WIT journal: When the news hit in the spring that theatres in New York were going to be shut down, I–like many of my fellow theatre-makers–was devastated. Our movement company, 10C, had been developing our third science-based piece throughout the fall and winter of 2019 and the quarantine felt like we drove 50 mph into a wall. Shortly after the shutdown, I began taking mental health walks in the city. As I continued venturing out, I could not help but notice new sounds: the silence, the birds, and ambulance sirens. I noticed that the sirens provided a morose counterpoint to these natural sounds.
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I think the coolest thing I have learned so far about Zoom theatre has been from the media stagecraft when Sean mentioned that duplicates of a prop could be mailed to different locations in order to successfully make it look like actors are passing a prop to each other, even over Zoom. In some ways, even more thought and intentionality has to be put into certain aspects in order to execute Zoom theater in the best way possible. The article stresses the importance of stage management, and it makes a lot of sense. Stage managers are incredible and do not get enough credit for it. I admire their brain power. As a student, it is interesting to think about how many students are learning theatre over Zoom and how this might affect how they transfer it into in person theatre. I think in some ways, this might be helpful, but in other ways difficult. Either way, this is the world we are living in and we are making the best of it.
-Ariel Bernhard
So this summer I was part of a class, “Theatre in the Time of COVID” which talked about a lot of these things and even had us look into what we felt about it. I think a big thing happening is that we need to address why people are making theater, how people are making theater, and how we can make the medium work for us and our needs. Zoom is an amazing resource for allowing us all to meet and conference with one another digitally. The associated weaknesses of zoom or limitations that need to be worked around but are not insurmountable. I feel with a lot of theaters forget about is making the medium work for you and your audience. A regular play does not translate well to zoom. Writing a place specifically for zoom allows a much better product. While not every job translates directly 1 to 1 via zoom, there will always be a need for designers, management, performers, and some way of doing “front of house”. Just like in real theater bad zoom is like bad theater, no one wants to sit through it.
This is an interesting notion that is growing by the minute here at CMU. I think that the stage manager part is not really fleshed out and needs more information and more details to properly execute a job for us. The thing that perplexes me, especially with SAG now taking over the digital theater sphere, is that stage managers are having sort of a name change and a job change, we're becoming broadcast managers and focusing on using technology to do the job that we used to be able to do with our voices. The part that really gets me is that, if there is a person who is familiar with broadcast and live television, wouldn;t the job just go to them? Why even hire a stage manager that has to learn on the job and isn't well versed in technology that they never had to use previously? I think that the job of the SM doesn't live on zoom.
Although we miss the time before pandemic, there are specific scenes that can only be seen and felt during the pandemic period. I think Zoom performances are especially hard since the audience are not restrained to the specific space, and I think it was wise to breakdown the sessions into about 5 minutes, as constant changes would help the audience not to lose attention and simply let them experience more diverse scenes. Our class have recently had projects to make videos out of zoom, and it was interesting to read about the same task addressed from the professional perspective, and it is also quite amazing how the system (such as having a stage manager) can be incorporated into the zoom webinar presentation. The performances would be rather easy since people wouldn’t have to take apart the sets after their performance in a large scale. I wonder if the audience have to pay to watch the performance, and if so, how much would the tickets be.
When COVID first hit, I was in the midst of my first production assignment. I definitely was not expecting the production I was working on to go virtual at any time, obviously. Trying to adapt and figure out how to create the same beautiful work that was already in the works was a difficult task for everyone. It was definitely weird to say the least but I wouldn’t have traded the experience for the world- I think it really taught everyone a part of the production how to implement the ideology of “the show must go on '' with a global pandemic has the obstacle. I was really lucky to be working with such a great cast and crew that were all optimistic through it all. It was hard to have hope but I don’t think anyone in the room ever doubted anyone. To see the production in person would have been a dream and I wish the performers got that chance, more than anything. But even with everything going on, they still managed to tell a beautiful story, even over zoom.
ZOOM theatre… I’m open to it. I’ve discovered recently that I really enjoy video-editing and being able to manipulate certain variables of a piece of work through video-editing. I do find it extremely hard though on a number of variables. Probably the most obvious (and the one that applies to me the least): acting. How can actors connect the same through a screen? Without eye contact? Another variable I find hard to manipulate are certain aspects of design. Sound design? Easy. Lighting design however? SUPER difficult. How can a designer control everybody’s background on different squares on a screen. And nobody is in one place… So I think lighting design gets the short straw when it comes to ZOOM theatre. Scenic design as well. What set?
ZOOM theatre seems like a subpar temporary solution to virtual theatre, but there’s still a lot of paving to be done if we’re going to be stuck in this pandemic for much longer.
We’ve all been reading a lot about Zoom theater lately. I’m not sure this article really explored anything new, but I appreciate that it got extremely specific and didn’t try to hide their failures. I am obviously familiar with zoom, but I rarely host a meeting. So it was interesting to see all the decisions that go into the Zoom before I arrive. I like the idea of all the participants looking at a screen controlled by one person. Although I often enjoy having the freedom to pin people as I choose and explore everyone’s screens freely. I see how they were trying to replicate a “normal” theater experience as much as possible. Controlling everything they see and hear, making them less participants and more viewers. But I would argue that audiences in “normal” theater are active participants. Turning off their video I understand, but by muting all their mics you lose out on one of the few things unique to “normal” theater: audience reactions. I’m not sure how I would approach this, but I definitely have more to consider after hearing this testimony.
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