Boston Theatre Forges Ahead in Uncertain Times
Boston Theatre Forges Ahead in Uncertain Times
Piece by James Wilkinson
“Don’t count us out yet.” That’s the message theater companies in the greater Boston area are trying to get across this fall.
The start of October usually marks a busy time in the Boston theater seasons. By now most companies would have opened their first show of the new season, with rehearsals for the second well under way. That’s not the case this year. The COVID-19 pandemic and fears of a second wave of infections are still very much at the forefront of people’s minds. Boston theater as an industry, it seemed, would just have to exist in a perpetual state of stasis until audiences felt safe to come together again.
But all hope is not lost.
“Honestly, I don’t relax well,” says Lauren Elias, producing artistic director for Hub Theatre Company. “Doing theater gives me structure.” Elias’ company is just one of the Boston-based organizations determined to connect with their audiences, pandemic be damned. This November, Hub Theatre will be hosting live performances William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, all on the virtual meeting program, Zoom. The production is being helmed by local director Bryn Boice and will allow patrons the chance to experience Boston theater from the comfort of their own living rooms.
But this isn’t Hub Theatre’s first foray into the world of digital theater. Their typical season includes three productions in a calendar year. After their March production of Wittenberg was cancelled just weeks before opening, the company initially had held out some hope that their summer production could go ahead as planned. Sadly, the pandemic had other ideas.
“We canceled the summer show and I sat down with the team and said, ‘I think this might be for a year,’” says Elias, referring to the pandemic. “We better start learning how to do online theater.” That initial discussion between company members led to Intermittent Dreams: An Evening of Thornton Wilder Playlets, a collection of short plays by Wilder. “I called up Sarah [Gazdowicz, who co-directed the piece with Arthur Gomez] and said ‘Let’s learn this together. Let’s have fun.”
Hub Theatre is in good stead. Across town at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, the production team had the daunting task of figuring out the best way to service not only their audience, but the students that make up so much of their creative teams.
“It was very clear in August that we would not be able to do anything in person,” says BPT Artistic Director Kate Snodgrass. The theater is a part of Boston University’s College of Arts & Sciences and the playwrights produced there come out of the M.F.A in Playwrighting program. The five pieces that would have been featured in BPT’s 2020/2021 season were written by the program’s class of 2021. With the full-scale productions pushed to the next year, BPT decided to seize the opportunity to offer something new.
“Our five students are going through a nine-week workshop with School of Theater actors and directors,” says Snodgrass. As a part of those workshops, BPT will be hosting a series of talks hosted on (what else?) Zoom with anyone who is interested in taking a peek at how a new play comes together. Moderated by Snodgrass, these virtual talkbacks will feature conversations about the work-in-progress, scenes from the piece and a Q&A with the creative team.
“It’s a chance for playwrights to really focus on their play without the pressure of paying audience and reviewers,” says Snodgrass. “And I think they’re all quite wonderful. Very different points of view and communicating styles.”
Also part of BPT’s scheduled programming is the Boston Theater Marathon, a yearly festival of short plays by New England playwrights which are performed over the course of a single day. The event is usually held around May and although spring 2021 may feel like an eternity away, the company has already made the decision that next year’s Marathon will be held online. It’s a choice that perhaps could have waited until the new year, but Snodgrass wanted to ensure that those participating would know what they were getting into.
“The deadline for submission was coming up [Nov. 15],” says Snodgrass. “We wanted the playwrights to write the best plays possible. If we were going to be on Zoom, we wanted to let them know.”
But while Hub Theatre Company and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre have temporarily shut down the possibility of in-person theater, one small company in Newton has managed to stick their toe in the water of offering live events.
Newton Nomadic Theater seemed especially primed to get hit by the pandemic. The company has no specific theater home and often uses intimate, unconventional venues to host their productions. They’ve performed in living rooms, in bars, in storefronts. Back in February, they not only had a production of No Exit planned, but had started performing for audiences when everything stopped.
“We did one weekend [of performing No Exit] then shut down,” says company co-founder Jerry Reilly. “We very quickly went on a tear and did four totally different online events.” Those online offerings included a Moth-style storytelling event, poetry readings, a talent show and even a one-night performance of the play Love Letters.
“A month in, we had had it with the online stuff. We pretty much shut down,” says Reilly. Then, in June came the opportunity to work with the town of Newton and host the area’s first public event. A local band, Couch, was recruited for what was being called the “Secret Drive-in Concert.” The ‘secret’ part of the title refers to the fact that patrons who bought tickets were not told where the concert was taking place until the morning of the event.
“We were worried about suddenly having a big crowd that we couldn’t control,” says Reilly.
The venue ended up being a large, empty parking lot. To keep everyone as safe as possible, band members were each placed in the flatbeds of different pick-up trucks. Attendees were kept in their cars. The music was piped to car radios. And although people were justifiably nervous, the event ended up a success.
“People were just so excited to be out of their house and away from their television,” says Reilly.
Newton Nomadic Theater proceeded to keep a low profile over the summer, but as the fall approached, so did the opportunity to try their hand at another in-person event with a pared-down production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.
“The director approached us with the idea and we were chomping at the bit to find some way to do live theater again,” says Reilly. “We realized that it was the perfect show to do right now, because that [show is the experience of] the last six months.”
Easier said than done. Just like in June, the logistics of safely putting together a public event meant a lot of the usual way of doing things had to be thrown out the window. The event was held outside. The number of audience members was capped at forty-three and they had to be seated at least six feet apart. Actors had to be fitted with microphones and had masks for when they got close to each other. Public bathrooms couldn’t be provided for cleanliness reasons. Yet with all of this working against it, Reilly again marks the experience as a success.
“For the actors it was a weird experience,” says Reilly. “You’re looking out at a few people here, a few people there. It had a totally different vibe. But the audience loved it. It went down really well.”
And while Newton Nomadic Theater’s commitment to its audience may be commendable, it’s worth acknowledging that many companies are doing work that might not be immediately apparent to the average patron.
Lindsay Eagle, company member of Flat Earth Theatre, notes that the team at Flat Earth Theatre is grappling not only with how to create work in a pandemic, but how the company will work towards greater racial inclusivity in a post-George Floyd era.
“I think if theater returns to business as usual after this moment, that would be a disservice to everyone who engages with it,” says Eagle. “We have been called out as a county and industry. Lovingly called-out I would say.”
Flat Earth Theater is just one company that’s put together a list of Anti-Racism Action Items that they hope to enact when the company is able to resume regular operations.
“We [at Flat Earth Theatre] have been doing a lot of internal work,” says Eagle. “We’re trying to do the hard work. We’re trying to see what happens next.”
That question of “What happens next?” always appears to be present in one form or another and you’re likely to get a wide array of answers depending on who you ask. Some think that virtual theater events are here to stay and will now always be a part of the landscape in one form or another. Others are holding on to the view that all of this is temporary.
“As much as everyone is enjoying Zoom theater,” says Elias, “I for one will be happy to be back in the room. It’s a great art form, but you’re comparing apple and orange. We’re fortunate that we can do something on Zoom and bring people together, but it’s not the same. It’s not bad but it’s not the same.”
