LISA PORTES
Director Lisa Portes speaks about her recent production of Blood Wedding by Federico García Lorca and adapted by María Irene Fornés, how she developed its unique arc of visual and audio storytelling, her team's collaborative dramaturgy to wrangle the yet undiscovered Wild West of virtual theatre, and the importance of listening.
Shelley Butler
Director Shelley Butler discusses her current project, Artistic Stamp, a written letter theater project which she co-founded with her husband in the early days of the pandemic. She shares her stance on the missive form as a venue for theater-making, especially amidst social distancing and isolation, as well as the notions of intimacy, directing for the written form, and her disinterest in defining theater.
Philip Santos schaffer and isabel quinzaños alonso
Playwright and Actor Philip Santos Schaffer and Director Isabel Quinzaños Alonso discuss Baby Jessica’s Well-Made Play, a five-act phone adventure to the bottom of a well and back again. They discuss how they get two strangers to meet on the phone, how they invite audience members to sit in their closets and listen to one another, and how they find the tools to invite the audience to take care of each other.
Matthew Watkins
Director and designer Matthew Watkins discusses his workshop process of An Enemy of the People and why virtual theatre is definitely not film: the theatricality of the axis between the actor and the camera, and a screen that connects two live three-dimensional experiences on either side. He considers how a sense of nostalgia has kept streaming technology out of the theatre until now, and what we may learn from such connectivity and engagement.
Kalean Ung
An interview with Kalean Ung, writer and actress of the solo show Letters from Home, inspired by her father’s collection of letters from family members in Cambodia suffering through the genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge, and her journey in adapting the show to the digital stage.
Trudi Cohen
An interview with puppeteer and Great Small Works co-artistic director Trudi Cohen about adapting Toy Theater for an online medium, creating an international Toy Theater festival amidst the pandemic, the beauty of open curation, the theatricality of dealing with technical glitches, and why the five essential elements of Toy Theatre translate so well to the cyber-stage.
Jacqueline Goldfinger
An interview with playwright Jacqueline Goldfinger about her online adaptation of her 2019 play, Click, specifically remade for the Zoom platform. Goldfinger discusses the importance of art amidst the pandemic, sculpting audience engagement in the digital realm, using Zoom for site-specific theater. and how lessons from episodic television and Shakespeare helped her make Click: Virtual Edition.
Jared Mezzocchi
An interview with Jared Mezzocchi, Producing Artistic Director of Andy’s Summer Playhouse, based in Wilton, New Hampshire, and its new program, The Digital Renaissance Project. Mezzocchi discusses how the new project brings together professional artists and children, ages eight to eighteen, from around the world, in an equal playing-field collaboration. His students' success in virtual art making encourages him to re-imagine systems of education.
Virginia Grise
An interview with writer Virginia Grise about her virtual production of a farm for meme. She discusses chasing curiosity, gathering community, experimentation in collaboration, and healing the body through artistic practice. The upcoming production, in collaboration with “Innovations in Socially Distant Performance,” weaves organic aesthetics within a digital landscape, working to illuminate theatricality on a computer screen.
Ethan Heard
An interview with Ethan Heard, the Founding Co-Artistic Director of Heartbeat Opera – a company that reimagines and reshapes repertory operas. Ethan recently adapted and directed Lady M: An Online Fantasia of Verdi’s Macbeth with Heartbeat Opera on Zoom.
MATT DAVIS
An interview with Philadelphia Theater Company’s Production manager, Matt Davis, about PTC’s live virtual gala. Davis discusses the process of production, the importance of liveness, and the pros and cons of a variety of technical solutions for digital performance.
Aaron Landsman
An interview with Aaron Landsman who has been leading a summer reading club during the pandemic with the art and activism working group Perfect City. Housed at Abrons Arts Center on the Lower East Side of New York City, Perfect City’s work includes performances, mapping exercises about belonging and avoidance, roundtable discussions, writing, and research on street harassment and gentrification.
Ben Beckley and Asa Wember
An interview with Ben Beckley and Asa Wember who, together, created an individual immersive virtual experience specifically for quarantine. Guided by an alien species, listeners move around their home and interact with everyday objects as they gain an outside perspective to their human experience. Beckley and Wember piece together a post-apocalyptic story about a world eerily similar to our own and invite listeners to observe and question their reality.
Iyvon Edebiri
An interview with Iyvon Edebiri, Artistic Director of The Parsnip Ship – a leading figure in audio entertainment and the revolutionary power of accessible storytelling. Producing podcast plays by bold, innovative artists, The Parsnip Ship has been working as a platform for intersectional and dynamic storytelling and storytellers since its inception. Iyvon discusses amplifying artists’ voices, liveness, creating communities in person and digitally, and the American imagination.
Sarah Gancher
An interview with Sarah Gancher about Fill in the Play, an audience participation theatrical experiment: “Mad Libs” meets improv game meets play. She discusses playwriting, collaboration with her audience, and her desire to innovate form and structure.
Joshua William Gelb
An interview with creator and performer Joshua William Gelb about his work with his company Theater in Quarantine which performs virtually from his closet. He speaks about virtual collaboration, liveness, physical theatre, and the future of the arts.
Michelle Livigne
An interview with Michelle Livigne, a drag entertainer and producer, about making house calls through “Driveway Drag Show” in Richmond, VA. Often featuring other drag performers of the area, Livigne's “Driveway Drag Show” has now performed in over 150 homes since its inception in May 2020.
RIchard Biever and James Ruth
An interview with director and educator Richard Biever and virtual director James Ruth of Singing Onstage in State College, PA about both their virtual production of Into the Woods and FUSE Productions subsequent webinar about their process of creating a musical with high school students that was 75% live and 25% prerecorded.
Cerise Lim Jacobs
An interview with Cerise Lim Jacobs, opera creator, librettist, and Executive Producer of White Snake Projects about the live virtual concert “Sing Out Strong: DeColonized Voices,” her upcoming new opera Alice In The Pandemic, infusing traditions with advanced technology, and dismantling elitism in the opera.
Katie Pearl
An interview with the director of Wesleyan University’s production of The Method Gun about translating for Zoom and rehearsal best practices. Pearl discusses dance breaks, digital intimacy, and how the move to Zoom has changed her as a director.