Many classes and majors were hit hard last spring when Colorado Mesa University (CMU) shut down its in-person classes and transitioned to online learning. One of the programs affected was the theatre program.
Students and teachers across all majors can testify to the difficulties faced with transitioning to online classes last semester. For the theatre program specifically, many of their classes depend on multiple person interaction. Sophomore in the acting/directing major, Brie Angle, brought up some of the difficulties they faced last spring with going online.
“Zoom freezes and glitches, as I’m sure everyone knows. So, it’s really hard to kind of keep on sync, especially with monologues. A big part of the class is your peers and your professor listening to you and then kind of giving you feedback,” Angle said. “It’s hard to get feedback on your monologue if your thing freezes halfway through, which happened a lot.”
Technical aspects of acting work with feeding off the energy of the other actors. Live theatre also depends heavily on feeding off the energy of the audience. As of right now, CMU students will have the option of attending a socially distanced live-performance or streaming the live performance over a digital device. Students from the program seemed bummed out about the prospects of no audience. However, they were excited about being able to put on shows this year.
“I think the biggest thing that COVID has impacted this semester would probably be our shows. All of our shows are going to be pre-recorded so more like movie style, which is interesting and gives us kind of a different medium to work with. And it’s nice to have,” Angle said.
Now that the theatre students are back in class, they are following the same precautions as all the other students. They show their professors their green Scout app screens and wear their masks. However, when the students are presenting, they stand twenty-five feet away from the rest of the class so they can take their masks off. This allows the students to receive proper feedback while maintaining protocols surrounding COVID-19.
“I’m just grateful that we are able to be in person again, even if it’s not like normal. Shows and performances are all different and strange,” sophomore musical theatre major, Cate Castelli, said.
The theatre department will still be putting on shows for CMU students’ enjoyment. You can expect the theatre department to be putting on shows like “She Kills Monsters,” “Cabaret,” “The Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed,” “Miss Holmes,” as well as two dance concerts. The theatre season will kick off with “The Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed,” on Sep. 17, and the show will run until Sep. 26.
There will be plenty of content from the theatre department for CMU students to enjoy because as the old saying goes, the show must go on.
