The Wonderous World of Zoom Theatre: SLC Theatre presents Cope in Wonder
Zoe Stanton-Savitz ’23
Photo of puppet heads taken by Kyrie Ellison
The audience sits anxiously in their seats awaiting the rise of the curtain and the brightening stage lights. As the performance begins, actors are greeted with thunderous applause and the energy of audience members is palpable.
Or at least, that’s how it used to be. This theatre going experience has essentially ceased with the pandemic, giving way to a new form of theatre, devoid of the personal interaction so distinctive in live performance. Students at Sarah Lawrence have learned to cope, creatively adapting their art to a new digital format.
The second SLC theater production of this year, Cope in Wonder, which streams live over Zoom this coming weekend, is gearing up to be a prime example of the innovative theatrical techniques used to transform live performance.
SHAPING THE STORY
Cope in Wonder — written by senior Lily Welsh and directed by second-year graduate student Kyrie Ellison — is based loosely on the French ballet Coppélia, following the fantastical story of Hildy as she navigates her relationship with her boyfriend Fred as well as her obsession with Alice, a girl who she connects with only through dreams.
“It touches a lot on themes of love, Judaism and how it relates to sexuality, spiritualism, and bodily autonomy,” Welsh said.
Ian Hubbard ’24, an actor in the ensemble of Cope in Wonder, affirmed that the story explores universal themes.
“Any one person could be Hildy, she’s that relatable,” Hubbard said. “She is smart and strong and the trials she faces are very real.”
IIaria D'Andrea ’24, who plays Jane, one of Hildy’s friends, agrees.
“Cope in Wonder itself has taught me the importance of embracing your roots and reminded me to follow my gut instinct when it comes to love and relationships,” D’Andrea said. “It's a show about being true to yourself and trusting your heart.”
Welsh originally wrote Cope in Wonder her sophomore year after her don, Dave McCree, suggested she write a play to perform in the new amphitheater. She began with creating a playlist of contemporary songs to replace the classical music in Coppélia and then mapped out the storyline.
“Three days later I had the first draft of the show,” Welsh said.
Although the amphitheatre was not fully constructed, Welsh recruited her friends to act and she organized a show in SLC’s small theatre, Open Space. Because the production was not officially a part of the season, Welsh said it was an “illegal” production. After that, she took Stuart Spencer’s playwriting class and workshopped an early version of Cope in Wonder where it became a fully realized play.
“When I wrote it, I poured my heart and soul,” Welsh said. “I was just writing what I wanted to see in the world. Whatever I was creating wasn’t this perfect world but it was a world where you can still be seen and understood. And no matter what, you are still worthy of that.”
Welsh said that since the workshop two years ago, the play has changed significantly.
“The original reading was about a half hour long and pretty much followed the beats of the original ballet and not much else,” Welsh said. “I decided to make it gayer and Jewier.” Welsh also included more development for minor characters and added dream sequences between Hildy and Alice.
Welsh was not confident in her playwriting skills until the SLC theatre production staff chose Cope in Wonder for the Fall 2020 season.
“I spent most of my life not thinking I was a good writer,” Welsh said. “But now, I’ve never been prouder of anything in my life.”
When Ellison read Welsh’s script, she became immediately invested and wanted to take part in the production.
“It was a cosmic event,” Ellison said referring to her happening upon Welsh’s script. “I love working with new playwrights and helping them bring their story to life. It was totally kismet, I think it was meant to happen.”
Welsh’s Jewish heritage deeply influenced Cope in Wonder, most prevalently using the myth of the Golem — a powerful figure made of completely inanimate matter, usually clay, but brought to life. She used the idea of reanimation to explore human autonomy. Welsh also built from her personal knowledge of Jewish stories.
“A lot of things I worked with when I was writing this, especially in later versions, was folklore,” Welsh said. “I used a mix of [Jewish children’s books], a mix of stories that my rabbi would say to close out Sunday school, Herschel of Ostropol, that kind of thing,” Welsh said.
ZANY OVER ZOOM
After learning Cope in Wonder would not be performed live, both Welsh and Ellison were shocked and anxious.
“My first reaction was indeed panic,” Ellison said. “But there’s something really beautiful about letting yourself feel that and then letting your brain do the work. I have, like, eight different contingency plans for every single problem that I come up against.”
In adapting to a Zoom format, Ellison explained that directorially, she has had to learn flexibility.
“We’re keeping an open mind, we’re pivoting and we are doing many many experiments,” Ellison said. “Especially with technology updating on a regular basis things change regularly and so it requires us to figure out the problems as they happen. You have to be open to try out a bunch of different kinds of stuff and accept that what worked yesterday might not work today.”
The production utilizes OBS — a live streaming software — as well as green screens, virtual backgrounds and lighting, and pre-recorded video and sound coupled with live-feed.
“We’re really trying to bring as much of the normal theatrical aspects into this digital space as possible,” Ellison said.
In addition, because of the loss of audience feedback like laughing or applause, Ellison and the actors have struggled with finding the same energy in their art.
“I try very hard to acknowledge [the actors] constantly and repeatedly,” Ellison said. “It feels even more vulnerable and I want to make sure they know that we see them and we hear them and we are here for them in that moment.”
The cast of Cope in Wonder, nine hardworking actors, have been forced to adapt to acting over Zoom, while also learning puppetry and voice-over skills.
“I am constantly floored by how great our casting is,” Welsh said. “Our cast is freaking amazing and they're all so great in their roles.”
“My favorite part of being in this show is definitely the cast,” D'Andrea said. “Everyone I met is so lovely and genuine and being in rehearsal with them is so great even though it is on Zoom.”
Ellison has tried to combat the isolating aspect of Zoom by building a sense of community and the actors have adjusted to the new format during the rehearsal process.
“The rehearsal process has been an absolute blast,” Hubbard said. He explained that every rehearsal begins with a check-in and ends with a dance party. “It’s directly countering the sense of isolation that some could feel during the pandemic, so that instead we have as strong a feel of community as can be.”
D'Andrea said: “I didn't even think that remote theatre was a possibility until this experience. I feel very enlightened.”
PUPPET PALS
Another way Ellison and Welsh bring theatricality into a digital format is by using puppets. The majority of the story is told through puppetry and voiceover, with the exception of dream sequences between Hildy and Alice, which are acted out physically.
“The show itself lives in this place where the ensemble really moves the plot forward and that’s so very difficult to capture when you're in Zoom,” Ellison said. “Going with puppets was a way to present that there are multiple things happening and that there is movement and choreography to this piece.”
The use of puppets also reiterates Welsh’s themes of the loss of bodily autonomy and incorporates the mythology of the Golem present throughout the story.
“What does it mean to be in control of yourself?” Ellison asked during the development of Cope in Wonder. “It felt like a no-brainer to me that if we couldn’t do this live, the way Lily and I had originally planned, that puppets were the next best thing.”
Puppet builder Leslie Huynh, a first-year graduate student, got the job because of her background in carpentry.
“I haven’t built and made anything in over a year so it felt good to have something tangible and physical to make,” Huynh said. “I’ve never built puppets before so the delicacy needed is not something I’m used to.”
Huynh explained that the puppets have movable arms and include bases to provide stability, and added that creating the puppets took hours of hard work.
“The show seemed relatively simple in its needs, but when taking into consideration [that] our puppeteers couldn’t be in the same room for performances, the amount of work basically quadrupled in order to make the separate rooms one cohesive world for the show,” Huynh said.
Many of the actors have had to learn how to use puppets remotely.
“The biggest challenge has been the puppeteering,” Hubbard said. “With all of these moving parts, it’s really incredible and a testament to the creativity of the team that a show of this production value can be put on.”
Because the majority of blocking is with puppetry, staging did not change significantly; however, Ellison said her strategies while speaking to the actors shifted.
“Things like stage right, stage left, they don’t make sense on the camera,” Ellison said. “So we developed a vocabulary together with the puppeteers and with the actors using a little bit of film theory about creating intimacy via film and what narrative you are telling based on your positioning on the screen.”
THRIVING THEATRICALLY
The actors and crew hope people come see Cope in Wonder to support friends and peers.
“COVID has affected the arts harder than other aspects of life, and so to turn out and up for shows like this one means a lot to the people who have put their heart into it,” Hubbard said. “This show that Lily has created and Kyrie has directed is amazingly told, a story about faith and love, fate and choice, with characters that elicit all the emotions.”
D’Andrea explained that “art is so powerful that we can find a way to make it happen even during a pandemic.”
Ellison and Welsh hope the audience will relate to the characters and understand the universal themes expressed through Hildy and Alice, even within a digital format.
“I want the audience to walk away knowing that anything is possible,” Ellison said. “Even in a time of shut-down among theatres everywhere, you can still make art. Even when it seems like the world is ending, there’s still beautiful things to be seen and to experience. It will get better and in the meantime, let’s have some fun.”
Cope in Wonder written by Lily Welsh and Directed by Kyrie Ellison
Friday, November 6, 2020 7:00 PM EST
Saturday, November 7, 2020 11:00 AM EST
Sign up on EventBrite here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/new-works-cope-in-wonder-tickets-123531809969