Lockdown 2020: Plays, Vids and Rehearsed Readings

The [lockdown] WHAT :

A set of short Zoom plays and rehearsed readings directed and edited during lockdown. Most of the works were written specifically for Zoom but it is easy to spot where authors chose to adapt their work to Zoom, proving at times how challenging the shift is at creative level for both writer and director and how they can work together.

Seven short Zoom Plays

1. Thin Air — by Carolyn Bell with Richard Harfst and Felicity Green.
   Isolation can play tricks on your mind, but how much the sounds of your mother ship rule your environment?
2. Don’t Tell The Bride — by Louise Monaghan Bell with Gabriel Mansour and Hannah Lloyd.
   Would you tell a stranger what a relationship means to you? But where to begin in Zoom?
3. Separation — by Niall Urquhart with Oriana Charles and Jessica Spalis.
   Sexual politics in a new context could bring all the ghosts laid to rest back, or show one what they really are craving for?
4. Julian’s Mask — by Jessica Woodward with Rachael Sparkes and Jack Furssedon.
   Not everybody is keen to take their mask off and for good reason. But what if someone made you an offer you can’t refuse?
5. The Comeback Kid — by Carolyn Bell with Simon Bass, Richard Harfst, Matthew Wellard, Anya Sayadian and Sharon Facinelli.
   What authors do in lockdown, or who if not where they wish to be.
6. Polar Bears on Circle Line — by Carol Cooper with Phoebe Alice Ritchie, Ryan Blackburn and Ellie Madden.
   Mutation might solve all our problems or is it (un)natural selection? Some will have to be left behind for caring more about our mother.
7. Present Exchange — by Mitch Day with Shilpa Varma and Marina Tapakoudes.
   How much or how hard do we crave to be in the other’s shoes on Zoom? Is the grass greener elsewhere than in England this Xmas?

Three rehearsed readings on Zoom – excerpts

• Great Stories From The Bible by Pete Talman (short play) with Chandrika Chevli, Lydia Cashman, Felicity Green and Simon Bass.
• Fat Wallet by Hannah Sowerby (short play) with Amanda Dahl, Georgi Mckie, Kait Feeney and Gualtiero Burzi.
• I Can’t Hear You by Natasha Brotherdale Smith (full-play) with Amanda Dahl and Felicity Green.

The [lockdown] WHY :

The themes are intentionally varied to challenged the work of the director:

1. in creating a performance space — different every time though the same in nature,
2. in building a stage for actors — where dedicated performances can flourish,
3. and in finding aesthetic solutions that are not film-like — but fit for the purpose of virtual theatre.

Attempting to keep the audience captive for more than 5-10 minutes – as we can do easily in the theatre – is the main challenge on Zoom to bear in mind in the case of working with ‘long form’. The happy finding is ‘naturalism’ in this space is not an ultimate goal but ‘meaning’ is, and communicating a higher meaning through acting, feeling, and aesthetics. Lockdown has also opened the avenue of using actors based in other parts of the world and doing testing with various audiences.