Open Forum

I have stolen a lot of ideas from all of you over the years and I thank you for that!

I figured it's finally my turn.

We went to spring break and THEN found out that we would not be coming back for the rest of the year. Well, like many of you, our school play was cancelled. I certainly didn't want to waste a group of willing artists and I have always felt that, quite often, the best art comes from a change of plans and an unexpected hardship.

Inspired by Anna Deavere Smith's "TWILIGHT Los Angeles, 1992", my cast Zoom interviewed over 40 people in April about their experiences with the virus and the lockdown. They transcribed the interviews. I did the cutting of the pieces to create the monologues. They did all those things actors do (memorizing, character analysis,... acting). We had several rehearsal recordings before they recorded their final performance. I then edited it all together.

The theme that emerged from our creation was "We are all in this together" - and then the BLM protests began. We did one more interview and added it to the end as an epilogue. It didn't change the theme but helped expand it to something bigger than the Coronavirus.

I believe that this will become a project that we will do every year on different social issues. This can be staged or filmed or both.

If you have any questions please feel free to email me.