Hello Readers! It’s Co-Editor Gail.
As I believe I have mentioned before, I am a Theatre person. Along with all the other norms this pandemic has disrupted, one personal to me is that theatre both regional and on Broadway has all but shut down putting so many talented folks out of work (hopefully not for much longer).
These days, the only theatre there really is to see are bootlegs, pro-shots like the Hamilton film, movie adaptations, or readings and plays being performed and streamed via Zoom.
As for that last option, over the past couple weeks, I have had the good fortune of auditioning for and being cast in a Zoom theatre production being put on by my alma mater. It is an opportunity that I am so deeply grateful to have been given.
In a few weeks time, my castmates and I will perform our collaborative version of Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. The show is adapted from an anthology of poems written by Masters in 1915. The conceit of the play is that the ghosts of the dead in the fictional town of Spoon River Illinois have risen from their graves for one night to share their life stories and wisdom whether it be happy, tragic or even scandalous. Despite it being written 106 years ago, it is incredibly timely and universally human (I plan to do a future blog analysing some of the characters I will be playing).
As an actor, the fun part of doing a show like this is that everyone is playing multiple characters all with drastically different personalities. The challenge of embodying each of them both physically and vocally is an excellent way to hone the craft of acting as well as just being incredibly fun to dive in and get to know each of them and how they relate to all the other characters.
Rehearsals so far have been great fun as well. It feels just like old times and even over Zoom, I still get the same thrill from it as I did in person. Though of course there are things I still miss about doing theatre in the flesh.
I miss entering the doors of the theater knowing I can leave everything else behind me and just focus all my attention on something creative.
I miss being in the atmosphere of the theater building itself.
I miss doing stretches and vocal warm ups on stage with my fellow performers.
I miss the physicality of my lower body mattering to the performance.
But despite the eccentricities, difficulties and drawbacks of virtual theatre, I am still excited and thankful for this new experience and the interesting ways in which it works.
And if I am being perfectly honest, taking part in this production has already made me feel the best I have felt since the pandemic began and I think it’s only going to get better as we get to performances.
William Shakespeare famously wrote “all the world’s a stage”, well now thanks to the internet, a stage can be streamed anywhere in the world!
I do not yet have info on how you will be able to watch the show live but once I do I will put up a separate post with everything you need to know. So watch this space! I would be honored if you’d be a member of our audience.
Gail Bello is a poet and playwright from Waltham, Massachusetts. She graduated in 2019 with a BFA in Creative Writing and a minor in Theatre from The University of Maine at Farmington. Find her previous publications at https://thaumaturgedramaturge.wordpress.com and follow her on Twitter @AquajadeGail