JAN
26

If I Can Do It, So Can You!

By Courtney Hess 

Courtney is the theatre director at Watson B Duncan Middle School. 

The story behind my first virtual shows reads like a comedy of errors.  I’m sure you’ll enjoy a good laugh, but I hope you also can learn from it.  Maybe some of my specific tips will help you.  At the very least I hope you see that unflagging resolve, creative problem solving, and tapping into all available resources can save the day.  If I can do it, so can you!

At the beginning of this school year, our school district delayed the start of school by three weeks before we tentatively opened virtually.  Since I teach five different courses and some of my students take multiple classes, I opted for weekly units focused on a single benchmark.  But without an ultimate end goal (i.e.  production), the singleton units seemed to have no purpose.  Students’ attention spans waning, I struggled to be more entertaining than their apps and games, to no avail.  I realized I was doing all the work in this virtual learning environment.  To them, taking my class was like watching TV!  To get them out of this passive participation, I knew we needed to work on a show.

Pioneer Drama Service sent out a newsletter about Virtual Theatre, and the ambition in it touched me to my core.  I wrote them about my struggles with online learning, and they pointed me to several online groups that I have joined.  I discovered that we are all experiencing the same thing – having to learn completely new technology.

After spending some time previewing scripts, I decided on three different virtual shows written specifically to be both rehearsed and performed online.  Perfect!  We were all very excited.  The students auditioned via Flipgrid by slating the roles they might like and doing cold reads.  I was even able to export the video files quite easily to a fellow director in another state.

We were all set.  Shows were cast, and it was time to start rehearsals.  Of course, that’s when the district announced that we would be switching from all virtual learning to a “simultaneous hybrid learning environment.”  What does that even mean?  It means that I teach half my students in-person at the school while masked and distanced and half my students online through live Google Meets...  AT THE SAME TIME.  (I will never again complain about simply virtual teaching again!)

It seemed like for every step forward, I had to take four steps backwards.  I had just picked three wonderful VIRTUAL plays and now some of my students were attending in-person.  In masks.  In six-by-six foot boxes which I had carefully taped out.  To top it all off, I’m not a technical whiz.  Directing is one thing, but streaming content?  My confidence fell to the floor.

My anxiety was through the roof, and I covered all of it up with feigned assurance for my students.  They believed in me, and all through rehearsals I just kept saying foreign things like, “Oh, I will edit that out” and “This is where a sound effect will go,” all while having no idea how those tasks would be accomplished.

Following the advice of my peers across the country, I set up a filming schedule.  I bought a $5 dry erase calendar, sent out a Google form, and crossed my fingers.  Somehow, I pieced together a schedule, and I was ready to begin filming.  But remember the one step forward, four steps back?  Our district allowed students to change their mode of instruction for the second quarter.  That’s right.  Students who were distance learners now chose to come to school, and some in-person students decided to stay home.  Sometimes my in-person students stayed home and signed in virtually...  Day to day, the modalities changed, so I quite literally never knew who was going to show up in my classroom and who was going to pop up on Google Meet.

I ended up modifying every move I made based on the situation of the moment.  My Drama 1 filmed on that Friday, but one of the actresses’ soccer team won the last round of a tournament, and she was crying because she had to miss the play.  I told her, “Don’t worry, go be there for your team, I’ll edit you in!”  (Who is this person talking?!)  And one of the leads filmed the entire thing with a Zoom background covering up her seatbelt – she was in the car the whole play.

Another play needed to be all on Zoom since the plot would make no sense if people were wearing masks.  That meant I had to film it outside of school hours.  Since I never had a full cast any given night, editing was the toughest part of this play.  I had an eighth grader who is an amazing film editor, but I still had to edit her edit for the final piece.  (My voice reading lines was accidentally still in place in her edit!)  We had to capture voiceovers during the school day from students to complete the project.

The third play was the toughest of them all, with casts in three different grade levels and a constant fluctuation of who was in-person and who was virtual.  Consequently, this show required my most creativity and innovation.  Some scenes were shot in-person, masked and socially distanced, of course.  Some scenes were shot on Zoom and screen-recorded.  We recorded other scenes that had an in-person student working with a distance learner on the Smartboard.  And lastly, some scenes were actually filmed using a Meet recording clip taken of in-person students talking from the classroom to students filming on their Chromebooks at home.

I did my research and attended an online professional development session on editing for theatre teachers.  I researched editing programs, how much they cost, and what they do.  After asking many other educators their opinions, I decided to order an iPad Pro and use the free iMovie software because it seemed to be the route I could handle the best as a novice.  Since this is a comedy of errors, of course my new iPad got stuck in Ohio, but thankfully, I was able to borrow one from another teacher.

Did I mention I have never used a Mac before?  Or edited a film before?  Or filmed a play before?  I learned how to use a Mac and edit our shows over Thanksgiving break.  It was time for the stream test with Booktix.  Wouldn’t you know, it failed?!  Luckily, my technician at Booktix was amazing.  But the Mac and my internet just couldn’t stream content.  With only days to figure out what to do, I chatted up every tech person I could find.  I ended up uploading my shows to my Google Drive, then downloading them to my personal PC, where I also downloaded the streaming software set to all the Booktix requirements.  I finally got a “green light” for streaming.

Thrilled, I didn’t know what to do with myself the day of the show.  An evening that is usually filled with the hustle and bustle of students locating last-minute props or asking me to do their eyeliner was reduced to simply me pacing in front of my computer counting down the final minutes until the stream.  I “opened house” virtually, which is done with Booktix by opening the stream to guests so they can see the content that I can see streaming through my computer.  I fielded texts and emails from parents who needed help accessing their stream passes.  Booktix helped tremendously, too.  They are right there making sure everything works for you.

So, as of the end of December, my iPad Pro was still stuck in Ohio, but I promise, I wouldn’t be writing this article if the plays were not well-received.  In fact, my audiences loved them!  I was elated and relieved at the same time.  I had done it!  My fall semester was saved!  Best of all, I now have confidence that I can direct and stream shows even within the most difficult learning environment.  If I can do it, so can you!