digital act - rehearsing online

In July, I directed a script development workshop for the Elizabethan House Project. This is a multimedia heritage installation at a site in Plymouth being created by our long term collaborators, Hotrod.  The workshop involved working on the first draft of the script with the writer and three actors.  I’ve done this before on projects, but I’ve never had to do it over video link.

Far from being the static, awkward, unnatural experience I had been anticipating, I found the actors perfectly at ease, responsive and engaged. After a few technical hiccoughs they were speaking readily and bouncing ideas around as if we were all in the same room. Their voice work was more intimate, expressive and focused without the use of physicality to help them express their characters. It’s not what I expected at all and I don’t think it would have been such an easy or enjoyable process even six months ago.

COVID-19 has cut off many avenues of contact and communication, but in true human form, we have adapted to the new ones presented to us.

Is technology a perfect alternative? No. We miss our colleagues, our families and friends. In the creative sector we miss the electricity and magic of creative people coming together in the same space.

However, while I am dying to get back in the room, I also think about the people who have been granted access to that room. I think about the projects that are possible now we aren’t always trying to be in the same place at the same time. I think about all the times I have said yes to something over the last six months, when previously I have said no.

Is it a perfect alternative to the way we did things before? No. But should it be a big part of the way we do things in the future? Absolutely.

See part of the online rehearsal here.

a big thank you to my colleagues Mike and MArk and the lovely actors:

ryan hutton, nick pearse, anna-maria everett, kate tulloch