Adapt or Die: Online Theater in 2020

Feature | Alexander Wick

Nov. 31st, 2020

In early March of 2020, Duck Washington had dozens of performances lined up. He’d planned his shows months in advance, and the rest of his year’s schedule was totally full. But as the pandemic hit, months of shows were cancelled, one by one. A project he’d been practicing for weeks could never be shown.

“It was the day it was gonna get in front of an audience, when we ended up having to pull the plug,” Washington said.

At the same time, Susan Roberts loved watching shows of all kinds and had been a deeply involved member of the theater community. She went to productions like Washington’s almost daily and volunteered in the community frequently. And then, just about every show out there was cancelled.

“As a lifetime theatergoer, COVID was a rough blow,” Roberts said.

For performers and audience members alike, the world of theater has changed, and it’s unclear if it will ever go back. Performers have had to adapt to performing online and the challenges those changes have brought, while audience members have gained access to more content than they’ve ever had before. For anyone in the world of theater, they’ve had to learn to adapt in order to survive.

Some performers waited and hoped they could push their shows back to when the pandemic was over. But when it became clear the pandemic was going to last longer than a few weeks, the next step was obvious: theater had to move online. And the early adopters moved fast!

“I think some of them happened pretty soon after the shutdown started… maybe around late march or so,” said Heather Baldwin, another theatergoer. “In the improv world, a group called The Fantastic Voyage, they’ve started doing weekly shows online, every single week since the pandemic started. There’s also a play that was held at the Bell Museum in late February, they had an encore performance online a few weeks later.”

When it came time for actors to start work on their projects in this new world of theater, they had to adapt to a lot. The skills needed to perform online were totally different from those you needed in person.

“In the “before times,”” Washington said, “It was about showing up, knowing your lines, working on that rapport with your fellow actors.” When transitioning online, what was needed expanded a lot.

“There’s a technical element you never really had to deal with. You have to think: Is the stream running? When is my camera supposed to be on or off? How is the lightning? How do I relate to a camera? How do I maintain intimacy with someone in a completely different part of the city, part of the state, or part of the world?”

Dawn Krosowski, another actor working in Saint Paul, has had a similar experience. As well as performing in plays, she has also had parts in several commercials and other on-camera roles. The influence of technology in this context has been perhaps more pronounced.

“In the pre-COVID times,” she said, “You would go to a casting director and they would walk you through it. They’re gonna have the camera, the lights, they’re gonna make sure you look great, since that’s their job! Now that we’re in COVID, you somehow have to create that exact same audition quality without the equipment and without that expertise.”

For performers like Washington and Krosowski transitioning to online work, this is the biggest huddle they face: learning video presentation. Much of their skillset forged by years of acting doesn’t apply. Further than that, every show is formatted a little differently, so they have to learn something new every time.

Washington said, “There are so many things that I have to be an expert on even though I’m just being introduced to it.” From camerawork to audio editing to lighting, it’s been an uphill battle.

Despite the number of challenges facing actors moving online, there are several distinct advantages to online theater for performers and audience members alike. As an example, it’s given Roberts a window to a whole new world of theater.

Roberts watched theater on a near-daily basis. She lived near a theater, so she had a lot of opportunities to do so. When the theaters shut down, though, she found it gave her a new opportunity. “Now that I’m not going to the theater,” she said, “I can do a lot more theater!”

She said the biggest change has been the availability. Before, watching two programs even in the same city could require 15-30 minutes of driving and even more waiting for the show to begin. Now, going to a show is as simple as opening a tab, which isn’t limited by distance.

“There’s programs that I’m watching that I would not have seen,” she said. “ I could not watch the MET and have a program there, then, all of a sudden, be in Los Angeles and see another program the same day.”

The transition online has also helped with outreach. Roberts said she didn’t look for shows to watch online at all pre-COViD, and now her primary way of finding shows to watch is through her facebook feed!

With the ease of access in mind, she plans to continue to watch this type of show even after COVID-19 ends. For her, at least, the pandemic hasn’t been a total negative.

On the performer’s side as well, there are some positives. Despite the technical troubles inherent to online theater, there are also some things you can do in online theater you can’t in normal theater.

Washington said, “The camera does give an intimacy that live performance doesn’t give as well, even though you’re not in person, you can see people’s facial expressions a little easier. The actors get a chance to have a little bit more subtlety.”

The shift has given Duck more options in shows, being able to fill the screen with visuals much easier than you could on a stage. Duck used this to show a simulated newscast! It’s also given easier access to accessibility options.

“We were able to connect to an interpreter who wasn’t even living in the state! We became more accessible online than we could have been in a theater.”

All in all, COVID-19 has been a challenge for the theater community, like everyone else. Moving online has created a ton of problems, but it’s also created several distinct advantages. Blessing or curse, it’s unlikely to go away anytime soon, and the industry will have to adapt to survive.

“It’s a hard time for art right now,” Washington said, “but it’s also a really important time for art. Some of us are finding a way to move forwards, but there are a lot of companies that are really struggling. I don’t think that theater will ever look exactly the way it did before... and I don’t know that it should.”