I introduced Canovaccio here during its Closed Beta, and some of its earliest community testers came from this forum. Their candid feedback helped shape the version that is now available in Open Beta.
Canovaccio is a browser-based rehearsal space where you cast characters into a simple scenario or a structured story, then direct them while they improvise the dialogue. The idea is AI as performer rather than author, with the player in the director’s chair.
As an example, I cast William Shakespeare in the role of Goldilocks:
Generative AI powers the improvised dialogue. Canovaccio also includes optional generated images and voices. Nothing people create in Canovaccio is used to train AI models.
Canovaccio is for adults and currently open for account registration in the United States. Reading and listening are free. Directing requires a plan or a soldi pack.
Learn more:
Thank you again to the people here who helped shape it. I welcome reactions from the interactive-fiction community.
Thanks for pointing this out. I updated the player so Voice Track performances now have a clear Play control. Once playback starts, tapping the active line pauses or resumes it, and tapping another line jumps there. I’d be interested to know whether the same performance feels more intuitive now.
Thanks for the tip. Enabling the sound was more than that, it was enormously better, because it reads and advanced the story automatically. I enjoyed listening to the stories. Really, this should be a “play” button?
So, presumably, the system is for linear experiences rather than branching? However, nothing wrong with that.
What i didn’t understand about the authoring side, is whether you get to make your own characters and how you might actually do this. The site mentions a host of pre-made characters, but i was mainly thinking of how to make one’s own? As i think this is quite challenging.
On linear versus branching: it is a third thing. The scenario or the script is written in advance, scenarios have a simple premise and scripts are more structured with acts and scenes. What is not written is the dialogue; the cast improvises that as it goes. And you are not just watching it happen. As the director you shape how the performance unfolds, including the plot itself: give a direction in your own words, coach one actor privately, drop in a new beat, or call Cut! and take the moment again. So the structure is fixed until you change it if you choose to do so. Run the same script again and you get a different show. What you listened to is a recording of one take, which is why it plays straight through.
On making your own characters: that is a key feature. You write an actor the way you would write a character sheet: a name, a biography, a temperament, a voice. The biography shapes how the actor plays any part you cast them in, so a defiant soul cast in a meek role complies through gritted teeth instead of quietly becoming meek. You can rehearse with them one on one, in private, before casting essentially tuning them as you see fit. The house company exists so a new director has some interesting characters to work with on day one, not because it is the point.
The best way to see the shape of it is a free account. It costs nothing and it lets you browse the house company actors and the characters other people have shared with the community, so you can open one up and read how it is built before deciding whether to write your own. Directing needs a plan or a soldi pack; looking around does not.