Rachel Karp-LookingOutwards-1

I had known about theater artist Annie Dorsen for years, but my first direct exposure to her work was Yesterday Tomorrow , which I saw in New York in 2016.

Yesterday Tomorrow is a performance by three vocalists who sight-sing a score created live by a computer algorithm that transforms the Beatle’s song “Yesterday” into the musical Annie’s song “Tomorrow” over the course of about an hour. Each time the algorithm is run, the evolution from “Yesterday” to “Tomorrow” is unique. It is the third in Dorsen’s trilogy of what she calls algorithmic theater, “in which customized, algorithm-driven computer software controls the transformation of dramatic content in real-time.”[1]

The performance involved a number of creators, some typical for a musical theatrical work (director, musical director, lighting designer, sound designer, production manager), but others not always found in the credits, including a lead computer programmer, Pierre Godard, and a video systems designer, Ryan Holsopple.

The idea built on Dorsen’s previous algorithmic works and arose more specifically from Dorsen’s research into evolutionary computation. As she explained in an interview with BOMB Magazine, “I was learning about evolutionary computation, and I had a thought: You could use an algorithmic tool to slowly and unpredictably turn one thing into another. And then the very next thought was to turn the song ‘Yesterday’ into the song ‘Tomorrow.’ It was that automatic.”[2]

In another interview on website Esoteric.codes, Dorsen describes the process by which she and her team landed on the specific types of algorithms to use. (Sadly I couldn’t find the total number of people involved in the programming development team.) At first she wanted to use a genetic algorithm, in which the computer would transform “Yesterday” to “Tomorrow” by learning. But she and a programmer found that that method did not ensure the computer would reach “Tomorrow.” So instead, Dorsen worked with Godard and music director Joanna Baile to land on migration algorithms through which “Yesterday” shifted to “Tomorrow” through 30 steps (a number they also arrived at through experimentation; personally I think a few fewer steps might have made for a more compactly satisfying experience). Each element of performance has its own migration algorithm, meaning that the rhythm, lyrics, and melody migrations are generated independently.[3] Within all this structure, a lot of randomness is allowed, ensuring the performance is unique each time the program is run. The randomness has a direct tie to John Cage, whom Dorsen cites as an influence.[4]

To me, Dorsen’s use of algorithm in theater points to the coming ubiquity of including advanced technology across the theatrical field, as everyone and everything, theater included, transforms from yesterday to tomorrow.

A video excerpt from Yesterday Tomorrow

For more information, check out the full Esoteric.codes interview, which features a detailed explanation of the algorithms used as described by programmer Godard, this review from the New York premiere that I saw, and Dorsen’s 2012 essay about algorithmic theater.

Citations:
[1] Hallet, Nick. “Annie Dorsen.” BOMB Magazine, 12 Jan. 2016, www.bombmagazine.org/article/7164111/annie-dorsen.
[2] Hallet, Nick. “Annie Dorsen.”
[3] “A look at Algorithmic Theatre with ‘Yesterday Tomorrow’ creator Annie Dorsen.” esoteric.codes, 23 Feb. 2016, www.esoteric.codes/post/139854787758/a-look-at-algorithmic-theatre-with-yesterday.
[4] Hallet, Nick.