The Virtual Experience of Theater

Coming Together, Navigating Social Distancing, and Virtual Musical Theater with Rebecca Hanson

If, in 2019, you had told Rebecca Hanson that in one year’s time she would be directing Island School’s plays to be performed on iPads to an audience of empty chairs, she would have been appalled. Rebecca Hanson, Island School’s theater teacher, is not one to shy away from a challenge. A COVID-19 school year, however, is a challenge that no one could have prepared for. Rebecca grew up in Minnesota, where she entered the world of theater in high school, through set design and technical production. It wasn’t until her second year of college, getting her degree in Theater Arts, that she performed as an actress in her first play. After college, Rebecca worked as an Assistant Company Manager for My Little Pony Live, and a performer on a production of Sesame Street Live. Her first teaching job was as a tap-dance instructor for three year olds, where her first thought was, despite the anxiety that comes with one’s first year of teaching, “I’m meant to do this.” Rebecca discovered that teaching was her passion, “I thought to myself, if I can

teach three and four-year-olds how to tap-dance, I can do anything!”

Rebecca first came to Kauaʻi in 2011. She left in 2012 to pursue her Elementary Education degree while returning each summer to work with Hawaii Children’s Theater. She returned to Kauaʻi for good in 2016 and, when the opportunity arose to teach theater at Island School, filling the shoes of Founding Mother and drama teacher Peggy Ellenburg, she knew it was where she was meant to be. Rebecca puts on three major plays each year, one each for middle school, high school and 5th grade.

It is safe to say that no one was prepared for the adaptations required to teach during COVID-19, especially not a theater teacher, where in-person participation, large group settings and close collaboration are all integral parts of the curriculum. With so many outside factors, such as copyright licensing and ever-changing COVID-19 restrictions, Rebecca was unsure if she would be able to host a performance or transition her students into online production. Our students were looking to her for solutions she didn’t yet have. Due to copywrite laws, Rebecca had to wait while production companies slowly released their scripts with rights to be streamed online.

A play called Mirror, Mirror, which chronicles the story of Snow White, was released in 2021 and written specifically to be performed on Zoom. The play could be live streamed via a private YouTube link, which enabled families to tune in and watch. It was the perfect option for her Fifth Grade play. She also found streamable plays for middle and high school, The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet and Clue, and was able to get to work producing them. The Fifth Grade students began rehearsing for their play on Chromebooks, which most of them had used previously for classwork. Originally, Rebecca was going to create her own sets from scratch, but realized quickly that it was much too large an undertaking, as this was already a performance more complicated than usual. On Zoom, digital backgrounds can be created and utilized, which seemed like a perfect solution to this obstacle. However, virtual Zoom backgrounds cannot be utilized on Chromebooks, creating yet another obstacle for Rebecca. She acquired iPads on which her students could rehearse and perform, which solved the problem of digital sets, but also meant that her students had to learn a completely different form of technology halfway through rehersals.

“Not only was I teaching [my students] about projection, stage presence, blocking and lines, I was now also teaching them how to mute and unmute themselves, and how to turn their cameras off at the right times.”

For each bump in the road, there were people and resources along the way to help. Rebecca was able to attend an online class that taught theater teachers how to direct musicals on Zoom, which discussed lessons such as teacher control of the screen versus student control, and writing technical cues (“mute” or “unmute” for example) into the students’ scripts. The middle school play, The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet, and high school play, Clue, were both streamed by a company based in Colorado called Broadway on Demand, which was generous with their assistance. Representatives from Broadway on Demand were in constant contact with Rebecca throughout all performances, standing by four hours later in Colorado, just in case technical difficulties arose. Rebecca was able to recruit help filming her middle school play from Chiem Ma (a parent of Island School student, Phoenix Ma ‘27, who was an actor in the play). High School Division Director, Nathaniel Evslin, helped set up switchers and assisted with tech in all three plays. In, Mirror, Mirror, two students helped with lighting cues, fifth graders Kaia Haugh and River Summer. This was important, Rebecca said, because it allowed these students to explore their interests in theater outside of stage performance. As a student of all aspects of theater herself, Rebecca believes in the celebration of each component, and encouraged these students to be a

part of the team behind the scenes. Haugh and Summer were thrilled to have had the opportunity to contribute to their class while also exploring their own interests. Traditionally, actors get their energy from the audience’s reactions. If the crowd erupts into laughter one night, each performer feels the high of that reaction, and takes it with them into the rest of their performances. The casts were worried that they would sense this lack of energy, and tried hard to not let it affect their performances. This worry, it turned out, would be for nothing. Each of these plays were streamed online, which meant that anyone with access to the link could tune in and watch. Two of the middle school students had family members in Europe who tuned in, and one high school student received a text message from family on the mainland with a photo of their big screen TV. His family had linked the streaming service to their TV at home, and were watching the performance of Clue from an ocean away. Knowing this energized the entire cast. To picture themselves on a television in someone’s living room would never have been a possibility without this streaming service, and thrilled each and every student. With the help of faculty and parents, each cast was able to perform to a larger audience than would have been possible with their most packed in-person audience. The resiliency of the students, Rebecca, and the families who helped these productions come to life allowed our Voyagers to exceed their own expectations of what could be done in theater. This process allowed students to explore their theatrical interests outside of the stage, thus learning more about their own strengths and interests. Moving forward, Rebecca hopes to keep the streaming element to her plays, allowing extended family members and friends to tune in and support our Voyagers from all over the world. §