Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2021 - 52

during the final two productions of the fall
semester, Tryon Scenes and Folxtales,
faculty advisors Zoomed in from alternate
locations to strategically placed cameras,
and the results were surprisingly successful. During the Spring semester, a live
Vimeo stream was used for remote viewing of all technical and recording rehearsals. The experiment of virtual advising
during technical rehearsals may end up
continuing to be useful in the future when
faculty are once again traveling for professional work once COVID-19 restrictions
are lifted.
While no one can know for sure how
the technical rehearsal process will be
altered in the future, it seems likely that
the most prevalent solution is a reduction
of physical time in the theater for technical rehearsals. The use of pre-visualization and modeling software, including
SketchUp, throughout the entire design
and technical rehearsal process will allow
students to communicate in a virtual environment and be fully prepared to go into
the theater to begin technical rehearsals.
Moving forward and re-strategizing
the technical rehearsal process, pre-visualization software, such as Capture and
Vision, will allow the lighting students an
opportunity to communicate virtually with
a director and the entire production team,
even in the early stages of the design process. With the release of ETC's EOS 3.0
Augment3d software, students are moving forward with the completion of the 3D
Vectorworks models for the Tryon Festival
Theatre, Colwell Playhouse, Studio
Theatre, and Digital Media Design Lab.
These 3D models will be incorporated
into Capture and Augment3d so that students have the ability to virtually prepare
for the cueing process and complete cue
notes when they are not in the theater.
It is our hope that the alternative production methods will continue, such as
outdoor events, events in non-traditional
spaces, lighting for the camera, and filming in front of a green screen. The faculty feel confident that our students will
continue to challenge us to move beyond
traditional theatre, opera, musicals, and
dance to create site specific work in alternative locations. These additional facets of
design will be critical as producing organizations look for ways to continue reaching
out to their audiences who may not yet be
able (or willing) to sit next to one another
in a traditional theater.

Singers, from Left to Right, Sarah Durbin (Jenna) and Joe Grudt (Dr. Pomatter) during a technical
rehearsal for " Bad Idea " from Waitress - The Musical. Production team included: Co-Music Directors/
Conductors: Julie Gunn and Michael Tilley, Co-Directors: Nathan Gunn, Dawn Harris, and Sarah Wigley,
Scenic Designers: José Díaz-Soto and Jia Zengpeng, Properties Master: Mark Kennedy, Costume
Coordinator: Akemi Garcia, Lighting Designer: Quinn Schuster, Sound Designer: Kayla Sierra Lee,
Camera Directors: Zia Fox, Tanner Funk, Will Mixter, and Tom Zhang, Stage Manager: Kaetlyn Allen. |
Photo by Theo Mynka.

Tryon Scenes
For Lyric Theatre @ Illinois, Tryon Scenes contained similar content to Lyric Under
the Stars, and utilized the same production method as Psh*tter! A Drinking Song for
the Year of Our Lord 2020. After a short changeover, technical rehearsals began on
Nov. 9, 2020, to film excerpts from Call Me Madam, Waitress - The Musical, Bat Boy,
Der Rosenkavalier, Così fan tutte, and Le Nozze di Figaro. For the final two weeks of
hybrid education, the production teams continued to film content that would be later
edited in post. On the evening of November 20, filming was wrapped as each student,
faculty, and staff member switched to online learning for the remainder of the fall
semester.

Our hurdles and challenges have
truly brought us closer together as a
collective group of faculty, staff, and students. In the foreword to Man's Search
for Meaning, Harold S. Kushner synthesized one of Victor E. Frankl's key
insights, which I have shared with students during the pandemic:

52 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | SPRING 2021

Forces beyond your control
can take away everything you
possess except one thing, your
freedom to choose how you
will respond to the situation.
You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can
always control what you will
feel and do about what happens to you (Frankl 2006, loc.
34-35).

Our community of trust helped us to
improvise, adapt, and overcome any obstacle placed before us. This foundation
made us strong, resilient, dedicated, and,
above all else, impassioned in the knowledge that the future of our art is bright.
During the first pre-show introduction for
November Dance, Jan Erkert looked out
from the stage to the 40-person audience
in the balcony and noted that " from the
moment I said 'Hello!', their enthusiastic
response sounded like 500 people. "
We hope our experience can be a
model for other institutions on either a
large-scale, production-oriented facet or
a small detail-oriented facet, depending
on the size of your program. " Start small
and then just do it! " says Nathan Gunn.
We acknowledge with great gratitude that
the SHIELD Testing Program developed

Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2021

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