Open Forum

There's a good chance my schhol might be doing distance learning the rest of the year.  I teach three performance-based Acting classes.  Any suggestions for online distance ensemble work?  Monologues would be easy to do, but I'm wondering if there's a creative way to put on an online play.  Someone suggested Google Hangout, and I haven't investigated that app yet, but I'm hoping some of you creative colleagues have pioneered something that would let a whole group act--and interact--at once.

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Rebecca Reisert
St. Xavier High School
Louisville KY
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I am navigating these waters too.  I had a few sessions with my students using Zoom this week.  It's not ideal, of course, but worked.  The kids loved it.  Right now Zoom is completely free for K-12 schools-- they removed the time limit for group conference call.  Hope that helps!  Let me know if you come up with something better.

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Heather Daurity
Theatre Director
Raleigh NC
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------Original Message------

I am navigating these waters too.  I had a few sessions with my students using Zoom this week.  It's not ideal, of course, but worked.  The kids loved it.  Right now Zoom is completely free for K-12 schools-- they removed the time limit for group conference call.  Hope that helps!  Let me know if you come up with something better.

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Heather Daurity
Theatre Director
Raleigh NC
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I love the idea of remote ensemble interactive experiences. If the platform allows the viewing of many students simultaneously, I would be thrilled to provide a workshop with annotated ensemble experiences which could be used by teachers in this time of distance learning.
Let me know if this sounds like a good idea.

Sent from my iPhone
Gai.jones@sbcglobal.net
Www.gaijones.com

------Original Message------

There's a good chance my schhol might be doing distance learning the rest of the year.  I teach three performance-based Acting classes.  Any suggestions for online distance ensemble work?  Monologues would be easy to do, but I'm wondering if there's a creative way to put on an online play.  Someone suggested Google Hangout, and I haven't investigated that app yet, but I'm hoping some of you creative colleagues have pioneered something that would let a whole group act--and interact--at once.

------------------------------
Rebecca Reisert
St. Xavier High School
Louisville KY
------------------------------

I think it could definitely work. 

What if all the kids had their lines memorized, created their own costumes, and performed on zoom together? Other people (parents, friends) could log into the zoom performance to watch. 

I've had my plays performed as staged readings from people in multiple parts of the country as a podcast as well. It's almost like an audio recording of a play performance, which can be fun too. 

If your show is a series of monologues (like my play The Monologue Show from Hell - cough cough) each kid could record themselves doing the monologue, you could then stitch them together and upload the performance to Youtube to be watched. (You could have other classes leave comments on the performance to show that they watched it) - I think this would require a special arrangement with the publisher, depending on the show, but I'm certainly okay with it. 

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Don Zolidis
Austin TX
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-21-2020 09:39
From: Gai Laing Jones
Subject: Doing a play or scenes completely online

I love the idea of remote ensemble interactive experiences. If the platform allows the viewing of many students simultaneously, I would be thrilled to provide a workshop with annotated ensemble experiences which could be used by teachers in this time of distance learning.
Let me know if this sounds like a good idea.

Sent from my iPhone
Gai.jones@sbcglobal.net
Www.gaijones.com


Original Message------

There's a good chance my schhol might be doing distance learning the rest of the year.  I teach three performance-based Acting classes.  Any suggestions for online distance ensemble work?  Monologues would be easy to do, but I'm wondering if there's a creative way to put on an online play.  Someone suggested Google Hangout, and I haven't investigated that app yet, but I'm hoping some of you creative colleagues have pioneered something that would let a whole group act--and interact--at once.

------------------------------
Rebecca Reisert
St. Xavier High School
Louisville KY
------------------------------

This sounds great and generous!

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[Micki] [McMillan]
[Theatre Department Chair]
[Solebury School]
[New Hope] [PA]
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-21-2020 09:39
From: Gai Laing Jones
Subject: Doing a play or scenes completely online

I love the idea of remote ensemble interactive experiences. If the platform allows the viewing of many students simultaneously, I would be thrilled to provide a workshop with annotated ensemble experiences which could be used by teachers in this time of distance learning.
Let me know if this sounds like a good idea.

Sent from my iPhone
Gai.jones@sbcglobal.net
Www.gaijones.com


Original Message------

There's a good chance my schhol might be doing distance learning the rest of the year.  I teach three performance-based Acting classes.  Any suggestions for online distance ensemble work?  Monologues would be easy to do, but I'm wondering if there's a creative way to put on an online play.  Someone suggested Google Hangout, and I haven't investigated that app yet, but I'm hoping some of you creative colleagues have pioneered something that would let a whole group act--and interact--at once.

------------------------------
Rebecca Reisert
St. Xavier High School
Louisville KY
------------------------------

This sounds great and generous!

------------------------------
[Micki] [McMillan]
[Theatre Department Chair]
[Solebury School]
[New Hope] [PA]
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-21-2020 09:39
From: Gai Laing Jones
Subject: Doing a play or scenes completely online

I love the idea of remote ensemble interactive experiences. If the platform allows the viewing of many students simultaneously, I would be thrilled to provide a workshop with annotated ensemble experiences which could be used by teachers in this time of distance learning.
Let me know if this sounds like a good idea.

Sent from my iPhone
Gai.jones@sbcglobal.net
Www.gaijones.com


Original Message------

There's a good chance my schhol might be doing distance learning the rest of the year.  I teach three performance-based Acting classes.  Any suggestions for online distance ensemble work?  Monologues would be easy to do, but I'm wondering if there's a creative way to put on an online play.  Someone suggested Google Hangout, and I haven't investigated that app yet, but I'm hoping some of you creative colleagues have pioneered something that would let a whole group act--and interact--at once.

------------------------------
Rebecca Reisert
St. Xavier High School
Louisville KY
------------------------------

I would love to do a staged reading of our spring play Arsenic and Old Lace using zoom if that becomes a necessity. Let me know about any training, please.
Liz Ledwell

Sent from my iPad

------Original Message------

I love the idea of remote ensemble interactive experiences. If the platform allows the viewing of many students simultaneously, I would be thrilled to provide a workshop with annotated ensemble experiences which could be used by teachers in this time of distance learning.
Let me know if this sounds like a good idea.

Sent from my iPhone
Gai.jones@sbcglobal.net
Www.gaijones.com

I am doing a play completely online but I got really lucky!  We had just started rehearsals in class for' The Internet is a Distract.....Oh Look, A Kitten'.  This play just happens to be about a girl on her computer and all of the websites that distract her. It works so well because each character is isolated in their own screen.  

I emailed Playscripts and they contacted the author, Ian McWethy. They have given me permission to record the play and eventually live stream it.  They actually have been really supportive, they want to hear all about it and stay in touch through the process.  

We are at the beginning but right now the kids are working on character descriptions and sending me costume ideas.  Eventually they will each record themselves and I'll have to edit it all together. I'm not looking forward to that part.
 If I couldn't do the play I think I would do monologues or definitely use zoom.  Maybe have the kids each research a play or musical and share it online? 

I love hearing everyone's idea!  Stay Healthy friends!

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Jennifer Robinson
Theatre Arts Director
Glendora CA
------------------------------

------Original Message------

I am doing a play completely online but I got really lucky!  We had just started rehearsals in class for' The Internet is a Distract.....Oh Look, A Kitten'.  This play just happens to be about a girl on her computer and all of the websites that distract her. It works so well because each character is isolated in their own screen.  

I emailed Playscripts and they contacted the author, Ian McWethy. They have given me permission to record the play and eventually live stream it.  They actually have been really supportive, they want to hear all about it and stay in touch through the process.  

We are at the beginning but right now the kids are working on character descriptions and sending me costume ideas.  Eventually they will each record themselves and I'll have to edit it all together. I'm not looking forward to that part.
 If I couldn't do the play I think I would do monologues or definitely use zoom.  Maybe have the kids each research a play or musical and share it online? 

I love hearing everyone's idea!  Stay Healthy friends!

------------------------------
Jennifer Robinson
Theatre Arts Director
Glendora CA
------------------------------

------Original Message------

Hi Jennifer,

This sounds like a great idea. Do you have a media class in your school? Perhaps a student or teacher could help you with editing it together?

Playscripts, and the authors that work with them are generally very open to ideas like this - great company and authors there.

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Vicky DeWald
Kearney NE
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-21-2020 10:20
From: Jennifer Robinson
Subject: Doing a play or scenes completely online

I am doing a play completely online but I got really lucky!  We had just started rehearsals in class for' The Internet is a Distract.....Oh Look, A Kitten'.  This play just happens to be about a girl on her computer and all of the websites that distract her. It works so well because each character is isolated in their own screen.  

I emailed Playscripts and they contacted the author, Ian McWethy. They have given me permission to record the play and eventually live stream it.  They actually have been really supportive, they want to hear all about it and stay in touch through the process.  

We are at the beginning but right now the kids are working on character descriptions and sending me costume ideas.  Eventually they will each record themselves and I'll have to edit it all together. I'm not looking forward to that part.
 If I couldn't do the play I think I would do monologues or definitely use zoom.  Maybe have the kids each research a play or musical and share it online? 

I love hearing everyone's idea!  Stay Healthy friends!

------------------------------
Jennifer Robinson
Theatre Arts Director
Glendora CA
------------------------------

This might be way too labor-intensive, but if you had some students--even in another program (which could be a cool collab)--who were good at editing, you could have students each record their scenes (maybe having the other person's lines piped in or read from off-camera like they were doing a self-tape) and then edit it together. It would be more of a film, and backgrounds might be a bit of a mishmash, but it could be something. Obviously, for less work, a reading on Zoom could work. I do understand, however, that not every student has the technology at home to carry this off.

I've heard that sometimes--and it probably depends on your connectivity--picture/sound quality can be an issue on Zoom, but it can be improved if people who aren't in any given scene turn off their video (and obviously mute their mics).

Personally, I'd be OK with anyone trying that with my work, and on the YouthPLAYS side, we'd be happy to work with people to figure something out as well.

Cheers,
Jonathan

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Jonathan Dorf
Playwright/ Co-founder of YouthPLAYS/ Chair of The Alliance Of Los Angeles Playwrights
Los Angeles CA
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I'm also interested in and curious about doing a play completely online. We had already received permission to live-stream, then our school (our state) went to distance learning for the rest of the school year. I've wondered about creating an audio version, but perhaps with Zoom or Google Hangouts (or Meet), we could do more of it with video. Following to see what wonderful ideas and suggestions people might have. Thanks!

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Kate Lindsay
Salina KS
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You girls and guys may or may not be aware of a project started by Rob Myles - the project's goal is to read all of Shakespeare's plays in the order they were written. It is called The Show Must Go Online.

https://robmyles.co.uk/theshowmustgoonline/

They have already read The Two Gentleman of Verona. The Taming of the Shrew will be up next.

You can watch the first one with an introduction by Ben Crystal here:  https://youtu.be/KOAHj4ANGKw

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Jennifer Vernon
Piggott AR
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-22-2020 09:36
From: Kate Lindsay
Subject: Doing a play or scenes completely online

I'm also interested in and curious about doing a play completely online. We had already received permission to live-stream, then our school (our state) went to distance learning for the rest of the school year. I've wondered about creating an audio version, but perhaps with Zoom or Google Hangouts (or Meet), we could do more of it with video. Following to see what wonderful ideas and suggestions people might have. Thanks!

------------------------------
Kate Lindsay
Salina KS
------------------------------