The Connecticut Repertory Theatre will begin its 2020-21 season with two online productions \u2013 a live-streamed presentation of Jaclyn Backhaus\u2019s \u201cMen on Boats,\u201d from Thursday, Oct. 8 through Sunday, Oct. 18, and CRT\u2019s first-ever radio play, a pre-recorded adaptation of the classic Frank Capra film \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life\u201d from Thursday, Nov. 12 through Saturday, Nov. 21.<\/p>\n
With campus performance venues re-purposed this semester for academic classes to maintain social distancing protocols, the CRT faculty and staff utilized some of the guidelines of improvisational theater to develop its fall season \u2013 don\u2019t deny, and don\u2019t ask open-ended questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe canceling of the summer season was a quick decision that we had to make, given the nature of what was going on and not knowing what was happening with the virus,\u201d says Mike Beasley, interim managing director of CRT. \u201cWe had to tread water regarding the fall because we had to figure out what was going to happen. The faculty made the decision to move online. The questions became: What’s the content going to be and what are we going to do with the season? How do we stay true to ourselves and remain an open platform for ideas and social issues?\u201d<\/p>\n
The cast of \u201cMen on Boats\u201d was in rehearsal at CRT, its sets and costumes in production, when the pandemic caused a national cancellation of most in-person activities, including those at arts and entertainment events. The adventure dramedy is based on the 1869 exploration of the Green and Colorado Rivers led by John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War veteran and friend of President Ulysses S. Grant.<\/p>\n
Beasley says after canceling the spring production, updated licensing and other contractual issues needed to be resolved, as well as adjustments in recasting both students and Actors Equity theater professionals. With the move to production online, there were many technical issues that also needed to be understood and addressed by CRT\u2019s production team, led by production stage manager Tom Kosis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a challenge, and we did it in a very short amount of time. It certainly was unlike any experience I\u2019ve had thus far,\u201d he says. \u201cThe staff has been outstanding, really excellent. They\u2019re open to constantly changing corners to make sure that the best decisions are made. The dean\u2019s office in the School of Fine Arts is extremely supportive of us in this process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beth Gardiner, director for \u201cMen on Boats,\u201d has served as a director, dramaturg, assistant director, and educator at theaters across the country. She is co-founder of Three Day Hangover, a New York City theater company that creates fresh, unexpected, immersive productions of classic plays in bars and other not-usually-theater spaces.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis truly is a weird new hybrid between theater and film acting and production techniques. We’re trying to combine the liveness of theater with the editing and broadcasting tools of film, which is an entirely new way to think about storytelling,\u201d Gardiner says. \u201cMost of my career has been on the stage, but I was an associate producer and assistant director on a Web series. I got some great experience behind the camera. In graduate school [MFA program at the University of California-Irvine] I got a really good basic understanding of film theory and how films and television are made. I have done other projects on film.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says photos of the previously created set will serve as background images for the virtual production, which will be presented via the Zoom platform, which allows users to post background images during virtual meetings. Props for the stage production can easily move out of the actor\u2019s frame, avoiding the sorts of onstage transitions normally necessary.<\/p>\n
Gardiner says that, unlike a live television performance with the actors performing together on the same stage, the CRT actors will be performing from remote locations, essentially working much like puppeteers who view television monitors while working their puppets in front of a camera.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe rehearse in such a way that they can see each other by looking into the camera and looking at their screens and seeing what their acting partners are doing and reacting in real time,\u201d she says. \u201cThen, in order to communicate that story to an audience, they have to essentially face away from their screens and face to the right or the left, and pretend that they’re facing their scene partner, the person they’re talking to. It’s a very different way of thinking about staging a play. Usually, you’re trying to create these connections and the easiest and most fundamental way to create connections between actors is through eye contact. We just we don’t often have that in this production. I think it’s really brave of these actors in this company to take this on. One of the things I was most excited about is how to make a truly live performance. Any number of things could happen and that makes live theater so magical. You get the risk that something could be different each night.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the technical challenges of the CRT production of \u201cMen in Boats,\u201d there is also the intentional casting of an all-female cast to tell the story of a historic accomplishment by men via a direct request in the 2015 script by the playwright, Backhaus, who Gardiner notes wants the audience to think about contemporary issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe play has some complex, thoughtful, and very relevant conversations about history, representation and the voices that we hear in our country’s mythology in our own current narrative,\u201d she says. \u201cIt’s also really funny and it’s an adventure tale. It’s got both sides of the coin and will be both entertaining and thought provoking.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cMen on Boats\u201d cast is led by Anaseini Katoa and Margaret Ivey, who each have dual roles in the production. Katoa is a veteran of the Silicon Valley Shakespeare Theatre, Tabard Theatre Company, and Renegade Theatre Experiment. Ivey has been seen on television, on \u201cMadame Secretary\u201d and HBO\u2019s \u201cSuccession,\u201d and in a variety of regional theater productions including the Cincinnati Playhouse and Milwaukee Rep.<\/p>\n
Current students and recent alumna in the cast include Graceann Brooks \u201921 SFA, Alex Campbell \u201920 MFA, Camille Fortin \u201920 SFA, Emma Joy Hill \u201919 SFA, April Lichtman \u201921 SFA, Lily Ling \u201918 SFA, Pearl Matteson \u201819 SFA and Jasmine Smith \u201921 CLAS.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s A Wonderful Life\u201d was adapted by Philip Grecian and will be directed by Jennifer Scapetis-Tycer, assistant professor of voice, speech, and dialects. The pre-recorded performance will be available for viewing via Zoom.<\/p>\n