Fall plays move forward despite COVID challenges

COVID-19 has canceled many different projects and student’s plans, even Broadway shows, but it hasn’t offset the fall show for the drama group. 

The fall show consists of several different one-acts instructed by Michelle Rathe. Both in-person and online students are able to participate in these acts.

“We did want to give kids a chance who are home online and not coming into the school, so we have some pieces set aside that they will be video recording that will be projected so that they will be in the scene, but they will not physically,” Rathe said. “We tried to get everyone involved.”

The students will all be required to wear face masks and follow school regulations during rehearsals. When it comes to the performances, students will each be given a face shield so that the audience can see their faces in full. Each act has its own section of the stage that it will be performed on in order to minimize contamination and the spread of anything.

“I looked at the aerosol study,” Rathe said. “I talked to five or six different directors across the state of schools that were bigger than us, schools a little bit smaller than us and schools about our size and tried to figure out what they were doing and how they were managing some of the precautions so that I could be on a similar page.”

The drama group has officially started practicing this week with fingers crossed. 

“I think most kids are just excited that there is anything at all,” Rathe said, “because they have lost so many activities and pieces of involvement that they would like to do.”

Being forced to go online could end up being hurtful to the production. Rathe said that “We are really supported by our ticket sales, so that means we could lose money, so that would be a preference for moving it to spring versus maybe going online.”

As it gets closer to the show dates in November, the group will have a better understanding of how seating will be handled or even if the show will be forced to move back to the spring or even online. No matter what happens, as Rathe said, “I think my middle name is adaptability right now.”