• Introduction
• Quick start for audience
• Quick start for players
• UpStage
• About the project
• Team
• Get Involved
• Technical information
• About this manual
• Audience
• The role of the Audience
• Join a live cyberformance
• Chat
• Player
• Becoming a player
• Manage your Profile
• Backstage
• Create your own Stage
• Manage your Stage
• Customise your Stage
• Manage your Stage: Media
• Manage your Stage: Chat and Replays
• Manage your Stage : Scenes
• Enter your Stage
• How does the audience see your stage?
• Invite audience
• Media management
• Media in UpStage
• The Studio
• Creating Graphics for UpStage
• Creating Audio for UpStage
• Upload Media
• Modify Media
• Assign Media to your Stage
• Delete Media
• Player : Live Stage
• Enter a live Stage
• Quick overview of tools
• Who is here?
• Chat with the Audience
• Player Chat
• Player: Live Stage Tools
• Audio tool
• Backdrop tool
• Avatar tool
• Avatar Speech and Voices
• Avatar Animation
• Props tool
• Stream tool
• Live Drawing tool
• Object Drawing tool
• Text tool
• Depth tool
• Curtain
• Scenes
• Stage Settings
• Clickable links on stage
• Streaming
• Introduction to streaming
• Sending a stream
• Assign a stream to a stage
• Recording and Statistics
• Statistics
• Chat logs
• Replays
• Screen Recordings
• Admin
• UpStage administration
• Customise your Foyer
• Appendices
• Glossary
• Troubleshooting

Join a Live Cyberformance

On UpStage there are two kinds of users: the artists (known as "players") who create and present performances, and the audience, who watch and may participate in specific ways. Audience members can join from a computer or a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet, using a standard browser application.

To join an UpStage performance as an audience member, you need a link to the live stage. This could be a link in an email, on a web page, or in a social media post. Wherever you click the link, you should normally find time and date information; UpStage performances are live events, so you need to arrive at the correct time just as you would for an in-person performance at a theater. It's a good idea to use a time converter such as TimeAndDate or WorldTime Server to help your audience find their local time.

Live and upcoming performances are displayed on the Foyer page of an UpStage instance, for example https://upstage.live/. If a performance is "upcoming", you will not be able to enter, but you can see information about the performance such as the dates and times.

Enter a live stage

Once you have a link to a live stage, follow these steps to enter:

1. Click on the link to the stage. It will open in a browser tab (see the chapter Technical Information for browser recommendations).
2. A loading screen will appear; look out for any information about the show you're going to see.
3. When the stage is 100% loaded, a message will ask you to click anywhere to continue.
4. You have the option to enter a nickname. If you don't enter a name, your nickname will be "Guest".
5. Click anywhere on the screen to enter the live stage.

Troubleshooting

Here are some common issues faced by the audience when trying to access UpStage. If you experience other issues, please email feedback@upstage.org.nz so we can correct them or explain how to solve them. Please also check the Troubleshooting chapter of this manual for solutoins to more technical issues.

The stage doesn't load!

If the stage does not load or you are unable to enter, first check that your internet connection is functioning properly. If it is and you still can't enter the live stage, try using a different browser. There is information about recommended browsers in the Technical Information chapter.

What is the correct size of the browser window?

Each computer, screen or device has different dimensions and resolutions, and while we do our best to ensure that everyone will have an optimal view of the performance, we can't control how you set your browser.

For the best experience:

• make your browser window full-screen (normall F11 on a computer keyboard will achieve this)
• don't change the size or zoom of the window once the performance has begun
• user the + and - icons by the chat input field to adjust the size of the chat text to something that is comfortable for you to read.

On the left, the window is in full-screen mode and well aligned with the dimension of the stage. The image on the right shows that the window is larger than the Live one and this can move some parts of the performance. The ideal is to make the edges of the browser window match the stage, which is best achieved in full-screen mode.