The British seaside resort of Weston-super-Mare and the American gambling city of Las Vegas are to be virtually linked later this month in a unique stage show involving performing arts students.

Ground-breaking computer technology and a video link will make it appear as if the students are alongside each other when the show ‘Time Lapse’ is staged by degree students of the Wessex Academy of Performing Arts (WAPA) at Weston College and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).

In fact, they will be separated by more than 5,000 miles and an eight hour time difference when the performances take place on April 23rd at 4pm UK time in Weston and 8am Pacific Time in Las Vegas, and on April 24th at 8am in Weston and 12am in Nevada.

Weston College Higher Education Curriculum Co-ordinator for Performing Arts Degrees Ged Stephenson, said: “The performances will be done over video link, although the students will perform as if they’re on stage together.

“The technology that is being used to achieve this is ground-breaking and it’s believed that this performance will be a world first because there are no time delays in the visuals and only a very slight one in sound.

“The video link will be done using ultra-grids, which are really advanced computers that have been created by UNLV.”

Students from a variety of performing arts degree courses at Weston College will be performing with students from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).

The collaboration between the two educational establishments began about a year and a half ago, after Weston College lecturer Sylvia Lane approached UNLV while on holiday in Las Vegas to see if she could forge links there.

Last year Weston College hosted a visit from two UNLV lecturers, Michael Lugering, Professor of Acting, and Louis Kavouras, Professor of Dance. They spent two days running specialist master classes for students on Foundation Degrees in Performing Arts and Musical Theatre, run in partnership with Bath Spa University.

This provided the basis for the project to stage a unique joint performance across time zones in the play ‘Time Lapse’, which has been specially-scripted for the show.

Ged Stephenson added: “Any live performance requires a considerable amount of organisation, but this show has also required exchanges and sharing of workshops using Skype, Facetime and YouTube.”