Primary Stages Presents Completely Virtual Season

Nearly seven months ago, the sacred spaces of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional theatres closed their doors for the foreseeable future. Community theatres sputtered to a halt. The people who make the magic – actors, musicians, directors, stage managers, and designers, just to name a few – were left empty-handed for longer than ever before. The question became: how can an art form, which is inherently not socially distant and relies on our ability to connect with one another, survive?

Primary Stages, an off-Broadway theatre company established in 1984, has forged the path to tackle this new landscape head-on – with a virtual season.

Choosing a slate of productions is a meticulous task for any theatre company, even under standard conditions. Ultimately, Primary Stages will be presenting a varied season of works, including a one-woman show and a choreopoem.  “For our Living Room Commission Series, I selected artists who would bring a really unique perspective to the challenge of writing for a virtual medium and responding to our current environment,” explains Erin Daley, Associate Artistic Director. “They are all creative, theatrical minds who are diving into the question: how can we translate live theater into the virtual space? We’re not trying to make short films-- there are companies out there that can do it far better-- but trying to find out what is core to the theatrical experience and then bring that to online audiences. Right now, people are oscillating between chasing joy and comfort and seeking to engage deeply with the world. I think the range of productions in our season reflect that as well.”

Of course, the road has not come without hurdles. The digital realm challenges creators to not only tell a story – but to master an entirely new medium. Actor and playwright Charlayne Woodard, who will be performing her self-written one-woman show entitled The Night Watcher this fall, notes how the process has required her to wear many hats.

“The actor is the production company,” she explains. “It will be up to me to design and set up lighting and sound. Scene partners are reduced to tiny faces on a screen in questionably lit spaces. Movement and behavior is all figured out by the actor. As we work, actors are also controlling when to be on video or not, when to mute and unmute, all the while possibly scrolling your script on the ‘shared screen.’ Add to that the challenge of being technically challenged. It’s quite a lot of work, and it is all new to most of us.”

Diedre Murray, composer of Soil Beneath: An Empirical Decay, adds to this, noting, “…There is something in-between the work and a live person. Things take longer, and it almost requires you to compose to the technology, rather than just the text and my ideas.”

In addition to problem-solving on the creative end, the planning and execution of the season was a nearly unexplored terrain – and required more communication within the team. Daley explains, “When you produce so many productions, workshops, and readings that it becomes second nature, you have a subconscious timeline and ombudsman to keep you in-line and on-time. As long as you can get it fixed by curtain up… you’re fine! Virtual producing is an entirely different beast, and we had to rely on our collaborators who knew the process better and could guide us.”

Perhaps due to the collaborative nature of the process, there have also been numerous (albeit unexpected) joys. One of them is the reason we make theatre in the first place – community. “[The greatest joy was] getting back to work with the artists,” Daley emphasizes. “We all get into this field to work together on something seemingly impossible, and it was inspiring and humbling to get back in the (Zoom) room with some of our favorite collaborators.” Another benefit to a virtual season is the potential for outreach and audience expansion. Woodard points out that unlike the hallowed walls of a theatre, the internet knows no confines. “If we market it well, thousands more people will see the work,” she says. “I love that.” She also shares another joy within the process – that the production will be preserved, like a time capsule. “I’ll have a record of the play in this moment in time, when, because of the pandemic, performances went virtual.”

So what does this mean for our theatre communities? Post-pandemic, will virtual seasons become commonplace? Those who love the rush of a live audience and yelling, “Thank you, five!” may fear that audiences will be more hesitant to engage in the art form. The Primary Stages team, however, has a hopeful outlook. “It's really exciting to see how artists and companies are adapting and evolving, not only to social distancing but in response to the BLM movement and initiatives like We See You White American Theater,” Daley says. “I think theater is going to become more vital and dynamic. We’ll see more experimentation in venue and staging. The financial and social implications of the past few months are going to put an extra pressure on producers. We are going to have to look at what's really essential, what really needs to be said, and how to make it work. I do believe that theater people are some of the most creative on the planet and will continue to find ways to create life-changing experiences under any circumstance.”

Woodard, also hopeful for our transition, shares what she calls a “new paradigm” that she sees for our theatrical future. “I believe theatres will produce plays with small casts. Social distancing will be with us for a while. And we all know how intimate Off-B’way house are, both backstage and front of house. Constant testing will be the norm, and audience members will have temperature checks upon entering and required to sit through performances with masks on. Regional theatres will be able to do more. For the most part, the theatres are not as old as east coast theatres, with multiple dressing rooms and large houses, making more effective social distancing. Creatives will continue to create, adapting to the new circumstances, thus creating a new model.”

Murray, when asked how the theatre landscape will be changed, reminds us of the driving force behind theatre– our humanity. “I think that this will be a permanent part of doing theatre,” she predicts. “But there will always be live theatre as well, as long as there are people.” Perhaps that is the reason that virtual collaborations between artists persist to exist – because adapting to create art, no matter the circumstance, is simply a part of being human.

For more information, and tickets to Primary Stages’ virtual season, visit their website at https://primarystages.org/.