A Company's Quick Switch to Online Theater and Creating Social Change
Laura Jeanne Portera
“Once the reality of our rapidly changing world set in (due to the COVID-19 pandemic) I immediately realized that it would take a long time before we would be able to go to the theatre where we would be close to one another and carry on ‘theatre as usual.’ This festival was born out of the refusal to let theatre fall the wayside during this pandemic. Also, I don't know any theatre person who doesn't want to continually sharpen their craft, even during a pandemic, so creating a virtual theatre experience was a NEED.” – Sharece Sellem.
As the world began to shut down in March, the theater community scrambled with the rest of the world in finding new ways to continue working, while staying healthy at home. We instantly saw an increase in virtual theater, including readings, concerts, and full-on play productions from home. One artist, in particular, Sharece Sellem (Founder and Director of Vintage Soul Productions LLC, and Founder and Producer of Quick Quarantined Playwright Festival), decided she would not let quarantine stop her from progressing as an artist. Thus, the Quick Quarantined Playwright Festival was born.
Each week, a selected group of actors and writers are brought together on Zoom to flex their creative abilities. Like many playwriting festivals, there is a time stamp on the creative process required for these productions. On the first day, all actors and writers are introduced to one another. From there, writers are given one to three actors to write monologues for. The writers are encouraged to reach out to their actors, to learn who they are as people. The reasoning for this is that the pieces are supposed to be written with aspects of their actor’s lives in mind. This is an opportunity for actors to work on a piece that is tailor-made for themselves.
After meeting with the actors, writers have 24 hours to write their pieces. Each week Sharece provides specific guidelines for the writers. From there, actors have a brief time where they can reach out to their writers about any questions or concerns they may have before filming their monologues. Again, another luxury most actors never experience. The actors then have 24 hours to film and upload their videos to the Quick Quarantined Playwright Festival YouTube Channel.
Once given their monologue, actors have the option to reach out to on-call director Rob Esposito (Co-op Arts & Humanities High School Theatre Instructor) for any instruction they may need. This festival has created incredible opportunities for a total of 94 actors and 41 playwrights to collaborate over the last 12 weeks.
Something inspiring about this festival is that it is designed to capture the daily ever-changing events and situations during the pandemic. From weeks 1-8, writers were given writing prompts based around how Covid-19 has affected all of us both in day to day life and emotionally. This gave writers an open world to writing about emotions we’ve all felt through quarantine such as stress, fear, anxiety, hope, and love. Once week 8 hit, the world’s attention shifted to the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the festival shifted as well. For the last four weeks, the company made an intentional shift to have the playwrights write monologues about different aspects of social justice. In doing so, the festival was able to showcase incredible BIPOC actors and playwright’s work. While the Quick Quarantined Playwright festival is volunteer-based, on week 10 the festival was able to provide an honorarium during their Honoring Black Voices week.
Sharece states: “Quick Quarantined Playwright Festival is designed to be an exercise for playwrights and actors as opposed to perfect, super-polished production - this work is voluntary for all involved (though some have created incredible performances worthy of short film festivals). People come for the thrill of making a performance in a short amount of time, the collaboration, the inspiration for new work, and to combat restlessness during the pandemic.” This festival is open to ANY actor or playwright, no matter your age, gender, race, or experience. However, you must submit a headshot and resume to be considered since only a select amount of artists get picked each week.
Sharece Sellem (Lucy Gellman Photo)
While it certainly cannot and does not replace live theatre, it has proven to become another tool, exercise, and experience that all artists can explore. For any writer or actor struggling to find work or keep the creative energy flowing, this is the project for you. The company will be taking a short hiatus until mid-August when they will come back in full force. From this project, many actors and writers have received multiple job offers and opportunities from their incredible work.
For more information, visit www.vintagesoulproductions.com/quick-quarantined-play-festival.