More than 50 artists from around the world will collaborate online, in real time, to present 18 cyberformances in the 101010 UpStage Festival, 10-11 October 2010.

The diverse program ranges from who-dunnits, sports training and comedy, to physical and theoretical explorations of contemporary digital life – and more. Here’s a taste of what you can look forward to.

Virtual Theatre, a Canadian group, whose innovative show Lines in 090909 involved audience members drawing mandalas that magically animated, will this year unveil a new, top-secret, interactive tool in Murder 2.0, enabling the audience to solve a murder. Wireless network data will be used to create colourful visuals in Colourful WiFi Network. The New Zealand school children who presented Maui and the Sun last year have created a new show, West Side’s Story. Some performances, such as Theatre of Exchange, make-shift, X marks the spot, Sprinkler Fountain and Aquifer Fountain, are elements of larger projects that audiences can continue to follow after the festival. More details about all of the shows is online atwww.upstage.org.nz.

Audiences can participate from anywhere in the world with a standard browser and internet connection. There will also be ten “real life” access nodes, located in New Zealand, Canada, the USA, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia and Vietnam. Nodes are physical venues where audiences gather to share the experience of the performances. In Auckland, the 101010 node is part of Tempo, New Zealand’s major dance festival, while the first-ever open air node will take place at Le Petit Versaille in New York. Details of the locations and times of the nodes are below.

UpStage is a web-based platform for cyberformance – live online performance by remote players; audiences need only to click on a link in an email or web page to access the performances, and everything happens in the web browser. Audiences can interact with the players and each other via a text chat (and, in the case of Murder 2.0, via other yet-to-be-revealed means!).