The University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) educates a lot of talented performers for professional careers in music, dance voice and more. Part of the “more” is an acting program that’s expanding to offer some special training found at almost no other university-level performing arts program.
With a newly assembled “Digital Performance Lab” young actors are learning about “motion capture” (MOCAP is the shorthand for the technology that enables actors to have roles in movies like AVATAR and PLANET OF THE APES), as well as voiceover work, animation, and even “verticals” (a new genre of entertainment using short videos formatted for smartphones – think TikTok – and assembled together to tell a longer story).
I recently wrote about this unique specialized program that sits in UC’s “Digital Futures” building (visible from I-71 with a sideways banner proclaiming “future lives here.” It appeared in the Friday, Nov. 7, edition of the Cincinnati Business Courier: Here’s a link — https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2025/11/07/uc-acting-program-digital-futures-performance-lab.html
Training like this is opening new employment opportunities for CCM actors.
Below, D’Arcy Smith, a CCM faculty member, works with a student wearing MOCAP gear.
(Image provided by CCM)
