Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Theater and higher education have both been significantly affected and transformed by the pandemic. What happens when you look at the two sectors together?
The American Theatre Wing, the nonprofit that produces the Tony Awards, turned their long-running documentary series, “Working in the Theatre,” to Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama to give an inside look into how the institution has persevered in an uncertain time.
11 comments:
I found this article especially interesting as I was just looking at The American Theatre Wing’s documentary series earlier this week. I am really appreciative of how much the school has been open to creative solutions and balancing hybrid modalities in the pandemic. I do not know that I could have a similar experience learning remotely in another program. I also love that the article and video covers multiple perspectives, in person, remote, international, musical theater, and design. It honors the variety at the school rather than focusing on just one element or major. I am glad that Megan also focused on reassuring high school students, all theatre creators could use a healthy dose of reassurance right now. Determination has been integral to this process. I am glad I have been in touch with mine and that our professors and classmates have been as well. There are always challenges, but I am glad that there has been communication and hopefully progress.
This article makes me feel famous! Just kidding because I'm not even mentioned but I was in the lighting class so I guess I'm famous. I really love that the American Theatre Wing had the idea to even make this documentary series, and it is even cooler that they chose to spotlight our school. In these Covid times, it's been really difficult to make art and talk about theatre. I like that they are highlighting the educational institutions that are working so hard to continue educating their students and creating theatre despite the crazy circumstances. I was especially glad they highlighted Mary Ellen, who has been one of my favorite professors I have had at Carnegie Mellon so far. She was extremely talented and it was easy to learn from her even through the circumstances. I also think that the light lab set up that we can control remotely was really genius to help with the social distancing guidelines.
I really loved watching the initial documentary video when it first came out. I had a great time sharing this with extended family and friends so that they could truly appreciate what we have to go through to make theatre school work in a virtual space. Everybody that I try to explain our process to usually just gets confused by how we are even accomplishing that in real life. I tell people that we are doing two semesters worth of productions all in one and people think I am actually crazy. I am glad the video was able to shed a little more light on the actual behind the scenes process of what we all are going through to make this work because it is so taxing on all of us all the time. As one of the students in Mary Ellen’s lighting class, I got to reap the benefits of this really unique virtual modality that they gave us. I presented my final lighting project from my home in CT with remote control of the console on my computer to the physical space in Purnell. It offered a really unique learning experience for everyone in very different ways.
Any time I see a positive article about Carnegie Mellon it fills me with a sense of pride. When I had a lighting call with C. Todd Brown, he gave me the run-down of the whole Light Lab. I think it is super interesting that the lights can be controlled from anywhere in the world, yet the article is a little bit biased. It mentions all of the up-sides of our Light Lab but none of its issues. The main one that was mentioned to me is that there is a password issue. When logging into the Light Lab itself, everyone needs to input the correct information to access the board via chrome but when it does not work, there is an email requirement. This email confirmation is then sent to C. Todd Brown and if he is not available to grant access right away, you are essentially locked out of the lab until he does.
Like many others have brought up, I also feel a sense of pride when I see Carnegie Mellon being mentioned in an article or documentary. Seeing that it is not just Carnegie Mellon but Carnegie Mellon school of drama makes me even more excited. Not going to lie, I feel very lucky that I am currently going to a school where in person opportunities are available. I definitely want to take a moment and just realize how great it is to be at Carnegie Mellon even when it gets super tough. It is crazy that CMU is putting an entire year's worth of shows into one semester but it is also nice that everyone's hard work and strengths are being used for a production. Although burn out is real and everyone is being pushed into carnegie mellon film school, as a freshman who just wants opportunities I have loved this semester. I have been able to work and do what I love and the more productions there are the more opportunities we get. Personally I don't know if this semester is more work than previous or if the freshman class is working less or more this year than years past but I have tried to make a conscious effort to be thankful for my place here.
I am glad that our school is being featured as a good example of what to do during these pandemic times. Despite all the hardships that are going to come from the pandemic regardless, CMU and SoD in particular has had a very lucky time and it is easy to take that for granted. I often talk to friends from my hometown that experienced huge breakouts at their school, are taking a semester completely remotely, or do not have any in-person opportunities at all and are mainly limited to their dorm. When recognizing that I have a studio space to go to any time with classmates to take classes in, I feel extremely lucky. I also am so appreciative of the sense of community DP 24 has given me because my aforementioned friends from home have really struggled this year to find friends or their people as they have a lack of community with classmates. It is interesting to think back about how I wanted a bigger class size when looking for college, and I made that sacrifice so I can study design and come to CMU. Ultimately, I couldn’t be more happy with my decision because that benefit me so well in the end.
I had no idea nor was I expecting for this article to be about CMU's approach to the pandemic, and I am so happy and excited that we have been featured in such a positive light! Being remote last semester, I thought that there was no point in doing theater during a pandemic. I thought that theater was all about the live experience and I could not comprehend how a school would be able to accomplish that in such circumstances. However, coming on campus this semester I have felt so safe, even when working hands on with others in a theater. The hands on experience was why I decided to come here, and it goes to show how well of a job CMU SoD has been doing to keep things hands on as possible while keeping everyone safe is something that should be highlighted like this! I loved how in depth the article got, with discussing even how remote students could operate things at our school such as with the light lab. I hope that this helps other schools also progress to more hands on experiences while staying safe.
A CMU article! I wasn’t surprised that so many of us wanted to read about this, I remember when the documentary first came out and seeing things about it all over social media. It’s really amazing that CMU SoD faculty and students were able to participate; as others have mentioned, people from multiple modalities and majors were included to really show the scope of experience this year. I’m glad Megan wants to help reassure high school students who are considering theater. I might only be in my first year, but I think I need that reassurance myself– I can’t imagine still being in high school trying to figure this out. The industry has been pretty badly impacted by the pandemic, but there is hope for theater (virtual theater is possible, as we are experimenting and finding this out now!). I hope high schoolers interested in theater realize it is possible, and don’t lose their passion to continue studying theater.
It’s videos like this that make the student population in the school of Drama be proud of attending CMU. The video serves as a testament to the indomitable nature of the human spirit that was exemplified through the challenges students has to face with remote learning the past year or so. I’m really happy that the Pittsburgh Post Gazette took the time to give some press coverage to this video because it includes several friends, classmates and teachers, and a video like this made by the established American Theatre Wing gives lots of positive exposure for both our school and our classmates. The video at times even made me very emotional, especially the part where the lighting design teacher, Mary Ellen Stebbins, was talking about her difficulties as a staff member starting out during the pandemic and how she feels that she has made a personal connection with her students even though it zoom. I hope the video helps provide an example for all the other universities and conservatories in the country on how to continue teaching in a safe way during the pandemic. I hope people can see that although theatre is dead right now, the passion, drive and dedication of the students at Carnegie Mellon is not!
I’m so glad that our school is being used as a model for what to do during the pandemic. Like others said, it certainly makes me proud. While it can be frustrating not having as many in-person opportunities as the upperclassmen- and that is ultimately up to the comfort level of our professors, and there is no shame or pressure there- it’s undeniable that the school has been handling the pandemic very well in terms of keeping everyone safe. We have very few COVID cases compared to most other colleges across the country, and that is in large part due to all of the precautions being taken. It helps that our school does a ton of research and is first-to-know about new information regarding the virus, but really all the credit goes to the educators willing to follow the advice to make sure that us students get to stay in school.
Well, I feel a little left out. I didn’t know anyone was filming a documentary about our hybrid model. Did they not want to cover technical direction or costume production? All the ways we weren’t adapting to a hybrid model. I find it interesting that this article talks a lot about classes, and yet Megan doesn’t mention our biggest “class” Production Prep and how that just didn’t happen last semester. It’s good that we are showing to future theater students that theater education is still happening even during a pandemic. Maybe some things are being left out. Maybe some things aren’t translating as well in a digital format, but plenty of the same material is getting across. I know that there’s a feeling of uncertainty going around, and while I understand that the specifics of what companies survive and what jobs are currently available are unknown, personally I have never doubted theater would come back. I think we as an industry have proven over the last few millennia that we are a staple of the human experience and there will always be a demand for live storytelling.
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