What sets theater apart from the film and movie industry is it’s 3-D element – that the actors are as real as you yourself sitting in the audience. However, these days, many theater productions are adding digital and 2-D elements to the productions. Projections are being used to add to the setting where scenery sometimes cannot suffice. At times this can be extremely effective (such as in “Angels in America”), yet at times this can be overwhelming and obtrusive (as in “Women on the Verge Of a Nervous Breakdown”).
It seems as if at times the use of digital images and screen projections are being used to aid the audience in determining the historical and social contexts of the play – as if they are incapable of figuring it out themselves. In some theater productions, actors interact with the 2-D installments. For instance in the Wooster Group’s 2007 production of “Hamlet” live actors engage in dialogue with a film of the Broadway stage production starring Richard Burton. 
Similarly, in the Kneehigh Theater Company’s “Brief Encounter”, the actress steps through a screen that is portraying her life.
This introduction of film and 2 dimensions into the theater has been contrasted with the recent obsession of creating 3-D films and movies (Avatar, Jackass 3-D.. ahem, Doron). The two worlds are now crossing over and experimenting with the different dimensions and their interaction. The author of the NY Times review ends the article with the question “How do you feel about the marriage of live theater and film technology?” so I want to ask you the same thing. Do you feel that film and digital projections should remain a genre of their own or do you think that theater can benefit greatly from this new introduction of technology into its productions. Although the author believes this to be a “perverse competitive spirit” of the theater world to compete with the movie industry, I think theater will be enhanced by this new addition. I believe that the theater world has begun to introduce digital projections because they are facing heavy competition with movies, which are both cheaper and capable of being digitally altered and edited to produce films that engage audience viewers and affect their emotions.
Good observations. There are sometimes theatrical productions that have such elaborate sets that they can overwhelm the content of the show. It would seem easy to get carried away with projections in this way, since it is easy to project pictures (much easier than building elaborate sets!) Like so many aspects of the arts, the imposition of “balance” is a necessary feature.