The Fourth Screen
How Northview’s theater department is finding ways to perform despite COVID-19
Benelli poses in character for a play.
Photo courtesy of Emily Benelli
Megan Serfontein, Copy Editor & Madisyn Signal, Staff Writer
COVID-19 has brought a halt to many industries including theater and performing arts, and Northview’s theater department has had to make many changes in order to adjust to this unconventional year. Nevertheless, despite the challenges brought by the pandemic, Thespian Troupe 6577 is steadfastly persevering through these hardships to continue performing.
During conventional years, the department hosts up to eight live shows in one of the two theaters and has an improv club, fundraisers, and attends Georgia Thespians’ ThesCon among other activities. The pandemic hit just as Northview’s performance of High School Musical was supposed to open last March. Since then, the troupe has been finding ways to hold virtual performances.
The advanced drama class’s annual in-school wax museum has been completely reinvented after going virtual. This year, the two themes for the wax museum are celebrating 100 years of suffrage and a sonnet cafe. The drama department students created a website where each student would post their performances, which they wrote themselves. All of them dressed in costume, and many of them made their background look appropriate for the setting of the early 20th century or a café, depending on which theme they are a part of. The class is also working on a podcast that has yet to come out. In addition, the senior drama students are working on a completely student-led performance to fill the desert theater spot in May. As the theater program continues to adapt to these new conditions and periodicals, they try to take advantage of the opportunity to do more online-friendly things. Having to transition theater online to make things safer also allowed people to explore their tech side of theater and more self-taping which they have never done before. Inaara Jadavjii, a junior and one of the state thespian officers, says she has also had to do rehearsals on zoom for her outside of school theater classes which made things more challenging.
Benelli performs her monologue for the virtual wax museum.
Photo courtesy of Emily Benelli
“In the past, there would be a few different in person plays and a musical that I would be involved in in some form or another, but we really had to adapt this year especially because, so few students are physically in person,” Emily Benelli a senior and president of Thespian Troupe 6755 said.
In addition to Advanced Drama performances, Northview’s Thespian Troupe is working tirelessly to still make this an exciting and fun year for not only the troupe but for prospective future members as well. In December, they held a virtual induction of their new members and celebrated their accomplishments. Moreover, the improv club is open to all students and the club has been hosting exciting virtual events such as their murder mystery game night last November. With ThesCon being virtual and open to everyone, not just students inducted into the International Thespian Society, they promoted it so that non-theater students had an opportunity to learn about theater and get excited about it. The troupe also hosted a freshman social in September as a chance for the new freshmen to get into theater.
The theater department has also been trying to support the theater industry during this difficult time. One way they did this was by wiring letters to the senator at that time, Kelly Loeffler, about voting to pass legislation on arts funding and relief funding for arts workers.
“Theater has been hit really hard by the pandemic, on both a large and local scale, Broadway had to close, and a lot of local theaters are struggling too,” Grace Chawla a sophomore and member of Troupe 6755 said.
Jadavji has been in Northview theater since freshman year and has been involved in community theaters since she was in seventh grade. The theater has changed Jadavji’s life for the better and gave her a second family. Despite all the challenges of the pandemic she is still trying to make the most of theater and keep her deep love and passion for it.
“On top of it being an art form, it was really a place to make a family and friends which made it more like a hang-out thing”, Jadavji says.
In addition to writing letters, the department has also been spreading information on how to help arts workers and the theater industry through writing letters to legislators, donating to charities that support arts workers and local theaters, following and sharing the work of performers on social media, and attending virtual performances. Theater teacher and drama director Anna Pieri encourages trying Digital Theater+ instead of traditional streaming services and watching a play or musical to support theater. She also hopes once in-person performances can resume that all students will attend at least once. Pieri encourages all students to take art classes of all kinds.
“There is nothing like the camaraderie and shared emotional journey an audience experiences in a live show,” Pieri said. “The community and togetherness have been stolen from us over the course of the pandemic, and I hope it returns stronger and more vibrantly in the audience-performer relationship [afterward].”
Benelli, Chawla, and Jadavji all note the impact that Pieri and Elizabeth Lake have made on them as well as the support they have provided, especially this year. By giving their time, allowing them to voice what they as the students want, and helping them with resources for their projects. Pieri notes that she is here to encourage and support her students no matter what is happening and focus on their needs and their wants in the program.
“In all of my classes and in our theatre clubs, Improv Club, and International Thespian Society, we’ve shifted our focus this year from performance to ensemble-building. We’re learning this year to use the arts as tools to help us all adapt and adopt those social-emotional learning concepts,” Pieri said.
As well as navigating through the pandemic, the theater department has also spent time talking about social issues such as racism and sexism, what role these serve in theater and how as a thespian troupe they can combat that.
“There is a huge typecasting focus in theater companies and rarely, if ever, do I see myself reflected as Southeast Asian in theater,” Chawla said.
In addition to supporting each other, the troupe also wants support from the county and school for all arts classes whether that is by promotion of art students’ work or funding the arts.
“Now more than ever, the arts need to be a priority; Fulton County and school Administrators need to show support by asking theater teachers ‘what can I do to help’ and allotting funds to get school theater back on its feet,” Benelli said.
During these harsh times, Northview’s theater program does not receive as much attention or funding as other programs in the school such as sports and academics. Jadavji explains that it is no problem planning their performances and rehearsals themselves, they just need to know that the school wants them to. Through these new challenges, they are trying to make the best out of the situation by coming together as a family. She hopes things get better as she continues to work on her upcoming show.
“It’s discouraging to see how sports have been able to carry on this past year and all the athletes were able to follow what they love and we hadn’t had the same opportunity,” Jadavjii says.
Though the pandemic has put a pause on much of the theater industry there has been some good that has come out of it in terms of making theater more accessible for many people and getting people into theater through musical movies like Hamilton and The Prom being added to major streaming platforms.
“I am looking forward to seeing the effects of the pandemic on theater,” Chawla said. “I don’t want to see virtual events go away, they make theater accessible and allow for so much creativity.”
Though the curtain dropped on the physical stage and may not rise again for a while, the theater students of Northview are working tirelessly to keep the curtain up- even if, for now, it’s a virtual curtain.
