{"id":814,"date":"2025-04-15T15:09:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T22:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/nwxr-dev\/?p=814"},"modified":"2026-04-15T15:11:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T22:11:27","slug":"performance-playground-bellevue-college-students-use-vr-to-tackle-stage-fright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/nwxr\/2025\/04\/15\/performance-playground-bellevue-college-students-use-vr-to-tackle-stage-fright\/","title":{"rendered":"Performance Playground: Bellevue College Students Use VR to Tackle Stage Fright"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"block-wrapper alignstandard\">\n<p>This spring, students from Bellevue College\u2019s&nbsp;<em>DMA 294\/295: XR Development &amp; Client Collaboration<\/em>&nbsp;course are tackling an age-old challenge for performers: stage fright. Their solution?&nbsp;<strong>Performance Playground<\/strong>\u2014a virtual reality (VR) experience that helps music students practice performing in front of an audience, all inside a simulated environment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"block-wrapper alignstandard\">\n<p>The project was selected to be showcased at the&nbsp;<strong>28th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium<\/strong>&nbsp;at the University of Washington, held Friday, May 16, during the Performing Arts Session at Meany Hall Studio Theatre.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"block-wrapper alignstandard\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/xrlab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/403\/2025\/05\/Media-2-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Three Bellevue College students present their project on stage at Meany Studio Theatre during the UW Undergraduate Research Symposium. One student speaks at a podium while the other two stand behind him, smiling. A slide projected behind them reads \u201cLong-Term Design.\u201d Nearby, a classical guitar and a VR headset sit on a table, reflecting the blend of music and immersive technology in their project. Stage lighting equipment is visible at the front of the scene.\" class=\"wp-image-2642\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"block-wrapper alignstandard\">\n<p><strong>Performance Playground<\/strong>&nbsp;is more than just a classroom project. Built in the XR Lab, the VR application immerses users in a concert-like space where they can rehearse music or presentations with realistic audience simulations. Distractions like movement, noise, and lights are included to simulate the stress of a live performance. The goal is to help users build resilience, boost confidence, and reduce anxiety over time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"block-wrapper alignstandard\">\n<p>The team behind the project\u2014<strong>Tusker Howard, Christi Clausen, and Katherine Lusiano<\/strong>\u2014wanted to explore how immersive environments could support&nbsp;<strong>music education and mental preparedness<\/strong>. By placing performers in a virtual space that feels real but is safe to fail in, they\u2019ve created a learning tool that bridges emotional experience and technical rehearsal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"block-wrapper alignstandard\">\n<p>The students have also made their project openly available on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/dmaperformacepractice.github.io\/LivePerformanceVR\/index.html\">GitHub<\/a>, encouraging others to&nbsp;<strong>try it, use it, and build on it<\/strong>. This open-source approach reflects the collaborative and forward-thinking mindset we champion at the XR Lab.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"block-wrapper alignstandard\">\n<p>We\u2019re incredibly proud of the team for presenting their work at UW\u2019s prestigious research event. Their project highlights the growing impact of extended reality in creative disciplines and education\u2014especially in building&nbsp;<strong>confidence through practice<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This spring, students from Bellevue College\u2019s&nbsp;DMA 294\/295: XR Development &amp; Client Collaboration&nbsp;course are tackling an age-old challenge for performers: stage fright. Their solution?&nbsp;Performance Playground\u2014a virtual reality (VR) experience that helps&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3313,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":{"summary":"This spring, students from Bellevue College\u2019s DMA 294\/295: XR Development &amp; Client Collaboration course are tackling an age-old challenge for performers: stage fright. Their solution? Performance Playground\u2014a virtual reality (VR) experience that helps music students practice performing in front of an audience, all inside a simulated environment.","featured_media_type":"image_horizontal","featured_image_horizontal":815,"featured_image_vertical":null,"featured_video_url":"","caption":"","author_override":"","contact":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/nwxr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/nwxr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/nwxr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/nwxr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3313"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/nwxr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/nwxr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":817,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/nwxr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814\/revisions\/817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/nwxr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/nwxr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/nwxr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}