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Love Of History & Art Creates 3-D Theater Experience

DENVER (CBS4) - Bringing Terracotta Warriors to the stage of theater all began with the question of how to better draw in the audience.

"If you're trying to bring two cultures together, you've got to do something that really wows people," explained Dennis Law, the producer of Terracotta Warriors 3D.

His idea is to make the live theater experience even more immersive than it already has been for centuries, with the world's first 3D stage musical.

The great thing about live theater is that you can't help but be drawn into a great story and great production.

This production takes it one step further by projecting images behind the actors on stage.

TERRACOTTA Warriors
(credit: CBS)

It requires a technical staff that's not afraid to take established 3D concepts and  merge them into a new format.

"So what I was able to do was find the world's first 3D LED video wall," Law said.

"That gives us enough light, it doesn't get diluted by stage lighting and if I have that kind of wall, I could put my live performances in front of it and deliver the true 3D combination."

The screen is big enough to fill the stage and bright enough to reach the back of the house, while taking the backgrounds to infinity.

The multi-dimensional project comes from a man who spent a large part of his life merging Chinese art history and culture into a theatrical experience, to take the audience where it has never been before.

"I think by making it 3D I'm really able to bring the audience back to the Second Century B.C. and make it an immersive experience so they feel like they are right in the middle of the action, in the middle of the story about the first emperor," Law said.

Terracotta Warriors 3-D is live on stage for four weeks at the Newman Center on the University of Denver campus beginning August 11. It runs through September 15th.

Tickets are now on sale.

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