The fall play is a place for everybody.  Everyone’s welcome there to be in the cast or on the crew.  But with COVID-19, the question “what will happen to the fall play” is floating around in everyone’s head!

Mr. Cross, the director of the fall play, said as of right now there is going to be a play but in the spring after the musical.  So around late April.  He says they’re hoping for things to look better in the spring.  Even though there is a set date for the play there are many things to consider.  One thing to consider is how will the play work in the auditorium with an audience.  There are four ideas that Mr. Cross has regarding how the play will happen.  

The first idea is to have a limited audience.  This is the one most of us are probably hoping for but is very unlikely to happen.  The second idea is to have the cast and crew perform with no audience and have it filmed.  The third idea is to make a movie.  Small scenes that will be filmed with the cast and crew in small numbers that can maintain distance.  The fourth idea is to have a Zoom play.  This would be fully remote with nobody near anybody.  Which means the cast would be performing from their own homes. 

He doesn’t know what the play will be yet.  He wants to choose a flexible play so it can be done differently.  Mr. Cross is also looking for scenes with less people in them.  He is thinking of a light play and has some ideas but can’t commit yet.  He is open to suggestions!  Leave a comment below if you have any.  

Assuming it’s a live performance, they would probably have stage mics instead of personal mics.  No need to worry about costumes!  They have a costume room which hasn’t been touched in months!  If there’s a set there will probably be no shared props.  Just individual sanitized props.  These are all good, but annoying problems to have rather than figuring out how to do a Zoom play!  

When asked about a Zoom performance, Mr. Cross noted he’s seen performances with puppetry and animation.  People even use the Brady Bunch Squares to insert images like a set and turn them off.  He says, “that kind of technical crew work or artistical crew work we would definitely need.”  For a Zoom play there will be different kinds of crew work than usual.  There would be less construction and more editing, sound designs, and hacking into zoom.  

He wonders if the crew will use the film studio upstairs.  He also wonders if Mr. Doyle and/or his students could safely teach people in the play how to use it.  If it’s a movie the crew would have to cut the scenes together.  

I loosely said that I wished we had an amphitheater and he took it into consideration!  Another idea could be a sight specific theater.  You would have little scenes, all outside.  Very small groups would be led to scenes by a guide.  We would have to figure out how to keep people from running into each other.  That would be weather dependent, especially in late April when it rains a lot.  As well as set dependent because the people watching the scenes need a set to figure out what’s happening.  You can’t be outside on a field and pretend to be in a dining room without props.  

He says they’re going to do something, he just doesn’t know what!`