Virtual performance set at ENMU

PORTALES - Virtual learning will not stop Eastern New Mexico University's theater department from practicing its craft. The department's upcoming shows, debuting Thursday, will be delivered entirely over Zoom - an online meeting software that has become increasingly popular among academia due to the pandemic.

Professor Annie Beck is the director of the one-act play series titled "American Voices: By and About Women." The theme was chosen to pay tribute to the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

The play will be performed 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at enmu.edu/TheatreLive. The performance is free, but donations to the ENMU Foundation for a theater scholarship fund are encouraged.

There will be two plays featured in their production, "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell, and "Overtones" by Alice Gerstenberg. Both were created in the early 20th century, closely preceding women winning the right to vote.

"They were written in a time when young artists and students, like the students that are in the show, were really interested in doing experimental work. And they did them for theaters that were like college theaters. They weren't big commercial theaters with big budgets," Beck said. "I felt that, and I didn't know it was going to be virtual, these would be really good especially with the centennial of women getting the right to vote. So there's this interest in what happens to women."

"Trifles," written in 1916, is based off of a real murder in which a woman killed her husband on their farm. Beck said that "two women accompany their husbands to the house of the couple to collect evidence; as the men search the house and barn, the two women piece together the life of Minnie Wright - her trifles - by an interrogation of her kitchen."

The one-act play deals with themes of isolation, which resonate with issues people are experiencing now due to the pandemic.

Beck said "Overtones," written in 1915, tells the story of "Harriet and Margaret who are cultured ladies meeting for an afternoon tea and their two inner selves, Hetty and Maggie. Their inner selves speak what the two women are really thinking and feeling."

Beck describes this act as being about the "construction of women and the kind of pressure that bears."

The department planned the shows last spring, with no idea social distancing would be a consideration. When students were sent home for the semester, the theater department was worried that they would have to cancel all of their fall performances. However, Beck said they decided to embrace the challenge and pursue virtual shows so students would have something to work for.

"When we found out we couldn't come back to face to face and we would have to do everything virtually through Zoom or online," Beck said, "we went, 'Can we still do these?' And we decided, 'Yes we can,' because the benefit of doing them is greater than if we didn't do them."

Doing a theatrical performance via a laptop comes with its own set of challenges. Student actors have to find space in their dorm rooms, apartments, and family homes where they can act in front of their cameras without being disturbed. They memorize their lines and cues just like in any other performance, but now they lack the in-person benefits of playing off each other's body language and reactions.

"The way you respond to that has a lot to do with the way the other person's body is, because it's not just their facial expression it's their whole self. That we just don't have. Those are the sort of tangible. Of being in the same space. Of feeling each other and being able to see a person three-dimensionally as opposed to the two-dimensional that happens on the screen," Beck said.

Another major difference in a virtual play is in "blocking," the way an actor moves around the stage. During a virtual show actors have a space limited to what fits into the laptop screen. Instead of exiting the stage, for instance, an actor will instead turn off their camera to signal they have left the room.

With all of these new aspects to virtual theater, Beck said the role that has evolved the most is that of the stage manager.

"The role of the stage manager in this is that he's a technician. He makes sure that all of the actors are in their Zoom rehearsal spot. He has to go and deliver all of the props and the costume pieces. He then has to make sure that their lighting is good, because we're putting gels over the cameras of two of the actors to get the effect of the lighting," Beck said.

Caleb Ramsell, a senior theater major, said being the stage manager for this production has been strange to say the least.

"With the show being moved to a virtual setting, the hardest part of the process has been trying to somehow replicate the theater but knowing when to also lean into the advantages that a virtual format provides," he said.

Ramsell noted that he has maintained many of the usual duties of a stage manager while also taking on new ones, like technical research and experimentation.

"In regard to the whole team," Ramsell said. "I think there is a lot required in a virtual setting that is not as noticeable in a live setting. The hardest part about virtual anything is the accountability one must hold for themself and that is something that I admire and appreciate about our team."

Ramsell also said that cast and crew have had to handle situations they would not have in a traditional setting.

The cast of American Voices is made up of ENMU upperclassmen; Angelica Casteel, Ariana Gasparlin, Desaili Gomez, Lara Harkness, Aric Saiz, Alexandra Sena, and Kieran Verduzco.

Costume design was done by Sarah Koss; Ramsell said her job has been a "very interesting process" because she has had to find costumes that fit people she can't see in person.

"We have worked together to do something that I did not think was possible when I heard the project was happening and I think we will see more of this moving forward," Ramsell said. "This has been a wonderful discovery for all performers and audiences, and I believe it will continue to be mined as an alternative for future art and entertainment, even when we are back on stage."