Well, it looks like nothing was able to quiet itself down as much as I would've hoped over these last two weeks. You see, I decided to take a small "break" to explore the infinite possibilities one can gain from staying in ones own room for far too long, but I didn't come up with anything. There's also thinking about the chance that this whole situation would be swept under the rug one day, so both positive outlooks were unfortunately ruined for me. With nothing to do at my disposal, I crashed into my bed, tucked myself up in my little blanket and stared once more at my plain old ceiling, gazing at the small white plaster bubbles that decorated it. Then, as more time did not pass, and my soul slowly started to sink into my bed, I heard the sound of a bird. Not just any bird, a bird we all know and love, a bird that we turn to whenever we need to vent or say something cool about our day. Turns out that I received a rather interesting Tweet. Curious as I was to have the chance to finally do something, I grabbed my phone and read this mysterious message. A few days later and all of a sudden, I found myself participating in a rather interesting "experiment". It was what I would like to call an "online theater".
The NAMBA Arts Center in Ventura, California posted to everyone on the internet an opportunity for an Open Mic Night, and the only catch was that it was online with Zoom. In times like these it seems that even the theaters, the main place people can go to socialize and watch a tremendously good screenplay had to change their ways and take their performances to the web, which is, how you say, freaking awesome. I even joked to a few friends that pretty soon we will be running an entire feature film through Zoom or Google Meets, or whatever social media platform you can use to contact and collaborate. I mean, imagine an entire MARVEL movie on Zoom. Actually, scratch that because that's a pretty bad idea which I hope never, ever, EVER comes true.
Before I continue to my story, there is something I need to inform you of. My way of acting is kinesthetic, I basically "feel" the character in my entire body. Whether its through my arms, my legs, or even in my chest, it's like my fail safe in my acting career. If I "feel" anything in my body, then I know that what I am doing is correct. That feeling can sometimes be good, and sometimes it can be bad, and it can sometimes even feel weird, depending on the role that is.
Because of this ability, that sensation has helped me dive deep into roles and ultimately lose myself, which is a good feeling. However, this only occurs whenever I am in a casting studio, on camera, or up on stage in front of hundreds of audience members. Call it nerves or whatever, I call it my "heart". So with this in mind, I was getting myself ready for the performance, and I planned on singing one of my favorite songs from a musical I performed in before I left Germany. I practiced countless times, made sure I got the notes and the tempo of the music right until I felt comfortable and ready. About an hour before the show started, I joined the Zoom call early because the crew wanted to do a tech run. They just wanted to check everyone mics and if the music was loud enough for everyone to hear, usual techie stuff. Once that was done, they told us to come back at 5:00 PM. Their ideas of how to run the "online theater" were really fascinating. the power of the host was not to be taken lightly, as they had the power to MUTE everyone, EXCEPT for the performer! Then, when the person's act was over, the host would un-mute everyone and their applause would ring out constantly through our devices. I couldn't believe it, it was running like an actual theater! I never even considered the possibility of taking a performance like this online, because I thought it would be impossible. I was expecting some problems along the way, but nothing major happened at all. There were some delays in several performers' introductions, but it did not matter. Every single act was reciprocated by the audience with thousands of claps and big, bright, beautiful smiles.
Now, just think of what's next after this! We are already able to accomplish something that can vaguely bring the joy of the theater experience back to everyone who is stuck at home with nowhere to go, so whats the next idea? What can we do next to make that experience grand? Live musicals might be very tough if not pre-recorded, and you would have to spend countless hours splicing harmonies to make sure they sync up at the exact same times, but I think that screenplays and single person acts are no different that a common self-tape.