What was the Vinylotron's original name when it was invented some 200 years ago? "-Tron" wasn't in use as a suffix indicating "kick-ass technology" unil after the discovery of the electron, which happened a few years before the 20th century started. *nerd*
Here's another idea....
One of those "computer games brought to life on stage" things (go to YouTube and look up "Mario on stage" or somesuch), but interactive instead of demo mode. Sure, it'd only work when you can get all the actors together, so not everyone here at TIG would get to play. But for the interactivity, you could have different sound effects that are triggered by the player's keypad and played in headset headphones that all the actors can hear.
Each actor would have to learn what each different sound effect signifies, and how they react (or don't react) to it. Likewise they'd know how to react to other sprites, etc etc. So I guess the "programming", or "script" (ha, ha
) is in the actors' brains. Very advanced processing power. Just not very reliable synchronicity, thanks to human error.
Hmm....