The Show Must Go On: Virtual Platforms For The Performing Arts
Anya Kopischke, Features Writer
Niki Hatzidis, Features Editor
As we’re all growing accustomed to the “new normal,” creatives are getting creative, dreaming up new ways to share their art while we sequester. For the performing arts, an industry built on the gathering of bodies and the ephemerality of the moment, this has been a difficult, if not career-questioning process. I spoke to several New York City-based performing artists, from comedy & drag to theatre & dance, who have made the leap to virtual live events. What follows is a compilation of their thoughts, fears, and hopes about this process, the platforms they’ve used, and the potential effect on their respective industries.
~Comedy & Drag~
On Thursday, March 12, 2020, events were dropping all over New York City, and notorious “funny punk drag baby” Gara Lonning was “taking bets” via twitter on “how many days until Manhattan comics have a Skype-in Open Mic.”
It was not Lonning’s intention to shame anyone interested in trying this, but at the time, so much was still uncertain and they were just beginning the grieving process we’ve all become intimately familiar with. Lonning’s thought process at the time was essentially “Please don’t.” Not long after their post, a follower informed Lonning that something like this was already happening. A few days later, most NYC mics, both Brooklyn and Manhattan, were already online.
For Aran Abilock Clemmons and Gabby Jordan Brown, cohosts of the “Anne Hathaway Mic” at The PIT Loft, it was a no-brainer. “You kind of have to do something weird, which is what we run with anyway,” says co-host Brown. “It felt straightforward for us to create that space.” Even the mic’s name-sake, Anne Hathaway, didn’t make her ‘first appearance’ until a virtual mic (now happening weekly on Zoom.)
Julia Jeffries and Bea Belize, on the other hand, took their time, hoping it wouldn’t come to this. “Werk Night,” a comedy and drag mixed-format show at a reasonable hour, was already scheduled at their home bar, The Branded Saloon, but will now air on Instagram Live. “I’m gonna miss it if we don’t do something,” says Jeffries.
“Werk Night” pays all its performers, half of whom are Drag Queens who depend on bookings and tips as their sole source of income. It was ultimately the drag community’s motivation that inspired “Werk Night" to take their show virtual. “It’s really upended the whole industry,” says drag queen and co-host Bea Belize. “For the continuation of the drag economy, we have to get back.”
~Theatre & Dance~
“Your Uncle Richard,” an artistic game of telephone connecting artists across the world, has in many ways been “preparing for quarantine [its] whole life.” Named after a relative you don’t know very well, “Your Uncle Richard” was started by Katelynn Douglass and Kelly Lamanna, who craved an artistic community to overcome the distance that separated them after moving to South Korea and the Berkshires respectively.
"Richard has always been about bringing artists together when they can’t be together,” says cofounder Lamanna. Due to the substantial response, “Richard” has evolved from a direct line of telephone to a family tree.
While “Your Uncle Richard” has been expanding, monthly events like “FEAST” and the Artist Co-op’s “Cold Read Series” have been scaling down to better handle weekly shows and meetings.
“FEAST,” started in 2016 by Conrad Kluck and Alex Randrup, is a multi-disciplinary night of performing art, “where the art is delicious and the snacks are fresh.” Above all, “FEAST’s” guiding principle is to stay flexible to their artists’ and audience’s needs. Prompted by an immuno-compromised artist who requested a virtual performance slot, “FEAST” canceled their upcoming April performance at Under Saint Mark’s and created “SNACKTIME: Small Bites To Tide You Over.” “SNACKTIME” is a virtual, weekly, lower-stakes version of “FEAST” that can feature more artists, while hewing their motto of “low stakes, high art.”
The Artist Co-op’s “Cold Read Series,” has taken a similar approach. The Artist Co-op, a shared workspace for NYC artists, is host to many events like the “Cold Read Series,” started by Steph Miller as a monthly series where members could connect over new plays. The “Cold Read Series” continues on a smaller scale over Zoom, giving multiple playwrights 20 pages to share instead of one playwright the entire night. “I wanted to treat the virtual readings as more of a community-building opportunity,” says Miller. “It’s about sharing voices and reconnecting.” This fits nicely with the Artist Co-op’s continued virtual membership, including (in addition to the weekly “Cold Read Series”) daily coworking sprints, “Signature Series,” and “Role Call Challenges.”
~Virtual Platforms~
TikTok, an app traditionally used by Gen Z and mocked by Millenials, has recently been populated by millennial users, specifically professional dancers. The app, best known for its dance trends, made its way into movement artists Meghan Herzfeld and Emma Lutz-Higgins’ daily practice after the roommates both lost their jobs. “Learning routines on TikTok has focused me,” says Lutz-Higgins. “All the training I tried to get rid of [in College] is all very pleasurable now. I’m completely reimagining what art and dance are to me.”
For small gatherings such as Anne Hathaway Mic and the Artist Co-op’s “Cold Read Series,” the simple, secure connection of Zoom has served well. But for larger shows such as “Werk Night” or “FEAST,” the search for an accessible platform can get more complicated.
“Werk Night” has chosen Instagram Live since it’s the foundation of their follower base and a center for the drag community. Instagram Live can host up to two accounts at once and comes with all the usual filters, photo and video sharing, and notification of followers when you’re going live. But beyond that, the technical capabilities of Instagram Live are limited.
“FEAST” has been going live on Facebook through an interface called Streamyard. Streamyard has a broadcast studio where artists can share their stream to the host and the host can broadcast to public platforms. Through this platform, “FEAST” has been able to host artists outside of New York and a new piece to be performed online, and also raise money for the artists through the Indie Theatre Fund.
Lonning encourages artists to take this time to find something innovative and something that makes people think “this is something that I want to experience” even after isolation. Comics like Marrissa Goldman and Anne Hathaway Mics’ Gabby Jordan Brown are experimenting with parties and improv shows hosted on Google Docs, experiences that cannot be replicated live.
~”How will this affect the performing arts industry?”~
All participants agreed this is an impossible question. There’s no way to know how our current situation will affect our industry, especially since we can hardly grasp how long this will last. “This feels like an important moment of Theatre History,” says Randrup. “We’re feeling the limitations and responding with new movements.”
As impossible as the questions may be, Brown hopes that “everyone gets off each other's dick about how to do comedy.” She hopes to see the dogma of the comedy world disappear as is already happening in the virtual mics. Similarly, Jeffries postulates that “since these platforms are tapping into different kinds of comedy, it gives more people an opportunity to try.” If the comedy world is met with an influx of new faces, Brown hopes that “it’s not like the gym on January 1st. I hope we leave people alone except to welcome them.”
Lamanna hopes that people will “cherish live art and want to reignite it when we come back together. The thing that has made live art so sacred is that moment of being together and sharing something that will never be the same again, living in that instant and throwing it away.” Miller observes that when we come back, whenever that may be, “our whole experience of giving and receiving theatre [will be] changed.”
“I don’t have the answer,” admits Lonning. “It’s valid for everyone to be afraid of what will happen to their careers in the arts. We all got really comfortable for a very long time. I think this is something that’s needed, especially knowing the state of our world before this all happened.” Similarly, Herzfeld suggests that “this is the anti-capitalist desire that we all have. To feel that in real fruition is a special thing to be witnessing.” Lonning assures that “If people go with the flow, [they] will find that this is a good and progressive thing for the art world.”
The consensus of the artists I spoke with was to ask us to remember the theaters, venues, and bars that were your home before this. Remember also the art and the artists that got you through this time. Support them when you can. A few recommendations from the aforementioned artists are the PIT, the Branded Saloon, The Brick Theater, The Artist Co-op, the Indie Theatre Fund, and Under Saint Mark’s.
Anya Kopischke (they/them) used to be a New York City-based multi-media comedian and writer, but now they are quarantined in a basement with their dad in Wisconsin. anyakopischke.com (@uncle_anya on the socials)