Picture this – I’m sat at my laptop, a horribly vibrant green bed sheet hangs behind me attached to my wall by command strips. Twenty-three people are all onscreen looking as tired and anxious as myself. Is this really what the pinnacle of my acting career looks like thus far? What should have been a multi-date tour around England of Caryl Churchill’s play ‘Love & Information’ is now a weird collage of a play performed via Zoom and live-streamed on YouTube. That’s a vibe kill to say the least right? The weirdest thing is… I feel the kind of exhaustion you feel after a 12-hour day in the theatre, when this rehearsal has only gone on for 2 hours from the comfort of my leather recliner! Will Covid-19 make these online performances the new normal for the arts industry?

If you’re like me, you’re relentlessly scouring the backstage casting calls, hoping for a glimmer of a virtual acting gig you can sink your teeth into. With our industry hanging in there as we always do, we are leaning towards a new dynamic in the industry…

ZOOM. Agents, casting directors, theatre companies, and producers are using it more and more to create work during and maybe even after this pandemic. Of course, not having to travel for miles on the tube, metro, or subway to auditions is something we can all rejoice in. However, you’re tired of Zoom and I don’t mean that metaphorically, I mean physically and mentally. You know that foggy brain exhaustion you get after just an hour on Zoom; it’s a THING and here’s why:

Video chats mean our brains need to work harder to process non-verbal cues like facial expressions, tone and pitch of voice and body language and; even though as actors we are skilled in these realms, our brains are working overtime to pay more attention to these cues. Gianpiero Petriglieri, an associate professor at Insead, who explores sustainable learning and development in the workplace relates to this issue by stating “Our minds are together when our bodies feel we're not. That dissonance, which causes people to have conflicting feelings, is exhausting. You cannot relax into the conversation naturally,” he says. So, despite being an expert on body language and facial expressions, give yourself a break!

If you’re an actor like me, you are likely to be sensitive and worry what people think, maybe you even struggle to put across your ideas to the director because you fear how they will react (we’ve all been there) and now for some eerie reason Zoom is making them feel even more unapproachable, here’s the reason:

Delays on phone or conferencing systems of 1.2 seconds made people perceive the responder as less friendly or focused

“Silence is another reason,: Petriglieri adds. “Silence creates a natural rhythm in a real-life conversation. However, when it happens in a video call, you become anxious about the technology.” It also makes people uncomfortable. One 2014 study by German academics showed that delays on phone or conferencing systems shaped our views of people negatively: even delays of 1.2 seconds made people perceive the responder as less friendly or focused. If you get some deeply founded sense your director or agent is not responding well to you over Zoom - don’t worry, they probably aren’t judging your comment too harshly. Remind yourself it’s just the delay of connection that is confusing all our brains, everyone feels this!

And that’s not it; Marissa Shuffler, an associate professor at Clemson University says “When you're on a video conference, you know everybody's looking at you; so, there comes the social pressure and feeling like you need to perform. Being performative is nerve-wracking and more stressful.”. We are used to the barrel of a camera staring us down, we are used to sitting in the front row hearing the director explain how we aren’t “really living it” we also know how to perform, but more importantly how to listen, but this middle ground is somewhere between mediums, you might feel you’re not giving off enough to show you’re engaged and listening, that’s natural, take it easy and be conscious of that feeling but don’t waste more energy buying into it, ITS NORMAL.

Its as simple as this, everyone is feeling it, so let’s pull together by doing what we do best; connect with each other, have that early start we all love when we get to the performance space, casually popping our bags to the side, while chatting about our weekends or on set waiting for the lighting guys to sort their sh*t out (we love you really technicians). Check in on each other’s well being, have a chat, make it casual, warm up TOGETHER, just ease into the call. This spending time together is a way to reconnect us with each other, this maintains trust and will ease the previously mentioned Zoom fatigue and anxieties.

Have breaks between scenes, have a stretch, and a coffee of course (oh no wait we mustn’t have them for the sake of our voices – ohh well it’s hard times treat yourself!). Most importantly embrace this new virtual world and be present, be playful, and keep pushing your craft.

Sources:

Zoom facts sourced from https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200421-why-zoom-videochats-are-so-exhausting Further research sourced from:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1071581914000287

https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/science-and-technology/2020/04/zoom-fatigue-is-taxingthe-brain-heres-why-that-happens https://ideas.ted.com/zoom-fatigue-is-real-heres-why-video-calls-are-so-draining/

Zoom is Changing Theatre and Tiring You Out, Here’s Why

Delays on phone or conferencing systems of 1.2 seconds made people perceive the responder as less friendly or focused

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