FRONT AND CENTER: CSG THESPIANS TAKE BACK THE STAGE

From left to right, Boula Ross ’25, Anna Carey ’24, Cammie Kleinman ’23, and Lailah Lomax ’27

From left to right, Gabby Clarke ’25, Adriana Massimiani ’26, and Jayden Clarett ’23 From left to right, Casey Sussman ’22, Chloe Steere ’25, and Jayden Clarett ’23

Front and Center

After a season of virtual performances, CSG Thespians take back the stage

After trying her hand at virtual theater performances, Cammie Kleinman ’23 won’t be taking a live audience for granted ever again.

Up on stage this past October for the first time since March of 2020, Kleinman heard a sound she had been missing for months: laughter from a crowd of spectators.

“It felt so good,” she said. “It was like coming home.”

Kleinman was one of a group of Middle and Upper School students who participated in The Revenge of the Space Pandas or Binky Rudich and the Two-Speed Clock, a comedy shown last fall in the Agnes Jeffrey Shedd Theater. The play represented a return to in-person theater after a considerable time away: While Upper School last performed on stage in spring of 2020, Middle School hadn’t performed since October of 2019.

But while the pandemic prevented students from performing on stage, CSG theater didn’t disappear. Middle and Upper School students innovated, taking the show online instead.

In October 2020, Middle School students kicked off CSG’s virtual theater with a cabaret. The show, a compilation of monologues and songs, was shared via Zoom. Students used the online platform to rehearse, and then the show was pre-recorded for an audience. Upper School also performed a compilation of monologues and scenes from Shakespeare in November 2020, and in March 2021, Middle and Upper School came together for a virtual performance of the Wizard of Oz.

Though the productions were completed far from the stage, those who normally worked behind the scenes were still able to participate. Tech students selected images that would serve as backgrounds for students performing in their homes, and they also assisted with video and sound editing.

Although virtual theater offered a variety of ways to get involved, the platform still had its challenges. Students missed having a live audience. Practicing virtually together also was a learning curve.

“It was very different,” said Theater Director Elizabeth Bishara. “It was hard to form a connection, especially with the students I hadn’t worked with before.”

Understandably, students were overjoyed when they were finally together again, rehearsing in person for Space Pandas.

“They were so excited that it was hard to get them to focus,” Bishara said.

And the audience’s first laugh during their first performance stuck out in Bishara’s mind, too.

“That was the big moment,” Bishara said. “I was very happy and relieved for them.”

The students were up on stage for the first time in a long time. For Kleinman, that meant more nerves than she was used to having during a performance. She worried if she would remember the skills she had been practicing since the sixth grade. She worried whether she could meet the audience’s expectations after so much time away.

But now that she was finally back in front of a crowd, Kleinman was able to see and hear proof that all her practice in rehearsals had paid off. She was able to do something she greatly enjoys—making people laugh.

Gabby Clarke ’25

It felt so good…It was like coming home.

—Cammie Kleinman ’23