"Sofa 2 Stage" – The Headgate Uses its Head
Harry Penwell
As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused numerous problems for many people and industries. And, of course, our beloved theatre has been one of the industries under threat, with cancellations of entire seasons and no firm idea of when they’ll reopen.
But these challenges have bred creativity and introduced us to Zoom Theatre. This has allowed many theatres to continue to produce original ideas, albeit in a different way.
One such theatre is The Headgate theatre in Colchester, England. This volunteer-lead community theatre decided to run a ‘Sofa 2 Stage’ competition for playwrights to create their own 10-minute monologues or plays. These plays would then be performed in the theatre in the autumn season, to welcome back the audiences. However, it soon became clear that the theatre might not be able to reopen that quickly and so the decision was made to utilise Zoom theatre.
I heard about the competition from my girlfriend, who has worked as a techie at the theatre, and I entered a 10-minute play. Unfortunately, I was not selected but I’d like to thank The Headgate, and specifically Dr Paul Davies, for giving me some very helpful feedback – something which is normally lacking from creative writing competitions.
My brother, however, was selected to be an actor and is playing the part of Thomas in Social Distancing Experiment.
Dawn King, one of the leads on the project, has this to say:
‘We asked writers to reflect, to excite, to motivate or to shock their audience, and the pieces that we received do all of those things. We had a great response in terms of submissions, with some from as far away as Australia and Seattle, and our reading panel selected 6 monologues and 6 plays reflecting a variety of work. By this time it was clear that the autumn season was in doubt, so we made the decision to ask local actors to self-record the monologues, and launched these in June on social media and FB. Our reading panel (who had selected the works “blind”) had chosen a piece that they particularly liked, and we gave viewers the opportunity to vote for their favourite.
‘Handling the plays has proved far more complex, given the restrictions of social distancing and that a number of them were set in specific surroundings that have been hard to replicate. Whilst discussion and rehearsal via Zoom was fruitful, we had to ensure that we cast people in the same household to play the married couples in some of the plays. Fortunately the regulation around social distancing relaxed during the last month enabling us to film some pieces outside the home, and not rely on Zoom.
‘It has been a really exciting project, and created new challenges for all of us. Without our wonderful Sound Engineer, Chris Williams, we would have absolutely struggled – particularly in filming and editing the plays.’
Each piece was filmed by its director over Zoom, which caused its own difficulties, although they were positive about the experience overall.
As one director says, ‘I had the privilege of writing and directing two very different pieces for Sofa 2 Stage - the whole process has been wonderful. From writing to being asked to direct a piece, the support I have had and the confidence that it has helped me with on a personal level during these difficult times has been brilliant - loved every minute of it'
However, when asked about how to learn from the experience, some of the directors mentioned the limitations of directing over Zoom.
‘I personally found it quite difficult to give direction based upon virtual rehearsals as I couldn’t gauge the full extent of my casts’ performances based on things like dodgy internet connection interfering etc.’
‘You can get into some character work [on Zoom], but for physical movements that were needed it would have been easier face to face (which obviously couldn't have happened early on in the process!)’
Generally, the directors and cast have really enjoyed the opportunity to work in a new medium:
‘‘The whole process of directing a play in a pandemic, and subsequent lockdown, it has been difficult. However, the use of ZOOM greatly helped, albeit there being a vocal delay between responses and communication, depending on the speed of connection.’
‘I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of directing a Zoom Play, I’ve learnt a little bit more about using Zoom to it’s full potential. My cast really enjoyed the experience – so overall it was a very successful experience’
And, finally, some of the directors found the merging of directing for stage and screen created new issues and challenges:
‘I have no experience in actually filming work, and hadn’t spent enough time thinking about how we might achieve different shots’.
This feedback, and an internal review of the project by The Headgate has led to some ideas for how to improve the project, and proved that in the world of Zoom Theatre, we all have much to learn. They aim to provide training in ‘Acting for Camera’ as well as ‘providing directors with more technical expertise and assistance in video techniques’, and possibly supplying a videographer. They also acknowledge that there is ‘little [they] can do about the poor connection some of the actors experienced’.
The event was split into two parts, monologues and short plays, and I watched the first part on 17th June, and am looking forward to the second part on the 29th July. I thoroughly enjoyed the event and was glad to see a little bit of theatre, albeit in a new way. The show was well-produced, with no massive technical issues (although the results livestream failed and had to be rerecorded with some lag) and each of the pieces were performed and recorded with professionalism.
Half the monologues had some sort of twist which only became apparent towards the end, and the winner of the Readers’ Panel, Wendy is Recycling, by Clare Shaw, read by Jayne Sheeran, was a particularly good example of how to bait and trick an audience. Perfect for a Swim, by Neil D’Arcy Jones, read by Elly Kent-Dyson, showcased how a monologue can read like a poem and Metropolitan by Hollie Banes, read by Shannon Hannah, showed us more of that dark humour loved by Fleabag. My favourite piece was The Bunker by Ethan Hamilton, a black comedy about the apocalypse, which was equally hilarious and innovative, and featured a terrific performance by Joel Eley.
While these pieces were directed as if the camera was just a theatre audience, a couple of the monologues made the performances more cinematic, and allowed for the pieces to feel performed rather than read (not that I’m against monologues being simply read). Home Schooling, by Leah Holroyd, read by Sara Green, utilised the Zoom Theatre aspect to full effect, with a story about a teacher trying to talk to a group of parents via Zoom. Pandemic Freddos, by Tim Strugnell, read by Grant Borroff, also utilised the film aspect of the event, with a changing background to show the different aisles in a Sainsbury’s (or Sinsbury’s). However, I felt that this last idea took away from the fact that it was meant to be recorded ‘theatre’ and made it feel more like a film, which I’m not sure was as effective, even though the story was funny, and well performed.
Overall, I felt that the Sofa 2 Stage event was a success and showed us that, for the time being, Zoom Theatre can both tide us over and create some innovations in this ancient medium.
As for the future of The Headgate, and this project, Dawn had this to say:
‘We have reluctantly suspended all productions in the autumn season due to the limited size of the theatre. However we are looking at ways of bringing performance back as soon as possible – albeit for very much reduced numbers. Our plans for 2021 include a number of plays which have been cancelled this year.
‘We have previously held two creative writing events for playwrights, and performed selected pieces. The idea for a lockdown writing project came from one of our younger committee members, Shannon Hannah, who felt that it was an opportunity for local playwrights to “get creative” during lockdown.
‘Would we do it [Sofa 2 Stage] again? Well – I know that we have to learn from the experiences of everyone, but given that The Headgate has a strong ethos of encouraging creativity and experimentation, then it’s a most definite “Yes”!’
The next showing is on the 29th July, and voting rules will be announced on The Headgate’s Facebook page. Both the monologue shows, and 10-minute plays can be found on the Facebook and YouTube pages, as well.
So theatre, and The Headgate, are here to stay, if only on your screen, and beamed to your sofa for the time being. Now that’s how to use your Head(Gate)! I’ll show myself out.