THE VIRTUAL SUPPORT GROUP FROM HELL PROJECT

Directing a play amongst COVID-19 was definitely a challenge to navigate virtually; however, I am so grateful for the opportunity to have directed "The Virtual Support Group From Hell" with my amazing virtual cast!

AUDITIONS/CALLBACKS

AUDITION POSTER

I created this poster (with Canva) in order to advertise auditions for The Virtual Support Group From Hell play in early April. Usually, I would post these flyers around school, but because of the virtual format I had to adapt. Instead, I had my school's Instagram post the flyer on their account and used resharing on Snapchat and Instagram among students to get the word out!

AUDITION SIGN UP

Through SignUpGenius, I created a sign up sheet for virtual auditions via Teams. In order to sign your name up on this virtual form, one could use the bar code on the Audition Poster or they could use the link which I also sent out. While this sign-up sheet took a while to originally create, I think it worked exceedingly well to keep auditions organized and make sure everyone who wanted to audition could.

REHEARSAL PROCESS VIRTUAL

SLIDES (used for call backs/auditions)

After one signed up through the audition sign up form (which was done through their emails), I automatically sent three different scripts (each consisting of two pages) to each of the people who auditioned. The first slide (pages 11-12) was used to audition for Dr. Tammy, Wendy, and Hecuba; the second slide (pages 6-7) was used to audition for Dr. Tammy, Frank, and Janet respectfully; the third slide (pages 9-10) was used to audition for Vladimir and Wolfgang. For the character Lucy, who only has one line comprising of "BRAINS", I didn't have a particular slide I was looking for, but was looking more at facial gestures and comfortability in acting. In addition, for Vladimir and Janet I had two other monologues (that I got from outside sources) to use for Call Backs. For call-backs, I again used the same slides, but I had all the characters being read for and I had the two monologues (for Vladimir and Janet) performed separately at the end by specific people who I was considering for the role. All the slides were given in advance so I could see more from emotion and diction from the actors than if it were a cold read, so that actors weren't stumbling on lines.

(I only included one slide as an example for copyright reasons. When we rehearsed, we of course used the full script, but I cannot publish that online.)

CAST PERMISION SLIP AND AUDITION INFORMATION FORM

After Callbacks, I had a cold read with all of the actors on March 1st. At the meeting, we read the entire play with each actor reading their respective part, and I handed out two forms. The first form, a permission slip for being in the cast, was created using Microsoft Word and I adapted it for the virtual setting. As the director, I felt that it was important to establish expectations, especially about attendance, beforehand with my actors. In addition, even online, my actors are in school and therefore I added a category about grades in the permission slip to make sure that all of my fellow actors know that they must keep their grades up consistently in order to perform. My second form, created through Microsoft Forms was used earlier in casting and was sent out to ALL people who auditioned in order to help not only cast my actors, but also to create a rehearsal schedule around the conflicts listed. At the time, I wanted to utilize as much time in March to rehearse, including Spring Break and Finals week, and I wanted to make sure that anyone cast in my play would be able to perform at that time. In addition, I asked people who auditioned if they would be okay cast with a character who doesn't have lines in order to make sure that the actor cast as Lucy took their character just as seriously as the characters who had lines. Overall, these forms helped me get to know my actors as well as form an agreement with them, establishing their responsibilities along with my own.

REHEARSAL SCHEDULE

Through Microsoft Excel, I created a spreadsheet for rehearsals to send to my actors. I used input from the form I sent out (with conflicts, character preferences, etc.) to create a schedule that was accessible for each actor. Since this play doesn't have any breaks in the act, it is one shot all the way through, I needed ALL of my actors present at EVERY rehearsal (consisting of Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in the month of March). Sending this form out beforehand was a helpful resource that my actors could look back on to help plan their afternoons around rehearsals, as well as aiding them in staying organized.

Dress Rehearsal Photo

Blocking/Lines Rehearsal

The first week of rehearsals was dedicated to helping my actors understand the characters and the play, as well as going over my director's purpose and goals for the show. For rehearsals, my actors had until March 15th to be completely off-book, enough time for everyone to get their lines down and enough time so that I would have two weeks of rehearsals before the performance where I focused on the emotions, reactions, and comedic moments in each line. In the photo itself, you can see that I am taking notes as we go throughout the play, writing down what works and what doesn't, to help figure out what I may need to add and what each of my actors needs to work on.

Dress Rehearsals

This was day one of dress rehearsals (that started the week of March 23rd. Each of my actors were expected to be ready (with their makeup and costumes on, with their virtual backgrounds on, with their dogs taken out of the room, and ready to go through the entire play). As you can see all of my actors are in character and ready to start dress rehearsal.

DESIGN ELEMENTS (COSTUMES, MAKEUP, CHARACTERIZATION)

PINTEREST CHARACTER BOARD

PINTEREST CHARACTER BOARD EXPLAINED: I was inspired to make a Pinterest page when I was in "It's A Good Day Charlie Brown", where we utilized a page on Pinterest to help the crew come up with costume designs. However, I wanted to utilize this Pinterest page for three reasons: 1.) to help each actor explore their character, pinning anything that reminds them of their character, 2.) to help with costume design, pinning designs and hair styles actors envisioned for their characters, and 3.) for fun, I think that Pinterest is a way to creatively get actors, particularly teenage actors, to get into the shoes of their character.

CHARACTERIZATION SHEET (2 PAGES)

This "Given Circumstances" worksheet was one of the most important things I utilized as a director to help with characterization. Instead of having each of my actors fill out this form individually as homework that they needed to return the next day, I wanted to instead utilize communication and group insights. Therefore, I pulled up this worksheet on a group call and I asked the actors who they thought, as their characters of course, that they would have been friends with or enemies with and how each of their characters act in different circumstances, making sure to back it up their thoughts with evidence from the script. (Ex. Hecuba is best friends with Frank due to the numerous times she sticks up for him in the play, her character continuously shrugs off her problems, and Hecuba uses her virtual therapy to open up, which she doesn't have the chance to at home with her mom.) I also asked my actors their objectives and what tactics they would use to overcome their obstacles. I also stressed the important of reacting through this exercise, as an actor it is not only important to be present when we have our lines, but we must utilize the time when we are not present to react, especially since all my actors for this play are on the screen for the entirety of the play. Lastly, I utilized this exercise to help with establishing virtual backgrounds, asking the actors where they thought their character (monster) would live.

CHARACTER NEEDS LIST (Props, makeup, costume)

This was my first of many lists I used to keep organized. I had to order a substantial amount of items for this play, including: a Batman Mask, collodion makeup (helps to create scars for Frank), fangs, wolf ears, bear ears, etc. This was also the first list I made for props. Thankfully, there were not a lot of props needed in this play, so it was easy for my actors to have all the props they needed at home. The most difficult thing was distributing the costume/makeup items I ordered. With COVID-19, students were not allowed on campus and we had to strategize for how everyone would pick up their items. We ended up having one actor distribute all of the items to the other actors contactless. However, I had to do a last minute drop-off with beard essentials (brown eyebrow pencil and eye shadow) for one of my actors.

CHARACTER DESIGN (Costume, makeup, hair)

This list of costume ideas was created after I talked with all the actors about what they envisioned for their character. This list not only includes items that the actors already owned, but items they also needed. As you can see, this list has no images/pictures because we utilized Pinterest for visuals. In addition, this list was extremely helpful for drawing a rough sketch of the advertising poster for the play, as well as was useful for the graphic designer who needed to know all the details, from what color each actor's hair was to the style of clothes each character wore.

TECHNICAL ASPECTS

VIRTUAL BACKGROUNDS

These are the virtual backgrounds I used for each character. Some of these photos were found by me on the internet and others were found by actors. These backgrounds are essential for virtual plays, for there is no "uniform stage" that we are all on, with all of us at home with our families. As a director, I first started noticing some technical difficulties at this time regarding devices that had troubles bringing up virtual backgrounds. In addition, I had to troubleshoot multiple times to solve audio, video, and technical problems. In addition, this was a good time to talk to my actors about any issues they would be having in their background (siblings running around, parents storming in, dogs barking, etc.) when we recorded, trying to minimize them as much as possible.

POSTER DRAFT AND FINAL (created by Briana)

Rough Draft Advertising Poster

This sketch was created by me during the first week of March. It is definitely rough, but it included as many details as I could fit in there. We ended up making two significant changes between this draft and the final version, including taking out the character names listed on the poster (which made the poster feel too crowded) and we changed the phone in the center of the draft to only text in order to simplify the poster and increase readability.

Final Draft Advertising Poster

This digital poster was created by a graphic designer, a fellow student of mine. It includes a silhouette of each actor and some defining features of them, without giving away too much. In addition, I made sure that when we recorded on Zoom, the actors were in the exact same position as the poster. Also, you may notice there are no dates or times listed on this advertising poster and that is because while we have finished recording, we have not picked a date or time to stream, but I will add that (as well as my school's name) to the poster before I send the posters out virtually.

STREAMING - PERFORMANCE (link)

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