Creating Light When Theaters are Dark
The cast of Oklahoma! hit their marks for the final shot of the show.
The lights of Broadway are dark and stages have gone quiet. But, that doesn’t mean that theatre is gone. At Lundstrum Performing Arts, we believe being artists means our creativity can rise to any challenge. And while a global pandemic is quite the challenge, we wouldn’t let it be curtains for our summer program.
Students recorded their songs in our socially distance recording studio.
This summer the lights did go up on our musicals; they just went up at a safe distance. We converted our two live musicals into staged film adaptations. Our students zoomed their morning dance and vocal lessons and joined us in the afternoons for small group rehearsals to practice socially distanced scenes. Masks were worn, temperatures were taken, and rehearsal breaks were held outside. It wasn’t always easy, but our young actors are pros at taking direction.
“It required rethinking and finding solutions, cooperation, attention to detail, camaraderie, a good sense of humor.” - Director Kathleen Bloom
To ensure our singing was top-notch and safe, cast members recorded their vocals in our recording studio behind Plexiglas fifteen feet apart, which was wiped down between sessions. Their vocal tracks were then mixed together into master tracks so the cast could lip-sync during filmed scenes.
Director Kathleen Bloom, who directed both of Lundstrum’s musicals this summer, reflected back on our second musical, Oklahoma! “I hope what our cast members learned from this summer is that ‘where there is a will, there is a way.’ We reinvented the wheel this summer,” she said, “It required rethinking and finding solutions, cooperation, attention to detail, camaraderie, a good sense of humor.”
After a few weeks of rehearsal, the last week of camp arrived and the cameras started rolling. We had scheduled one week for filming Oklahoma! A careful schedule was crafted as we brought different groups in to film. Our faculty were able to teach cast members the differences between film and stage acting. They now had multiple tries to get a scene right, but they had to maintain their energy over several takes. It also provided the unique experience of being able to observe their own work when they watched the footage.
“A whole new way to approach performing, finding their internal fire as actors that projected through the camera lens and keeping that energy going as they were lip-syncing, shooting the same scene 2-4 times, and rarely in order of the show, was difficult,” Bloom said, “Our students accomplished that! They accomplished making a stunning piece of theater when very few are attempting it. I hope they see this as a huge challenge accomplished and that as they navigate the future, they will see themselves as capable innovators of new ideas.”
Our final week of filming was demanding, but our cast performed with grace and humor. By the end of the week, we finished our last scene, tired but triumphant.
After a week of in-house editing, our show opened with a YouTube premiere for a weekend-long virtual run. While nothing quite replaces the thrill of live performance, seeing our young performers in their very own movie was pretty magical.
But there must be some catch, right? Even with all those precautions, we couldn't actually film big group numbers, right? Oh, ye of little faith. With some clever blocking from our director, some ingenious choreography from Julianne Mundale, and a few green screens, anything is possible. Large musical numbers were broken into smaller groups and parts, then shot against green screens, so after editing, the numbers looked like everyone was on stage, with the whole cast never being in the same room together. We even had a particularly challenging number that involved using a split-screen, where two groups were blocked to each remain on their own side of the stage, so they could be lined up together in editing.
Movie magic means anyone can be part of the fun, without everyone needing to be in the same space.
But why, you ask? Why go to all that trouble when we had the world’s best excuse to trim down our programing? When nobody would have blamed us for just offering a few lively zoom classes? “I believed it was possible to safely and creatively bring kids together and run a summer program For months, fear and violence had gripped our communities and our students.” Executive Director Amy Ellis explained, “I knew, as a parent, it was critical for kids to find some normalcy by connecting with each other and to find joy in musical theater.
“They accomplished making a stunning piece of theater when very few are attempting it.” - Director Kathleen Bloom
Lundstrum is blessed to have the space, resources, and support to host safe summer programming. After months of isolation, our students needed to socialize and creatively express themselves, and we knew had to try our best to give them that opportunity.
This fall, we’re back at it again! Hosting a blend of zoom and in-person classes, we’re welcoming our students to another beautiful session of musical theater, perhaps even more beautiful than usual because we all share a deeper appreciation for what a blessing it is to create art together.
