Photo: Ulrike Quade

First scenes of Roman & ELIZA at PREMIERE Live

Porto, 18 September 2025 — Two weeks ago, Ulrike Quade Company presented the very first scenes from the new production Roman & ELIZA during PREMIERE Live at the Coliseu do Porto (PT). The evening marked the conclusion of the three-year Horizon Europe project PREMIERE (2022–2025), in which artists, researchers, and technology partners from six countries collaborated on the future of the performing arts using XR, VR, and AI.

What we showed

In collaboration with IDlab (AHK) and the European PREMIERE consortium, we presented a VR Theatre Experimentation combining live performance, XR technology, and digital puppetry. On stage, physical performers and virtual doubles merged into a hybrid scenography. The scenes explored themes of technology, memory, and grief—drawing inspiration from the real-life stories behind “griefbots” and avatars.

Why it matters

The presentation in Porto marks a concrete milestone in the research and creative development of Roman & ELIZA, building on tools developed within PREMIERE, including the AI Toolbox and 3D Virtual Theatre (3DvT). The material tested now will evolve into the full performance, premiering in spring 2026 and touring across the Netherlands thereafter.

About PREMIERE Live

PREMIERE Live brought together the results of the European research in one evening: live performances, interactive installations, and demonstrations of new digital workflows for creating, streaming, archiving, and analysing performing arts. Our VR theatre experiments were featured alongside Re-embodied Machine (Instituto Stocos) and Intuition Machine (ICK Dans Amsterdam).

Save the date

Roman & ELIZA will premiere in March 2026. Want to be part of the creative journey and/or receive updates first? Subscribe to our newsletter and follow our channels.

Productions

Autonomous drone kills human being. No human in the loop. Roboverse explores the underbelly of technology, the robot from within. What would the world be like from a robot’s perspective? A dancer, a drone and different robots share the stage — their sensors turning movement into sound and music. Human and machine mirror and challenge each other, from target to companion.

Theatre of the Future: Choreography of Flesh and Steel – A conversation with pioneer of human-machine performance Ulrike Quade

2 July 2026

Ulrike Quade interviewed by Hayel Ali Al-Mathabi for Arab Theater Magazine. At the heart of the radical transformations taking place in contemporary performance, the work of Netherlands-based director and scenographer Ulrike Quade stands out as a bridge between the richness of tradition and the precision of technology.

Photo: Erfan Abdi

‘By bringing together science, technology and art, we are creating a powerful space for innovation – one that challenges societal norms and opens new perspectives on the issues that define our world today.’

Photo: Ulrike Quade

First scenes of Roman & ELIZA at PREMIERE Live

What we showed

Why it matters

About PREMIERE Live

Save the date

Read more

D4D Consortium Meeting

Roboverse – No human in the loop

Theatre of the Future: Choreography of Flesh and Steel – A conversation with pioneer of human-machine performance Ulrike Quade

Photo: Erfan Abdi

‘By bringing together science, technology and art, we are creating a powerful space for innovation – one that challenges societal norms and opens new perspectives on the issues that define our world today.’

– Ulrike Quade

Ulrike Quade Company

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