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Xanadu
UCLA Department of Theater
UCLA REMAP
May, 2025

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Production 

• Overview
• Audience Experience
• Virtual + Real Worlds
• Olympus: Game + Avatars

Technology

• The XR ‘Shrines’
• Generative AI
  
• Mobile WebApp
• Computer Vision
• Lighting + Sound
• System Integration

Process

• Playtesting + Rehearsal
• Design Process Documents
• Full Credits

Papers + Presentations

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XANADU

Book by Douglas Carter Beane. 

Music & Lyrics by Jeff Lynne & John Farrar. 

Directed by Mira Winick & Corey Wright.

Produced by Jeff Burke. 

XANADU was presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.mtishows.com

Papers

NeurIPS  
Winick, M., N. Agarwal, C. Boussema, I. Lee, C. Vargas, J. Burke.  “AI as intermediary in modern-day ritual: An immersive, interactive production of the roller disco musical Xanadu at UCLA,” 39th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2025), San Diego, California, December, 2025. (arxiv preprint)

AIIDE
Boussema, C., N. Agarwal, C. Vargas, M. Wilson, A. Doolan, A. Browning, M. Winick, J. Burke. “Case Study: Xanadu Generative Media Pipelines for Immersive Participatory Theater,” Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE), University of Alberta, Canada, November, 2025.

Presentations

Amazon MGM Studios Innovative Storytellers Initiative
Naisha Agarwal.   Culver City, California, November 6, 2025. (deck)

Western Arts Alliance
Jeff Burke, Mira Winick, Corey Wright with Nadhi Thekkek.  Los Angeles, California, September 4, 2025.  

Innovate @ UCLA
Jeff Burke, Michaela Duarte, Mira DWinick.  “Xanadu Reimagined: AI, Performance, & Audience Co-Creation,” Innovate @ UCLA, Los Angeles, June 11, 2025.  (deck)

Photos by Makela Yopez, Kexin Liu, Sheila Hudson Masters, Jeff Burke. 

Copyright 2025 Regents of the University of California