In our early remote classes together, we all started to wonder if this was worth it. There were moments when we wondered if theater can be done remotely, and if we were creating theater at all. Were we somehow doing a disservice to ourselves and our art by doing it this way? Some days it felt like we were. Theater is about being together, so why practice it when we must be apart?
These questions and fears are completely real. It does not have to feel right automatically. It certainly did not for us. Once we pushed past those feelings, we were able to create something exciting and new. There is no one purpose or reason for making art, we each had our own individual one. Some of us wanted to feel motivated, whole, and productive. Others wanted to send a message, to defy the odds, to be radically creative. All of us wanted to learn to direct, by any means necessary.
Digital theater is about creating art when it seems impossible. We came together, while apart, to prove that there is a way to keep theater alive. We made art because we love to make art. We made this website to encourage others to do the same. The purpose of digital theater will change depending on the moment we live in. We are making digital theater because it is currently too dangerous to congregate together. Your purpose may be different. You may strive to create a more accessible environment, a low budget performance, or it may just be the preferred venue. There is always reason to create art, even when that art looks different.
As theater-makers we may be used to feeling busy, and associate that busyness with success. It's so easy to let this time slip away, to feel helpless or purposeless. Fight against these feelings. Your art matters now just as much as it did before. Force yourself to keep creating in what time you can. Theater is about having the discipline to keep going, no matter the circumstances. The show must go on.
There is a lot of room for creativity in a Zoom performance. Having no physical memory to rely when starting a project, does not feel artificial. In creating from scratch, you don't have to mourn the loss of an in-person experience, and should feel free to try anything. Your actors will be able to react in the virtual world without feeling called to some past version.
Specificity is vital over zoom. Exploration is still very much a part of our process (it’s central to it), but it's most effective in a controlled way. A massive part of the job of the director in this space is effectively communicating back to actors what did and did not successfully read, because they’re calibrating their definitions of satisfaction and success alongside you. Rather than exploring ideas conversationally, try exploring different approaches by running them back to back, each with precise adjustments. This may feel inauthentic at first, and like you are stripping the actors of a lot of their agency. However, this method is effective in learning how the digital space is working.
Satisfaction feels different in digital theater. Striving for a universal attempt to obtain the same level of satisfaction over Zoom as you would in a normal rehearsal room, may be difficult. You will need to find ways to shift the directing process so that you can find whatever satisfaction feels like in this medium, and accept that it's hard to know what the barometer for Zoom theatre satisfaction is. You are going to have to be okay driving blind.
Talk about your show in the context of what we are living through, acknowledging it is important. Everyone has to cope with this situation in their own ways, and sometimes it is helpful to have a place to say: "I'm scared". Allow that space to be a part of rehearsal. Sharing your fears builds community and allows your ensemble to feel connected. You are all going through this together and group healing feels important.
Exactly the same as if you were to be staging a piece in the human-contact world, why are you doing what you are doing? What will keep you sustained? What ~are~ your curiosities? Perhaps they will be more basic than they would be if you were working live, perhaps they are simply about how to navigate this new platform.
We have no idea how to actually set satisfying goals when we are working in a totally new environment.
Ok, but like, really consider it. If you decide that there are things that you can learn, there will be things that you can learn!
Somehow not being in the room with people when things go wonky is really bizarre. But just because you had a bad rehearsal today does not mean you will have a bad rehearsal tomorrow. In fact the liminal internet space can be your friend in clearing the air.
Constantly considering what could have been/what was/what you have lost/what you can’t do on the internet that you could do live will run you into dead ends and sad times. There is a productive way to mourn what is lost that probably doesn’t entail thinking about it all the time.
This is an entirely new medium. It should feel foreign and new. Don't turn to traditional forms of theater for motivation. Think about what becomes possible rather than what is lost. Allow your work to be novel.
If your bucket is filled you will have more to give to others, so how can you keep yourself buoyant? Jigsaw puzzles? Really thorough rehearsal prep? Netflix comedy?
Watch the Sondheim 90th Birthday concert? A movie? Someone’s uncomfortable facebook live stream? What worked for you? What performances felt like they achieved a relationship with the audience that you are going after? How did they achieve that? What made you physically squirm? Can you name what wasn’t effective? Etc. Find ways to do it together.
Rather than months, how many moons until we will all be in physical community again? How many bottles of shampoo or notebook pages? Can you reframe this for yourself as a blip in time, rather than an endless eternity?
Do really detailed prep for rehearsals each week. Even if you go off course and don't follow your actual plan, it may help you feel excited to start rehearsal. Excitement is contagious!
Rehearsals are an opportunity to use your brain!
Take time to recognize what hurts and what is scary coming into rehearsal. Take time to celebrate quarantine positives.