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Thursday, March 18, 2021
Here are all the precautions one S.F. theater took to film onstage during COVID
Datebook: If you were an actor, a stagehand or, like me, an observer at a rehearsal for San Francisco Playhouse and Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s “Hieroglyph,” you had to get three negative COVID tests on three separate days before even being allowed into the theater.
4 comments:
Hadley Holcomb
said...
I really appreciated this article for many reasons. The dedication that the theatre, performers, and all of the crew members put into making sure that this production not only happened, but happened right was wonderful to read. The fact that they took additional time to create emotional understanding around everyone's comforts concerning masks and protocols is above and beyond anything that I have seen most organizations do. I think that a lot of places are simply trying to get back to some sense of normalcy and therefore ignore the emotional toll that just jumping right back in to an unmasked production full force can do to a cast and crew. On the other end of the spectrum, the optimism and resilience that was expressed in this article was truly inspiring to read and made me once again believe in the power of theatre and the people who put it on.
I think that because of COVID theatre has become really complicated to create. I love that this organization took the time to gauger peoples comfort, create protocols, and make the show go on in a way where everyone felt safe and the end product was enjoyable. One thing that hasn't been accounted for in general for productions that have been going on in the last year is that most people don't know how to do film just because they know theatre. Cameras are confusing. I love that this company had people who were knowledgable on cameras and film instead of throwing people with no experience in blind, because that has been catastrophic to the mental heath of many theatre creators. It feels like the responsibility of dealing with covid precautions has been falling entirely on the production team, which I don't think is fair. I am glad to see this company is doing it well, and it seems to have been a great success. Good for them.
I really wish these precautions were more widespread because we could have been doing so much more traditional theatre for the past months. I appreciate the need to develop new and creative things like Zoom theatre, but at the same time we have all been deeply missing traditional theatre and have sacrificed learning how to do what we will have to in the future while going to college for this. If CMU had implemented these precautions we could have all been in person together practicing what we are here to do. I understand that this is much harder to do on such a large scale, though. I hope to see this become more widespread because it has been so long since all of these people have been doing their jobs in the theatre industry. I also think that much of this will free up once we get the majority of people vaccinated throughout the country. We are already seeing rippling effects from the start of the vaccination efforts. It’s really making a difference in the severity of the COVID statistics already which is super hopeful for the future.
I think that this article is a good representation of the resilience of the artists who make theatre. Theatre artists are passionate people, who are passionate about their craft and making it available for the masses. As Covid restrictions begin to ease up, it is so refreshing to see how hard theatre artists, such as those at SF Theatre, are working to get productions up and running again, even if they are still filmed productions. I have personally been ecstatic to be back in Purnell working on crew calls, hanging plots, and building scenery. We still have a long way to go to return to what everything once was, but even calls with personnel restrictions and Covid protocols have been such a breath of fresh air, and have been reminding me why I fell in love with theatre and chose to pursue it as a career. The past year has been incredibly difficult for everyone, and the live entertainment industry took a major hit. But we persevere. We adapt. We find ways to continue producing incredible productions to share to the masses. We are theatre, and we are not going anywhere.
4 comments:
I really appreciated this article for many reasons. The dedication that the theatre, performers, and all of the crew members put into making sure that this production not only happened, but happened right was wonderful to read. The fact that they took additional time to create emotional understanding around everyone's comforts concerning masks and protocols is above and beyond anything that I have seen most organizations do. I think that a lot of places are simply trying to get back to some sense of normalcy and therefore ignore the emotional toll that just jumping right back in to an unmasked production full force can do to a cast and crew. On the other end of the spectrum, the optimism and resilience that was expressed in this article was truly inspiring to read and made me once again believe in the power of theatre and the people who put it on.
I think that because of COVID theatre has become really complicated to create. I love that this organization took the time to gauger peoples comfort, create protocols, and make the show go on in a way where everyone felt safe and the end product was enjoyable. One thing that hasn't been accounted for in general for productions that have been going on in the last year is that most people don't know how to do film just because they know theatre. Cameras are confusing. I love that this company had people who were knowledgable on cameras and film instead of throwing people with no experience in blind, because that has been catastrophic to the mental heath of many theatre creators. It feels like the responsibility of dealing with covid precautions has been falling entirely on the production team, which I don't think is fair. I am glad to see this company is doing it well, and it seems to have been a great success. Good for them.
I really wish these precautions were more widespread because we could have been doing so much more traditional theatre for the past months. I appreciate the need to develop new and creative things like Zoom theatre, but at the same time we have all been deeply missing traditional theatre and have sacrificed learning how to do what we will have to in the future while going to college for this. If CMU had implemented these precautions we could have all been in person together practicing what we are here to do. I understand that this is much harder to do on such a large scale, though. I hope to see this become more widespread because it has been so long since all of these people have been doing their jobs in the theatre industry. I also think that much of this will free up once we get the majority of people vaccinated throughout the country. We are already seeing rippling effects from the start of the vaccination efforts. It’s really making a difference in the severity of the COVID statistics already which is super hopeful for the future.
I think that this article is a good representation of the resilience of the artists who make theatre. Theatre artists are passionate people, who are passionate about their craft and making it available for the masses. As Covid restrictions begin to ease up, it is so refreshing to see how hard theatre artists, such as those at SF Theatre, are working to get productions up and running again, even if they are still filmed productions. I have personally been ecstatic to be back in Purnell working on crew calls, hanging plots, and building scenery. We still have a long way to go to return to what everything once was, but even calls with personnel restrictions and Covid protocols have been such a breath of fresh air, and have been reminding me why I fell in love with theatre and chose to pursue it as a career. The past year has been incredibly difficult for everyone, and the live entertainment industry took a major hit. But we persevere. We adapt. We find ways to continue producing incredible productions to share to the masses. We are theatre, and we are not going anywhere.
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