Stage play “After the Blast” will feature a real robot with its opening show beginning Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Credit: Courtesy of Brad Steinmetz
The stage play “After the Blast” has some interesting characters, but arguably the most intriguing is Arthur.
He won’t astonish the audience with his stature, standing at 2-foot-4, but even with such a small frame, his presence is hard to miss.
That’s because Arthur is no ordinary character — he’s actually a robot.
“After the Blast,” written by Zoe Kazan and directed by Kevin McClatchy, an associate professor of theatre, film, and media arts, is set to open Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Proscenium Theatre and will run through Nov. 21.
According to Matthew Fisher, a 12th-year in engineering physics and aerospace engineering, Arthur will be represented by a fully functioning robot — crafted entirely by Ohio State students — for the first time in the play’s history.
“If what I’ve been told is correct, multiple other theaters have also done this show, but they have never used an actual robot,” Fisher said.
According to the event page, the play is set in a dystopian world, taking place after an environmental disaster that has led to strict regulations regarding human reproduction.
Anna and Oliver, a couple, are desperate to raise their own family but are barred by Anna’s failure to pass the mental health examinations. This leads Oliver to bring in Arthur, a robot helper, who assists Anna in improving her depression.
Once her symptoms begin to subside, she “discovers a devastating truth that could turn society’s carefully constructed world upside down.”
Audrey Nelson, a fourth-year in mechanical engineering, Gabe Willenberg, a graduate student in mechanical engineering and Fisher are some of the students who helped bring Arthur to life.
Nelson said she operated as the project manager, helping bring the worlds of theater and engineering together while ensuring the project remained within their budget.
Fisher and Willenberg said they both worked on the robot physically, with Fisher dealing with the electrical components for Arthur as Willenberg worked on the physical frame and internal mechanisms.
Both Fisher and Willenberg said they will be present during the show, taking responsibility to ensure a smooth execution.
“I am the one operating the robot during the course of the show,” Fisher said.
While Fisher deals with the actual performance, Willenberg said he’s on standby for any malfunctions with the robot.
“I think I referred to myself as the ‘emergency robot technician,’” Willenberg said. “If anything breaks, we have people around who know how to fix it.”
Nelson said Arthur will be operated with a PlayStation 4 controller that is specially adjusted.
“We have a Wi-Fi controller with a Raspberry Pi, [which is a single-board computer], and then from there it goes to a ESP32 Arduino, [an open-source electronics platform] that handles Bluetooth and Wi-Fi,” Nelson said. “So essentially it takes commands all the way from the PS4 controller through the Wi-Fi, the Raspberry Pi and then to the Arduino.”
Nelson said Arthur was engineered with a wide range of motion, allowing the robot to move freely on stage — at one point, she said Arthur even fetches a ball.
“He’s able to wave, he’s able to dance around the stage and move around the stage in any direction,” Nelson said. “He’s able to play fetch [and] he’s able to turn his head.”
In the event of a mechanical issue, Nelson said Arthur is built so the show can continue regardless.
“We have developed redundancy systems, so in case certain things die, we have a backup,” Nelson said. “For example, only one of his arms actually has to wave, but to account for something like a motor failure, we coded the other arm, so if one dies, we have the other and can move on with the show.”
As to how Arthur will communicate, Fisher said the robot has a built-in speaker.
“The voice of the actor comes out through the speaker in the robot,” Fisher said.
Arthur will be voiced by Colin Barberic, a third-year in theatre and philosophy, politics and economics.
Willenberg said the team had to go back to the drawing board at times to figure out how to make a functional robot within the time constraint and budget.
“I think one of the single biggest [challenges] was there was a point in this project where I had to redesign the entire robot’s frame in about two days,” Willenberg said. “There was some miscommunication between us and the scenic department about the size that things were actually going to be, so I had to completely retool how the robot’s skeleton was built.”
Willenberg, Nelson and Fisher all said the project has been a great challenge, but being able to trailblaze has been an incredible experience.
“We’re in a really good spot and everything is functional,” Willenberg said. “It feels like we’re rapidly approaching the point where we can say, ‘He’s done.’”
Nelson said this project was made possible through the team’s collaboration.
“I would like to say how grateful I am for the team and everyone’s passion, [and] the theater department for being such a great partner,” Nelson said. “I hope that in the future, more of these collaborations can happen among students and [they can] create things that have never been done before.”
Tickets can be purchased in person at the Ohio State Theatre Ticket Office, by phone at 614-292-2295, or online through Ticketmaster. Tickets are $15 for students and children, $18 for senior citizens, faculty, staff and alumni association members and $20 for the general public.
