by Michèle Carter Cram
There’s no doubt about it: the world we live in is a digital one. The fact that you’re reading this on- what, your iPhone? or perhaps your laptop computer?- is a brilliant marker of how far we as a society and a global community have come in terms of the capabilities and ubiquity of technology. That being said, there’s one realm that Zoom has yet to dominate: the theater.
The theater has been accused of being a dying art for decades. Cries of “it’s out of touch!” and “the kids these days don’t like anything that isn’t on their cell phone!” circulate throughout the community and haunt those of us that have made theater our lifestyle and career. (I should have started a tally of how many “Do you have a backup plan”’s I got when I went off to college for theater.) That being said, theater is unique from nearly every other art because it is live and it is ephemeral. There’s nothing like seeing a play one night and then going back to notice everything that changes when you see the same show the next night.
What, then, do you do when a global pandemic hits and you have no choice but to rely on platforms like Zoom and Google docs to support the entire theater industry?
Theater performance, education, and fundraising events all moved online when the height of the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Though this shift indubitably came with its own set of challenges, from where I’m standing, the move to digital also came with an introduction to a whole new host of benefits in regards to our performance and fundraising initiatives. Due in part to the pandemic, we as an organization have done our fair share of pivoting and in doing so have discovered new and sometimes better ways of doing things. For example,
- April 2020: 224 students joined us online to continue their Spring theater classes, including filming Zoom-style performances to share with their friends and family.
- October 2020: the STASH scavenger hunt provided participants the opportunity to work remotely towards fun, theater-themed scavenger hunt goals, and benefitted local community theaters like TVCT and our partner, Boise Little Theater.
- December 2020: Our traditional holiday production was transformed into a radio-style script complete with Foley-style sound effects and a small cast of young actors recorded to share with theater families.
- January 2021: our Youth Ambassadors (YA) learned about technology and acting for the camera all from their own homes at the height of the pandemic. YA’s were able to provide artistic support for our touring production of 10 Ways to Survive Life in Quarantine, which was edited together and then toured virtually to fifty-six area elementary and middle school classrooms.
- May 2021: For the first time in our Idaho Gives history, we held a three-and-a-half hour livestream fundraising event in three different Meridian locations! The event raised OVER our $10,000 thanks to match donors like the Wardle Family, Focus Vision Therapy, and Olsen Wheeler CPAs.
- September 2021: Our 2021 Mind/Body/Spirit #actortrainingtips Challenge provided resources and education on the importance of physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness for artists that students could access all from the comfort of their own homes.
Throughout this pandemic-affected 18+ months, digital tools have become more important than ever in ensuring that not only can we continue to provide our quality theater education and performance programs, but we can expand our horizons to reach for even higher heights. Social media has become the language of our young students, and as we emerge from a year of Zoom meetings and Skype happy hours, we know that the tools of theatrical technology- while perhaps not the only way of producing theater- can add significant new strengths to our operating model as a theater.
Michèle Carter Cram is a TVCT alumnus and a students at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, where she plans to obtain a BA in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Theater. Michèle also serves TVCT as a Grant Writer and Arts Educator.
