HS theater during COVID ideas?

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 1/19/21 at 9:58pm

Hi all, just curious if anyone has heard of any cool or innovative ways that high school theater departments are coping with the pandemic. From what I've heard, radio plays and two handers on Zoom seem to be the most popular choices. Has anyone heard of a high school musical production taking place with students out of the building? I feel like there has to be some solution that no one has thought of yet.  

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 1/19/21 at 11:38pm

Songs for A New World and Last Five Years have been popping up on school radars. Godspell, as well, trying to adapt what the recently noted outdoor production did. Google some of the regional high school musical theatre awards to see which schools may still be participating this year and what shows they’re producing.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/20/21 at 5:41am

Musicals are extremely difficult for several reasons: you can't perform live due to lag time and other technical issues. Editing puts a whole nother layer of difficulty. In Massachusetts, for example....a band cannot not play together live...so each instrument would need to be recorded and mixed....THEN you add the singer....and the same process happens with a chorus. Also, many restrictions are put on what you can stream...many rights/royalty holders say you can only stream a fully realized production....not a zoomed one . Plays are much more forgiving.

We're working on our 2nd live zoomed production. Both comedies - they seem to work better than dramas for the hs predicament - no real blocking, no touching, no sets, etc..

I'll say this: while I don't love the medium, its not the worst thing ever. Participation is waaaay down, partially due to apathy over covid and partially due to the fact that sports get to proceed, practically unchanged. For example: unless i want to rehearse OUTSIDE, we're not allowed to reahearse in person - at all.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/20/21 at 5:41am

Double (followed by a triple) Post.   Sorry.

Updated On: 1/20/21 at 05:41 AM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/20/21 at 5:41am

UGH.
 

Updated On: 1/20/21 at 05:41 AM

[trentsketch]

Posted: 1/20/21 at 10:47am

Safely doing a musical at a high school right now is incredibly difficult. There are companies licensing shows with digital streaming rights, but what it really means for a good product is committing to filming a feature length film over Zoom, with songs recorded individually by actor and mixed together afterwards.

Plays are easier to pull off since the lag isn't as big a factor and the show could potentially be performed live for the stream. I've noticed the straight plays tend to be more open to streaming an edited production rather than requiring a live performance. ShowTix4U has the most control right now for actually livestreaming the show and they're not bad. It's just a company that had a built-in infrastructure for handling digital ticketing that made it easy to connect with for licensed streaming options.

What I've seen are revues or song cycles that allow for a little more flexibility in staging. You can take each song and perfect it with a few actors and do the show in sections. Even then, rehearsing music over Zoom with more than one singer and no additional software that costs money per license is a challenge. Even one on one, the singer will be out of sync unless they're pressing play on a backing track. It's...not the most fun to play piano for a rehearsal where the singers voices get back to you 1-5 seconds after.

Forget a live orchestra unless you have the resources to record the students individually and mix them together before recording the actors. 

[bowtie7]

Posted: 1/21/21 at 9:42am

link to news report on high school production performed live but with the audience in their cars in the parking lot watching the show on a big screen drive-in movie style with the sound over the car radio.

https://www.kmov.com/news/metro-east-high-school-to-perform-musical-as-a-drive-in-experience/article_a7242974-1279-11eb-b97c-f7f245445123.html

Updated On: 1/21/21 at 09:42 AM