AUG
17

How Virtual Theater Works for Small Community Theaters

By Gene Worthington 

Gene works with Historic Fayette Theatre, Fayetteville West Virginia. 

As a theatre director for a rural community theatre, I was curious about this new “Virtual Theatre” that Pioneer Drama Service started offering.  The Historic Fayette Theatre, located in southern West Virginia, has always had strong community support.  But with all venues closed due to the pandemic, we were dark for the first time in 32 years.  Personally, I missed doing theatre, but I also missed being around theatre people.  And we wanted to promote our theatre name so the public wouldn’t think we had closed our doors permanently.  We chose to present Pioneer Drama’s Virtual Complaint Department and Lemonade.  This virtual play gave us an opportunity to “turn the lights back on” — even if it was remotely.

At first, some of the actors in our community were hesitant about this new way to perform.  Others jumped at the chance.  I was able to introduce them to the possibility of trying something new, and soon I had a group of people excited about participating in a performance in this time of pandemic.  We put out an all-call, and I did my first auditions by phone.  It worked very well, and I was able to get all the characters I needed.  Some were from fairly far away and wouldn’t have auditioned if it wasn’t for all rehearsals and performances being remote!  I can’t wait until the pandemic is over so that I can actually meet a couple of the actors in person!

The first thing I had to do after I got my cast was to decide how I wanted the screen to look for the audience.  The image that kept popping up in my mind was of someone speaking on a computer — that was what I wanted the audience to see.  So I chose to keep the actors in Speaker View, one at a time on the screen.  Since there are never more than two people in a scene in this particular show, Gallery View would also have worked.  But that wasn’t the look I wanted, and as the director, I had that choice.

The rehearsals were a bit tricky because of the Wi-Fi connections.  There were 15 in the cast and some of the actors were as far away as 55 miles.  Several did not have adequate Wi-Fi.  We figured out cell phone hot spots, and others moved their locations to get better broadband coverage.  We even had one actor on our back porch!  Despite our best efforts, a few of the actors still had broadband issues and once or twice their screens froze.  Since this particular script relied on computers as a means to talk to each other, I instructed the actors to react to the other person freezing up.  I told them to get angry or call out to the other person, asking what was happening.  Not only did that fill the empty time, it alerted the other actor that they were frozen.  It also led the audience to think it was just a part of the play.

We spent a lot of time in rehearsals trying to figure out the best lighting and backgrounds for each character.  Since they were supposed to be talking to each other on the computer, elaborate sets were not needed.  But we did need to choose the best place in their homes.  I also talked to each actor about appropriate costumes and props and how to arrange their own lights for the best effect.  (A light shining directly on their face from on or behind their screen is optimal.)  I had to encourage the actors to look at the camera on their computer.  This was their way to connect with the audience.  Several wanted to read their lines instead of memorizing them, so we had to arrange a way for them to read their lines looking forward, not down.

I will say that it was especially important to have a Stage Manager.  Our Stage Manager served as the Zoom Webinar “host” and handled all the technical aspects.  This freed me up to work with the actors and not have to worry about anything technical.  (Click here to download Pioneer’s free A How-To Guide for Virtual Theatre, which includes a chapter from our production experience on stage managing a Zoom performance.)

We decided to keep the ticket cost low because the idea of Virtual Theatre was new to the audience and we wanted to encourage attendance.  We spent a lot of time doing publicity in the media and on social media but did not get an immediate response.  So we sent out press releases, did TV interviews, and posted on social media to emphasize that the Zoom Webinar was free to download and easy to use.  In each of these media releases, we talked the potential audience member through the steps to download Zoom.  It seemed to work.  We were pleased to have 94 devices attend our performances, and since most people watched in groups of two or more, we had over 150 viewers.  And the audience came from all over the world!  We had people watching in eleven states and three countries!  Distant friends and family of the performers who had never gotten to see them onstage before could now attend.

One of the disadvantages of a Zoom Webinar is that you cannot hear the audience applaud.  We prepared the actors for that.  What we didn’t expect was the overwhelmingly positive comments in the chat on Zoom.  That more than made up for the lack of applause.  In addition, we received so many positive comments on Facebook and email.

I am happy to say that we more than covered our production costs with our ticket sales.  But we were even happier at the additional donations that came to us.  A number of people that bought tickets asked if they could also make a donation.  Some of our regular “angels” were reminded that they had not supported the theatre this year and made significant contributions.

I have been doing theatre for many years and found this to be one of the most challenging but rewarding experiences.  We kept ourselves busy, socially connected, and creative during a time of isolation.  We reached new actors and new audience members that we never could have included in a traditional production.  And we kept the arts alive for our community.  In return, we are very touched that the community showed through their tremendous support that they value us.

We are already making plans for more Zoom productions, and I am confident that we won’t have any difficulty in filling out a cast or pulling in an audience.  The current pandemic has created many restrictions in all of lives.  But it has also presented new opportunities.  I believe there will be a place for Virtual Theatre in the future.