Who would have thought when we planned for this show in our 2020 season almost a year ago we would actually be planning Ignite’s first film? I can assure you I did not.
I was trying to think of a way to write a director’s note for this show that did not include the words “unprecedented times,” “pivot,” “ever-changing plans,” etc., because I have seen those phrases so often since March. But really, how does one choose other words when you’ve spent the last six months living in unprecedented times, constantly pivoting your programming, and creating and revising ever-changing plans? Hasn’t that been everyone in 2020? Well between wanting to scream into the void…that’s not fair. In fact, it was this production that helped bring me back from my void and stop my screaming.
I don't know what theatre will look like moving forward. Before March, I would typically attend two to six theatre events per month, so as an audience member my life changed dramatically. Then as a theatre-creator, the inability to meet, to come to the rehearsal room and connect with the cast, to welcome fan clubs and watch them love on young performers was a loss I felt on a cellular level. As someone working exclusively in the arts, I was scared about bills and my family and the staggering numbers of a pandemic.
Listening to theatre contemporaries imagining theatre may not be back as we knew it for years to come was a loss almost too great to bear. So what do you do when it cannot be business as usual? You change your business to create the arts your community and your soul needs. You teach acting for film, and deep breathing, and character study through a screen. You look to experts who are more science-minded than you could ever hope to be. You take risks and ask for help and weigh in on all the options, and then you roll the dice and make a movie.
This didn’t come without stress, and tears, and heartache. It came with backlash, and second-guessing, and late nights but the community that surrounded us was incredible. The perseverance of the staff, the flexibility of the cast, and the patience of my husband who jumped into film, edit, and add his movie magic made this a reality.
Will a local production of A Chorus Line be the answer to every stressful thing happening in the world right now? No, but escape for just 90 minutes into a world full of performers connected by what they did for love. We did this project for love and it is a love letter to our community, who means more to us than I could ever express.
Lights, camera, action!
-Libby Pedersen
