Theater club goes remote Journey online

BY PAIGE CHESTNUT

The Pierce College Journeymen

Club transitioned to virtual theater and club meetings and is anticipating Zoom productions for the 2021 spring semester.

Before the pandemic, the club held regular in-person meetings, typically consisting of acting training and improvisational games. Now on Zoom, those activities are much more difficult, but it has allowed for more time to focus on productions.

Sophomore Michael Kendrick has been a member of the Journeymen Club since he started at Pierce last fall. In a phone interview, he explained how meetings have changed during the club’s transition to online.

“A lot of the focus shifted over to the production instead of our usual type of events and such,” Kendrick said. “So that became the big thing of the semester.”

This semester, the club presented an entirely studentrun production of In Love and Warcraft, by playwright Madhuri Shekar.

Practice for the production was held entirely online and performances were broadcast live through Zoom Webinar.

Journeymen Club President Janel Javier explained during a phone interview some of the difficulties that come with producing an online performance.

“We didn't have the space to be able to walk around or interact with each other so a lot of it had to come from our imagination, pretending that we’re in the same room,” Javier said. “It was also hard to make it look like we were all in the same space. A lot of ideas came from our director, she created backdrops and scenic artwork that gave the feeling we were all together.”

Junior Vincent Macias also has been a Journeymen club member since his first year. In a phone interview he said he enjoys the cooperative environment the club has cultivated.

“I like the collaboration between the teachers and the students,” Macias said. “They support us in our endeavors to try to make big events for other students, so they can come and learn about the club or theatre in general.” the online format just doesn't work for them.”

The Journeymen Club is planning to produce performances for the spring 2021 semester, but have yet to choose specific plays.

Michael Sande, managing director of the Performing Arts department, said in a phone interview the difficulties that come with producing online performances.

“We had to completely rethink how we were going to do this,” Sande said. “It's different in all three disciplines of music, dance and theater. As far as performances, it's difficult to do that in a way that works. Especially for band, it's almost impossible to coordinate when you've got 40 squares of people performing.”

The department produced four online plays this semester, not including the student-run show presented by the Journeymen club.

“We're going back to only doing two performances in the spring,” Sande said. “As much as it seems difficult to pull off an actual live performance, the amount of work in the rehearsal is enormously difficult when you can't get everyone in the same room and you're trying to direct a play.”

Michael Gend, the Performing Arts department chair, said in a phone interview how the productions were broadcast live to an audience.

“We use a feature called Zoom Webinar,” Gend said. “The way we use it for theater is our panelists are our performers, actors, designers, technicians and our audience is the attendees. That means attendees don't have the ability to turn on their camera or microphone, so there's no situation where they can Zoom bomb a performance like they can Zoom bomb a class.” pchestnut.roundupnews@gmail.com

Live audiences are still not expected for spring 2021 and Zoom performances are likely to remain the main platform for department productions.