Zoom for Rehearsal
Wayfinding: Spotlights > Tech Behind the Scenes > Zoom for Rehearsal
Perhaps one of the most significant changes in second wave digital theatre is the shift to Zoom production meetings and rehearsals. The potential of online video conferencing technology has been posited for years. e: ‘Telematic collaboration can equally involve partnerships with audience members as well as with other artists or remote company members’. This technology, even from Dixon's publication date in 2007, primarily solves a convenience issue: travelling can be time-consuming and expensive, so remote collaboration with artists at any significant distance can help build relationships while reducing the need to adjust family obligations and spend money on transit and lodging. Remote working can also contribute to reduced carbon emissions and improve climate justice as fewer artists fly internationally to work or drive to a different rehearsal location.
During the pandemic, some companies used actors who lived together to achieve a sense of shared space – Holly Champion of Streamed Shakespeare said that they ‘did sometimes use people who were living in the same household together during lockdown’ – but in other instances, actors rehearsed over Zoom as part of their pre-performance quarantine, when they could isolate at home, then isolate together, and then perform. Morgan Green of Wilma Theater described this process to me so Wilma could ensure their actors safely shared physical space, closer to a traditional staged performance: ‘for the first week of rehearsal for Fat Ham, it was on Zoom. Everybody stayed at home, while they were quarantining to be in the bubble. So, we're starting to kind of develop the safety protocol as we went, as you said, constantly changing’ under shifting state and federal regulations in the United States in 2020. Green added that ‘the radio play [of Alicia Harris’ Is God Is], the way it was rehearsed was that we shipped everybody the equipment to their homes, and everybody Zoomed in, they rehearsed on Zoom, they recorded on Zoom'. Although Wilma has, per Green, returned to entirely in-person pre-production and rehearsal, they utilised these tools effectively when needed.
There are several potential benefits to maintaining remote rehearsal. the potential in the remote work shift to accommodate more types of artists, from parents and caregivers to those with disabilities: ‘As more and more people turn to video conferencing as a work-around for in-person rehearsals and performances during the pandemic, and as additional technologies develop, it is hopeful that we will continue to evolve our performance-making structures as well, making them more inclusive and illustrative of our times and potentials’. Remote and hybrid working conditions have been heralded in some publications as improving employee diversity through flexible working arrangements; the same seems to be suggested of theatre making, too. ‘Being able to work in a familiar domestic environment and not having the costs or time associated with traveling to a physical place was also identified as a practical benefit associated with performing live from home’. Audiences and theatre makers alike benefit from digital accessibility.
on the ecological benefits of digital theatre performances as well, noting that using video conferencing and other remote work tools increased their pool of performers; before the pandemic, Creation often worked with actors who were from outside of Oxford, meaning they commuted in, rented accommodation in the city, and often travelled back to their homes during weekends to spend time with their families, adding up to a lot of carbon emissions from driving or even from transit like buses. Even if the shows occur in-person, reducing travel subsequently reduces carbon emissions.
Natasha Rickman and Michael Deacon of Creation Theatre both told me that they found remote working over Zoom incredibly beneficial for their productions and were keeping this methodology post-pandemic. ‘I think the biggest effect on my in-person practice is in dramaturgically working with writers and performance prep – before all meetings would be in person, whereas now it is easy to have production meetings or do script notes remotely, which I’d never have thought possible before’. Before the pandemic, theatre companies relied on in-person meetings for pre-production, auditions, production design, and rehearsals, which could take up a great deal of commuting time and even require a theatre maker to pay for lodging and meals. ‘It's so much easier using Zoom than having to arrange an in-person meeting for everything. … in terms of being able to rehearse, it is really helpful now. We're certainly still using elements of hybridised working within our practice in terms of rehearsal and production process, even if that's not then translating into the performance’. Matthew Jameson of The Space in the UK agreed: ‘there are so many people who are still using Zoom in a kind of work or academic situation, but it's something which has more or less fallen by the wayside for us, unless we're conducting a few meetings; it’s mostly the business side of things rather than artistically using Zoom still’. While Space and Creation both have returned to mostly in-person performance, they are using the program behind the scenes to create work and manage general theatre business, as well.
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