This dog robot makes his debut at theater outside Broadway
Unitree’s Robot Dog Go2 makes its debut at the theater outside Broadway and we received an exclusive backstage and interviews with the cast and the crew that does it.
Unitree’s Go2 in rehearsal with actor Gabriel Risdal.
The play is a one -act entitled the robot, the spy and the love of AI. The idea came when playwright John Arthur Long came across a video of Unitree’s Go2 Pro robot on YouTube. He bought a robot and the story grows there. “I don’t believe there was once a real robot on the stage,” Long says.
The cast and crew of the robot, spy and love of AI. On the left: Robot’s voice actor David Ray, actor Gabriel Risdl, director Kirk Gostkovski, Union Go2, actor Monica Park, playwright John Artur Long, Robot’s operator Dariel Garcia.
The robot was voiced live by David Ray, who communicates through a speaker attached to the back of the robot, and his movements are manipulated live by Dariel Garcia using an application and controller.
“I have about 90% control,” Garcia says. “A lot of jumping and the certain movement of the hand that does it, they are pre -programmed, but most of the time it is just me the dog’s hook.”
To maneuver the robot live, Dariel Garcia uses a controller that shows an emission on the robot’s onboard camera.
The director of the play, Kirk Gostkovski, who is also an artistic director of the theater of the chain, says he briefly considered recording the robot lines in advance, but quickly realized that making him live was the best choice. “There is a lot of comedy in this,” he says. “If there is a laugh, the actor will have to pause. The actor knows how to deal with the audience differently. This is the joy of the live theater.”
A closer look at Unitree’s Go2 Robot dog.
The play debuted on Friday and continued until March 1 as part of the Winter One Act festival. To see our exclusive look behind the scenes, see the video in this article.
English