“A Site-Specific Zoom Play”
We are calling this our “Site-Specific Zoom play.” It’s what happens when you take a site-specific theatre company and ask them to make theatre during a pandemic. Space has always been important to us, so we wanted to see if there was any way to keep the health and safety affordances of a Zoom play and apply them to a space that suited the play.
We were lucky enough to secure two separate office spaces in the Distillery District, down the hall from each other. Directors, designers and stage management tuned in from their respective homes,while each actor had their own office – one office for the “on-camera” actor and another for the “off-camera” actor. Then we would clear the room, open the windows, and switch places.
Both actor’s feeds were run through Zoom, but only the visuals of the person on screen would be used. This allowed Peter and Wendy to act together, synchronously, but be in different spaces. The actor on camera had to set up their own camera equipment, lighting, mic, and connect with a camera as a scene partner. On occasions where the camera needed to move, we even invited loved ones from the actor’s bubble to come and operate the camera.
