When social distancing became an important part of trying to slow the spread of COVID-19, theaters were one of the first establishments to temporarily close their doors. As an art that usually depends heavily on being in contact with other people in close proximity for long periods of time, stage acting as a whole has slowed to an almost standstill. However, junior theatre tech and design major, Chloe Wright, found a way to keep her show afloat amidst the uncertainty that COVID-19 has brought.
Over the course of the summer, Wright directed “BOX” at Mooresville Community Children’s Theatre. According to Wright, “‘BOX’ is a story about the trials and tribulations of middle school and trying to explore and discover your own box while also trying to break out of boxes that people try to put you into.” Despite the play being set in middle school and performed by middle school aged actors, Wright said that the show has “lessons that really apply to people from ages one to one hundred” and is a “deceptively deep show.”
Wright found the show last fall and knew instantly that it was a show she wanted to do. She brought the play to the attention of the theatre, whom she has worked with since middle school herself in various different capacities including performing, stage managing, lighting, and more. In reference to what made her choose “BOX,” Wright said that she “really liked the message and…loved the community of kids that I have seen grow up in that theatre. So, I was really interested in working with the company and with the kids.”
The show was originally planned to be performed on stage, but due to the introduction of new regulations caused by COVID-19, that ended up being taken off the table. However, Wright said that neither she or the president of the theatre ever considered fully canceling the show. Both of them wanted to keep some form of arts happening in their community and “give these kids an opportunity to continue to do something no matter what form it was going to turn into.” Going into auditions, Wright was not sure how the final product would be accomplished, but she was determined to get it done. Eventually, Wright and the theater’s president decided that the best thing to do was a fully online show created from dozens of video clips.
Rehearsals started for the show in June, all of them taking place over Zoom. At first, they were only table reads where Wright went through one or two scenes at a time with the actors. She was waiting to hear if North Carolina would move to their next stage of reopening establishments, but they didn’t and Wright pushed forward with a digital show in mind.
A playhouse space was set up at the theater consisting of three different settings to use in the show. To create the final show, Wright had each of her middle school actors come in separately at a different time to record their parts. Each child had a two hour window to record everything they were a part of for the show. Wright said, “It was something I had never done before. It was me standing behind the camera, saying all of the other lines, then pausing very briefly and awkwardly to make sure I was done talking and then them saying their line to the camera. It was definitely a very different scenario, but the most important thing throughout all of it was definitely safety.” Once the recordings were finished, it was up to Wright to edit everything together for the final product.
Despite the fact that this was something Wright had never done before, she ended up enjoying the entire experience and found it to be worthwhile because of how excited the actors involved were about the show.
“One of my favorite things about it was the freedom the president of the company gave me to really explore what the kids wanted to do and also to explore things that I was interested in,” Wright said, adding that she was was especially happy to keep the show self-sustainable by having all of the boxes used in it donated or buying them second-hand.
“That is one of my favorite things about being a director…helping the people that are in my show tell the story that they want to tell,” Wright said in regards to watching the kids take the show into their own hands.
“BOX,” among other upcoming performances, can be viewed in its entirety on the Mooresville Community Children’s Theater’s YouTube channel.
