FUTURE PRESENT

The director of "WandaVision" is also artistic director of L.A.’s Geffen Playhouse, whose pandemic responses include a supremely creative—and moneymaking—virtual series.

By Sherry Stern

Geffen artistic director Matt Shakman

Photo by Jeff Lorch

As "WandaVision" was on its way to captivating Disney+ viewers around the world, the director and executive producer of the Marvel Comics-inspired show was discovering his own superpower: Matt Shakman could generate revenue for a theater during a total lockdown.

That marvel is Geffen Stayhouse, the virtual response to stay-at-home orders that has generated $2.5 million for the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. Shakman is the theater’s artistic director as well as an in-demand TV director.

Like Wanda, Vision and many an Avenger, Shakman’s Stayhouse owes its success to teamwork. Here, fellow heroes offer a variety of powers: bending minds, constructing puzzles, cooking popcorn masala, wrangling Zoom and running a shipping service from a lobby.

“I’m impressed with my colleagues at the theater, with audiences and with our Geffen artists to be able to be creative in this moment,” Shakman says. “It’s so impressive. I also think it is necessary, that creative spirit. That desire for humans to connect is what makes us human.”

Geffen Stayhouse launched in March 2020 as a weekly series of video shorts. Then illusionist Helder Guimarães proposed producing one-on-one magic experiences. His idea: Mail a box of magical objects and use those items to give the recipient a personal show over the internet.

That idea quickly became "The Present," performed via Zoom to audiences of no more than 25. Guimarães blended illusions with an emotional tale of his own quarantine as a young boy. The combination of people at home seeking a connection and the ensuing word-of-mouth created a sensation. "The Present" was repeatedly extended until it had been seen by an audience of 6,000.

“Helder showed us the way with interactivity but also with authenticity,” Shakman says.

Sri Rao in "Bollywood Kitchen"

Photo courtesy Geffen Playhouse

Five shows followed, with tickets running from $40 to $175 per household. The all-interactive lineup included cooking memoir "Bollywood Kitchen," true-crime mystery "Citizen Detective" and Guimarães’ follow-up, "The Future."

Stayhouse continues with two more world premieres: "Someone Else’s House," about a true-life haunting, through June 5, and "The Door You Never Saw Before: A Choosical Musical" for ages 6 to 9, May 22-June 27.

For the puzzle show Inside the Box, the Geffen turned to David Kwong, a magician and crossword puzzle constructor. His brainteasing one-man show "The Enigmatist" was to open on the Geffen stage last May and will be one of the theater’s shows when curtains rise again.

For a solver guy, the 5-by-5 grid of 25 faces on Zoom was a framework just screaming for Kwong, and his production team, to turn into a living puzzle. “We take advantage of these boxes that the audience is in to play a game together,” he says. “That’s the spirit of the show.”

Audiences responded not just in numbers but also in geography. Ticket holders have joined from every state and from 44 countries; 88% have never seen a Geffen Playhouse show in person.

Kwong marveled at performing for people in Spain, South Korea, Australia and Singapore. Bill and Hillary Clinton watched a performance.

“It was an honor to have President Clinton at my show—he is famously a celebrity crosswords solver,” Kwong says. “He does The New York Times crossword every day!”

Ticket holders receive materials needed to engage with the performer. Some items are emailed; some arrive in unique packages shipped before each performance.

“It feels like a wartime effort in a way. We’re all banding together to make and send out boxes,” Shakman says. “Production manager Isaac Katzanek essentially runs a Mail Boxes Etc. out of the Geffen lobby.”

Doing eight shows a week with the vagaries of unstable internet for up to 150 participants means it’s not always smooth sailing. Zoom, for its part, has worked to iron out glitches. Shakman appreciates how the artists embrace the technology.

“The writers of the show are writing to the technology, so the technology is informing how the narrative develops,” Shakman says. “It’s figuring out a new frontier. It’s the Wild West out there, and really exciting.”

Though pleased, naturally, with Stayhouse’s financial success, Shakman says it’s no substitute for business as usual. “A lot of our shows are 25 folks on Zoom as opposed to 500 people in a theater. It’s not a one-toone replacement, but it has been very helpful.”

Shakman welcomes some of the changes. The Playhouse is producing shows at a quicker pace than during normal times, when it can take years for a play to go from development to performance.

“That’s unusual for theater, because theater plans so far ahead,” he says. “The pandemic has forced us to change that, and I think for the good.”