Despite the global pandemic working against it, the theatre department kicked off its 2020 season with Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: the rock experience.
There were a lot of regulations in place to allow the play to go on, but in the end, cast members said it was worth it as they kept everyone involved safe, audience members, cast and crew alike.
“There were the obvious aspects that changed from doing theater six months ago, like the audience having to be masked, the house not being at full capacity, people having to distance themselves in the theater from other families,” senior musical theater major Murphy Baker said.
In order to comply with social distancing rules, the audience had to be spaced out and the number of people allowed into the theater decreased. However, the distance between families meant that the play was still able to go on.
Despite the addition of masks, the production wasn’t that much different for the cast and crew.
“The cast experience wasn’t totally foreign, as we were lucky enough to get to perform mask-less. However, the cast has masks backstage on both sides so that when we exit stage we can put our masks right back on until we go out again,” Baker said.
Although the performance on stage was pretty much the same as prior, pre-COVID-19 years, the precautions taken were a change.
“[We] have been trying to be really careful. We get tested every week and wear masks whenever we’re not on stage. We’ve been really good about sanitizing everything we’re touching before and after the shows,” CMU sophomore musical theater major Margaret Brophy said.
Although the precautions didn’t extend as far as a two-week quarantine before the opening night, Brophy said that the director strongly emphasized that the cast take care to be socially distant during the rehearsal process.
“[He was] very adamant about telling us to not do anything, obviously [not to] go to parties, and be careful about social situations,” Brophy said.
The regulations were incredibly effective, however, as the play was a huge success.
“People were laughing and cheering and we saw people getting up at the end to dance, which is great because that’s what we want to happen, you just never know. So that’s been really encouraging,” Brophy said
Theater productions are special as they allow for more audience feedback than movies do. Whole plays can be built around engaging the audience as much as possible.
“It’s always funny when you get an audience in the theater because there are bound to be jokes they laugh at that the cast and crew weren’t expecting,” Baker said.
Another positive aspect of the play is the fact that it was aimed towards families.
Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed being a kid’s show also brings an entirely unique energy to the live performances- kids will sometimes laugh at things their parents don’t find as funny- but as long as everyone is entertained and enjoying it that’s all we could hope for,” Baker said.
This year’s performance was also offering an opportunity to live stream the play at home for those who were uncomfortable with the idea of watching it in person. Despite the fact that the house would be unable to seat as many people as years prior, the live stream option made it feasible to reach as many people as possible.
“Any audience is a good audience, so thank you to everyone who came out last weekend to see us live or streamed it,” Baker said.
