An Enemy Of The People
What a semester it’s been, folks! I have had several super-duper occasions to collaborate with astounding artists on a variety of projects— All during a time I previously assumed I’d have no opportunities whatsoever. With this has come the newfound knowledge of recording myself and performing via Zoom to spread theatre to the masses. It’s had its ups and downs for sure, and my mainstage fall play, An Enemy Of The People, was no exception!
Through the hard work of my professors, department head, crew members, and cast, our team was able to concoct an entirely recorded performance of Henrik Ibsen’s timeless classic—All while in our own homes!
All right… That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but still: several castmates were located in different states and in quarantine, and several others never got the chance to rehearse in-person as I and a few others were lucky to do. Under brilliant direction via our director and stage managers, we had the unique chance to actually practice the show together in a distanced space, something not many theatres in the nation were able to do at the time. Crew members were able to work around social distancing to bring us personally customized costumes, hand-painted tarps for synchronized backgrounds, and spent their free time editing together the audio and video for the performance to come together as a smash! Not only that, but with our performance initially set to be recorded on the stage and socially distanced, we each had individual, hand-stitched masks, a remarkable set to utilize, and an original score a la The Pixies, produced by one of our finest Musical Theatre students. Pretty neat, right?
All this being said, we had to accommodate not only to COVID-19 but to the ever-changing status of our school and its students’ safety. As we were intending on taking every precaution, our initially-planned in-person recorded performance switched rather last-minute to become a recorded ZOOM performance! It wasn’t the original plan but hey, we were prepared. And the outcome was a remarkable work I was very honored to be a part of, despite the learning process of recording on a visual meeting app. Though it’s saddening I had a second show taken off the Cowan main stage due to COVID-19, I’m very thankful I got the experience to perform at all—Something other theatre students (and professionals) across the globe are struggling with. It’s been something I won’t soon forget, and probably something I will have to get more accustomed to as we theatre-makers adjust to life post-pandemic.
