A ZOOM PLAY
No, this won’t be as polished as SNL’s At Home episodes. Their production is recorded in advance and edited for your viewing pleasure. And it won’t be as stellar as Austin’s Parallelogramophonograph improv troupe. They have Millennials who know what they’re doing online. Meanwhile, we have a middle-aged director who doesn’t understand TikTok, can’t decipher memes, and who has never been on a Zoom meeting before.

But, as with the formation of ImprovEd Shakespeare, our naivety serves us well. We decided to do a virtual performance before we knew how hard it is to do a virtual performance.

THE CHALLENGES OF AN ONLINE PERFORMANCE
Firstly, how do you re-create the energy and excitement of rehearsing together when all of your cast is safely ensconced in their own homes? Secondly, group drama games no longer work when you can’t all speak at the same time. Neither do songs sung by the whole cast. Thirdly, a Zoom production combines the most challenging aspects of film and the most difficult facets of theatre. Finally, dare we mention: the network-connection issues, the sound issues, the lighting issues, the framing, the complications of showing intimacy when the actors aren’t even in the same space, the difficulty of staging fights with a webcam, and the dangerous distraction of virtual backgrounds in the hands of Kids.

Lest you think, “that’s nothing,” might we add, we only rehearse once a week. Luckily, we were able to tack on a few additional hours of rehearsals. Thus, during the month of April, we learned to modify our performance. By embracing the changes, utilizing new tools, and laughing a lot, we have created an online adaptation of which we are proud. Thrilled with, even!

You won’t ever seen anything like it, again.