The Scena Project: Digital Asset Management in the Theater Industry

The theater industry faces significant challenges such as high production costs, inefficient resource management, and environmental impacts, which jeopardize its long-term sustainability. Digital transformation offers a potential pathway, yet its adoption in the performing arts remains limited. This teaching case study examines Scena, an innovative digital platform that fundamentally rethinks asset management in theatre by leveraging integrated digital twin technology, virtual 3D environments, and circular economy principles specifically adapted for creative industries. Scena’s innovation lies in its unique synthesis of four interconnected functionalities that address the fundamental tension between theatrical uniqueness and resource sharing: centralized digital asset management with automated compliance tracking, peer-to-peer rental and exchange marketplace, virtual 3D performance spaces using digital twin simulation, and a collaborative community learning platform. By facilitating asset reuse, reducing waste, and introducing circular economy principles through a “Creative Circularity” framework, Scena addresses operational inefficiencies while fostering creative collaboration and maintaining artistic integrity.