Mastodawn

Kate Genevieve Jun 13

I know I've crossed paths with a couple of people on here in the past who are involved in community theater.

I'm leading a working group for developing an AI policy for our community theater. I told the rest of the board that I would first take an informal survey of how other community theaters are approaching AI usage.

I've reached out to all of our local peers, but if you are a theater person on the fediverse, and you're aware of your community theater having an AI policy, I would love to hear from you.

(Editor's note: If you are not involved in theater and just want to sound off about AI, please save it. I would like to keep this thread manageable and on-topic. If you want to help, you can boost the post.)

valkyrie_pilot Jun 11

@MLE_online Are you concerned about mostly playwriting, or aspects of an individual production like actors practicing, designers getting feedback etc?

Emily Velasco Jun 11

@valk I am personally concerned about anything generative being used in a show, but I am just me. The board hasn't taken a stance yet, so I want to present the rest of them with what other theaters are doing.

I've found two theaters so far that say no AI usage allowed at all, and two that say it can be used like a search engine, but not to create anything

Emily Velasco Jun 11

@valk So far, we've seen two set designers use it to design sets for three shows. We have no policy in place right now for whether that's ok.

@MLE_online
director/playwright/stagehand here... i think it matters what the machine-learning(AI) is used for and what level of oversight is needed. My buckets would be zero/hybrid/100%. Artistic things (image creation, script writing, music (score and lyrics) are one category, with design(of how to, not what to build) a possible hybrid, with marketing composed of images shot w/staff photographer a total wi using ML, but appropriate lvls of human eyeballs on the edits

Emily Velasco Jun 11

@ifnotnow interesting. I think AI-generated marketing is so ugly and off-putting to the point where i night avoid going to a place if they're using AI like they

@MLE_online
absofrickinglutely... I mean, bad is bad and if people dont backfill what the machine CANT get right (ie... honest connection) using AI is pointless

David Lu!!Jun 11

@MLE_online I would love to see what policies you find.

I was recently in a production where some prop paper goods (posters/flyers/etc) were AI generated. Sure, I would have preferred if we hired a graphic designer, but this was made by a volunteer, and there was no policy against it.

Emily Velasco Jun 11

@dlu So far I've had two theaters say they haven't even talked about a policy yet, two that say AI is not allowed at all (one has a formal policy and one has an informal agreement), and two that say AI can only be used for development and research, but not for any produced materials

icastico Jun 11

I wonder if @taedryn has thoughts.

Biomemetic Jun 11

@MLE_online following!

I'm on a community theater board and we have yet to develop a policy, but we're gonna be talking about it soon, and I'm gonna be advocating that we agree not to use it for meeting summaries or for the final product in public facing imagery (social media, programs, posters, website, images used in/on sets etc.)

I'm also gonna be pushing for an open discussion about the ethics of the whole deal in committee.

Emily Velasco Jun 11

@biomemetic Good! I'm the one pushing for a discussion on our board. Someone's gotta do it, right?

Eclectic Lexicon Jun 11

@MLE_online Our theatre has had some pretty heated discussions regarding AI generated backgrounds for projections or sound design. Presently, the board has not committed to banning this outright, which is disappointing. They've decided to review it case-by-case.

Emily Velasco Jun 11

@EclecticLexicon that sucks. I hope they'll come around eventually

Eclectic Lexicon Jun 11

@MLE_online please update us on your findings or eventual policy. I'd also love to point out to our board what other theatres are doing.

Emily Velasco Jun 11

@EclecticLexicon Will do!

Phillip Vuchetich Jun 12

@MLE_online I'm not currently on the board of my local community theatre to know the details of any policy, but i had a small role in the Spring production. Someone used an image manipulator/generator to change posed actor photos to appear to be late 19th century paintings (approximately 8"x10" or 20 cm x 25 cm), which were hung on the wall of the set.

There is an annual fundraiser this weekend, so I'll ask if they are drafting a policy, but it is likely that there isn't an AI policy for our all-volunteer community theatre.