If you had asked me nine months ago if this is what our fall drama would look like, I would have probably laughed. Had you asked me one month later, I would have been concerned about even being able to perform a show at all.
Today, however, I am incredibly thankful that we are able to present these two shows to you. Just the fact that we are able to do something that resembles normalcy is a wonderful thing, and, while these shows are completely different from what we have done in the past, they also offer us the opportunity to be creative in different ways than we could have before.
In fact, creative is the perfect word to describe the cast, and they have embraced the opportunities to make these shows fun and unique for you. Since March, they have faced huge challenges; simply put, attending school online is not an easy thing to do. Beyond that, though, what I love about these kids is the fact that they chose to do this, to get involved in something that is so very different from the acting that they have done in the past. Heck, the fact that they simply chose to stare at a screen for a few more hours after school is a testament to how dedicated these students are to performing.
These two shows have forced the cast to think about acting in different ways; suffice it to say, acting to your computer is a world away from acting on stage. However, what you will see tonight is as close as we can get to traditional theatre at the moment. We are performing for you live from our homes, so the live experience is intact, as are all of the possible things that can happen with live theatre. In fact, the challenges of unreliable Wi-Fi and Zoom dropouts are things that we have dealt with throughout our rehearsals, and we hope that the internet gods are kind to us this weekend.
Regardless of everything, we have had a great deal of fun rehearsing these shows, and we hope that you will find them as funny and as timely as we do. We hope you all stay safe and healthy, and we look forward to (hopefully) seeing you in person next year. Enjoy!
Paul Weinstein, Director
