Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
On May 21, there's a staged reading of a new play, "7 Secrets of
Teaching Online" by Evy Pine. Evy is a member of the WELL (<evy>).
This is part of the PlayGround Zoom Fest: A New Works Festival. 
<https://playground-sf.org/zoomfest/>

Several members of the WELL plan to attend the reading, and have
agreed to discuss it here in the WELL's world-readable <inkwell.vue>
conference.
  

    
<evy>'s summary of the play:

"March 2020: A pandemic rages. College campuses across America
close. In a panic, six college professors sign up for a course: _7
Secrets of Teaching Online_.  The class is relentlessly upbeat. Yet,
an imposter is unmasked, careers are destroyed, lovers are cast out,
grown men weep, secrets are betrayed, babies born, families reunite,
make-shift desks are littered with take-out boxes, and, of course,
one lucky professor gets to sleep with the delivery guy."

You can register through today (May 21) if you want to see the
reading. It’s free.  Although they will ask for a donation as you
register for a ticket — just select the option that works for you.
Here’s the ticket link:

<https://tickets.playground-sf.org/TheatreManager/1/online?performance=1014>

If you register in time, you can watch the play later than the live
reading.
  

    
I'm looking forward to this!
  

    
Ready to watch!
  

    
Here we go!
  

    
She had me at "galumphing."
  

    
God damn that was good.
  

    
Before it began, I was thinking that it was a clever idea to set a
play in a zoom universe.  But while watching it, after observing
some nice touches of cleverness and almost pulling myself away to
make a note, I was quickly pulled in to where I couldn't possibly
multitask and make comments. 

It was almost as engrossing on the screen as it would be in a room
full of fellow watchers, holding our breaths at time.
  

    

yup, I loved it. it really did feel like I was in the zoom with them.
  

    
So I've been a community college student for the past two years, much of
it on Zoom. And in fact, I was in a class on Public Speaking with Evy,
which started out in person but had to move to Soon. I mean Zoom.

I'd love to know the technical workings of what we saw. 
  

    
Yes! The tech aspect was impressive. Was that just the actors
themselves following zoom cues to open and close their cameras, or
was it somehow run for them by a technical person. Can there be a
Zoom stage manager?
  

    
I almost can't believe that's possible with the tightness we saw.
  

    
Yes, to all that you have said.  And yet it really made me miss the
theater experience. I wanted to be in hushed, darkened theater
filled with people. And honestly, I hadn't felt that longing until
tonight.

I am wondering about adapting this for live theater...
  

    
Yes!  Could or should it be produced live on stage rather than on
zoom? 

I guess that question means if it were fully produced in a
professional run. is that a run at the Roxie as an indie film, or
somehow on a live stage.  (And wouldn't that be a challenge... 
maybe a set that looks like Hollywood squares. Lighting the squares
that are live in the moment...?)   

Or maybe live on zoom persists as a medium for plays? 

I really want this play to go to some next level so I can tell
people to go see it.
  

    

The public-facing Inkwell.vue conference page has been updated to point
to this conversation, <https://www.well.com/conferences/inkwell-2/>.
  

    
<reet> and I loved it!!
  

    
I'm so glad you all had a good time.

Although we had a dynamite stage manager, Natalie Rich, the "backdrop"
chanes were mostly run by the actors -- but developed by Colin Johnson.  I
was particularly partial to the fact that ROBBIE's car was moving.

The director, Tracy Ward, was terrific had keeping things reasonably simple
since the actor's were doing the changes.

I'm with you, Scott, any play that includes "galumphing" is a must see.  And
Scott is the exemplary community college student, an ideal role model for
all the young 'uns.  My understanding is professors are planning to start
failing Scott just to keep him around.
  

    
I should say that PlayGround has invested a lot in trying to figure out how
to use ZOOM for "live" theatre. Although I think they're greatest asset has
been their cadre of really remarkable actors who really leap in.

I'm totally hungry myself to get back in the theatre.  And the play is
written so it could be performed there as well -- I mean I would like the
audience to see more of what the characters are doing as they're
"participating" in the class.

I don't know if Hollywood Squares is the answer -- though that could be fun
too.  But I definitely want to see ROBBIE bust into JANINE's space at the
end.
  

    
Oh, yeah, I think ZOOOM theatre will persist as well. _7 Secrets of Teaching
Online_ is definitely written for both.  But I do think videoconference
theatre demands a kind of intensity that is what's theatre's about but you
don't always get. In a theatre, people are polite -- they don't walk aout to
get a cup of tea or something stronger.  In our own homes, umm, we need to
be engaged and committed to stay with it sometimes.
  

    
I was riveted.  No way I was refilling my beverage!   

We’re you teaching remotely during the time you wrote the script?  
  

    
We sat still through the whole thing, Evy. Rita and I watched together on my
laptop.
  

    
Very Cool.


Yes, I was definitely teaching remotely as I wrote the play.  In March 2020,
all three places I was teaching moved online.  And I was required at each
place to take a different class teaching online (For a couple of years I had
taught a hybrid class at Berkeley City College -- mostly online, but a few
face to sessions that had been highly successful (defining success as the
number of students who passed the class and received a C or higher.) If felt
that part time instructors were being asked to devote a lot of time taking
all these different classes for a few stipends -- so I knew I would write a
play about.
it. -- write a play about it.

Fortunately, PlayGround invited me to be a Resident Playwright so I could
justify to myself focusing on it.  But looking back I wrote it quick between
the holiday formerly known as Thanksgiving 2020 and March of this year --
though I admit I was rewriting up until May 14.

I also felt so many of us (including a number of WELL revelers!) are using
ZOOM and systems like that in our lives whether we're teaching or not.
  

    
Yes. It’s universal in that sense. I liked the casting, too!   Were
the actors close to the way you visualized them?

Does one visualize the characters when writing a play someone else
will cast?  
  

    

I know one teacher (high school science in a smallish town) who is really
enjoying the combination of in-person and online teaching. Every other
teacher I know either loves or hates the online thing...
  

    
Is there anyway to view this if we missed it on Friday?
  

    
If you signed up, they sent you a Zoom link. That same link can be
used to watch it on demand.