV pilot) until finally finding the right expression: live theater with a digital component. I have spent the last 7 years on this story. I brought on a writing partner two years ago, and together, we wrote this play. I have hundreds of pages of notes, hundreds of journal entries documenting the creation of this story. It is not AI generated. But at times, we did use AI for research. At one point, the story was even going to be powered by an AI chatbot we built, but that didn’t serve the story, so we dropped it.

For the digital performance: A real human actor pilots the avatar in every performance. That’s live, every night.

Here’s where AI comes in: We use AI to generate some the avatar’s visual appearance like wardrobe concepts and then our human developer comes in, modifies it and rigs it to work. Our human developer was hired to build the creative and technical infrastructure that makes the mixed reality experience work live every night. This includes human made digital assets as well as AI generated concepts. We also use AI behind the scenes to generated marketing ideas and test messaging. For these marketing ideas, we paid a human for their custom built AI, which trained solely on their own material. For marketing materials, we built custom designs in Canva, and some Canva templates are AI-generated under the hood; we can’t always know which ones are, so we’re saying it straight. Our pitch deck (used on Kickstarter as well) also contains AI generated images to set the tone of the story.

We believe in paying artists for their work. We created this project with a human team. And we hope that this critical examination of AI and our survival on this planet will help us balance the need to create with the need to survive.

Important information:

ROOT is playing at the:

Broadwater Main Stage

1076 Lillian Way, Los Angeles, CA 90038 (just west of Vine)

There are 4 stages in this venue. Please make sure you are headed to the Main Stage.

Parking (use ParkWhiz, prices vary on different days):

• Closest: 937 N. Cahuenga Blvd. (~$25–30, 5 min walk)

• Cheapest: 6272 De Longpre (~$6, 10 min walk)

• Good: 6677 Santa Monica (~$16, 9 min walk)

• Good: Cinerama Dome at 1400 Ivar Ave. (~$17–20, 10 min walk)

Street parking is limited!! Book your parking in advance on ParkWhiz for best rates.

Doors open 15 min before showtime

Arrive early – parking is tough!

Entrance:
Enter via Lillian Way (Broadwater complex). Look for “The Broadwater Main Stage” signage. The Main Stage is the theatre furthest from the Plunge Bar.

Line-Up (Hollywood Fringe):
Line forms on Lillian Way outside. Lines will wrap along the sidewalk. Look for the PROTESTERS. Follow signs and keep walkways clear for other shows.

We’re part of a large Hollywood Fringe festival with multiple shows happening at once. Please be courteous and keep noise low before and after the show.

If you’d like to hang out, please meet at the Plunge Bar instead of gathering outside so other shows can load in smoothly.