The theatre department looks forward to a semester of new productions after auditions last week.
“We had great auditions with a lot of new faces from freshmen to students from different majors who joined the theatre students in reading for these shows,” director Carol Anderson said. “We have some strong casts and some new talent added in which is exciting.”
The department is following CDC guidelines in order to make the shows safe and open to as many people as possible. The first show consists of one act in order to limit the actors’ time together on stage. Actors have lighter restrictions, similar to athletes, but they will be wearing masks and will interact with one another within six feet for less than 15 minutes.
Shows in the Greathouse Theatre will be limited to 55 people, but two performances of “An Evening of One Acts” will be live streamed. Viewing the live stream will be like buying a ticket to the show.
“With live streaming, you still have a sense that this is happening now in this moment, and you’re a part of something in that way,” Anderson said.
The actors put in a significant amount of time and energy while preparing for performances, and Anderson said she is doing everything she can to keep the performances.
“These kids put in 100 hours into this, a lot of time,” Anderson said. “To do that and just have 50 people to see is better than doing it to an empty room, but theatre thrives on that engagement in the room which feeds the actors who in turn light up with their performances. My goal is that we would not end up doing a play in little zoom boxes online.”
An “Evening of One Acts” kicks off the theatre performances for the semester, with evening performances Oct. 22-24 and 29-31 at 7:30 p.m. The production consists of three separate stories, with the underlying theme of love.
“They’re really good shows, they’re very entertaining, and we’ve got lots of thought-provoking stuff,” Anderson said. “It’s sort of like switching channels. Love has its thread but every way plays out differently.”
The Theatre Department will also be producing an It’s a Wonderful Life radio show. The show will be recorded the last week of October and air the second half of October through December online for anyone to view.
“We’re doing it like a 1940s radio show, so we’re going to have that sound,” Anderson said. “We’re going to study how those radio shows sounded, and we’re going to study how they talked so it doesn’t sound like we’re doing a modern version.”
The radio show makes it easier to follow CDC guidelines.
“In this production, there’s a lot of smaller scene parts, perfect for our limited time that we’re supposed to be in the same space together,” Anderson said. “We’re going to record things in little chunks and put it together.”
On Nov. 5-7, the theatre will be performing a one act play directed by Morgan Owen entitled “Mockingbird.” The play follows an 11-year-old girl with autism.
On Nov. 13, students will be performing Friday Night Live.
In the end, Anderson wants what is best for her students.
“My goal is to serve these students and to give to these majors and minors and anybody really who’s in the cast,” Anderson said. “I just pour into them and ask them to take whatever aspect of their gift of acting they have and just help grow it. Encourage the crew people and make us into a community that loves and cares for each other to give us this gift of theatre.”