TEXARKANA, Texas - Silvermoon Children's Theatre's young thespians did not let social distancing deter them from taking to the stage, but this stage was online.
SCT recently shared their production of "The Show Must Go Online," billed as a "virtual children's musical," at the theater company's Facebook and YouTube pages. It's free for anyone to see, but SCT also provides information on how to donate to their efforts.
With a COVID-19 health scare, going online was one way to keep the children's theater crew active in a performance with the physical stage dark. For director Susannah Linnett, putting a play online required her to enhance her animation and editing skills.
"It's about 37 minutes, and we had two different casts," Linnett said. That means they premiered one version on a Thursday night, the next on a Friday night.
They aimed to do it live, but as it turned out stitching it together themselves became the better option, the director said. Her actors, who hailed not only from Texarkana but also from other cities and states, sent their parts to her.
"They submitted their scenes and we put it together, and then we premiered it on those nights," Linnett said.
When they premiered it, they hosted it as a "watch party" on Facebook, so someone from Australia commented, as well as other children's theaters.
"They would comment underneath, and it was lots of fun being able to comment on what they liked and what was funny and how much they enjoyed it. It was lots of fun being able to do that with our cast, too," Linnett said.
It was a whole lot different working the tech side of this project, requiring her to work with a new medium. They were learning right along with the actors.
"It was interesting having to have them video themselves and get the right lighting and get the right sound, and all of that," Linnett said. Her sister and SCT colleague, Meredith Farren, worked on ensuring volume levels and transitions worked.
"We had each of the actors send in a video of just them singing, not with the music piped in. They had to listen to it in their earbuds, so we only caught their voice," Linnett said. She synced voices together as part of the curtain call.
"That was a lot of fun learning, and I'm really proud of the product. I feel like we did a good job with it," Linnett said.
Seeing the cast reaction and parent reaction was satisfying because they'd only seen their own scenes. "Now they knew the whole story when it was all put together," the director said. She felt the same pride as she feels in her actors during an on-stage show.
"Nothing will replace live theater, but this was a fun, new experience and we know that we can do it this way and still be creative and still be able to express ourselves in this way," Linnett said. "It's a good option, but nothing will replace live theater in my heart."
SCT will follow Texas guidelines for the summer day camps they have planned. Check the organization's Facebook page for information about those camps. Sizes will be limited, but an extra camp was added.
"The Show Must Go Online" was presented through a special arrangement with Beat by Beat Press with a book by Jessica Penzias, lyrics by Dave Hudson and music by Denver Casado.
(More info: SilvermoonKids.com or Facebook.com/silvermoonkids1.)