Since classes have entered an online format, garage spaces have turned into dance studios, and living rooms have become the stage. Professors and students alike have had to adapt to this and make use of technology in a different way.
For professor Cara Harker, her Dance Repertory for Performance class had a performance scheduled at the Reece Museum in April with the “In Begleitung / In Accompaniment” exhibit, but it was promptly cancelled due to the novel coronavirus. In light of the cancellation, Harker decided to work toward creating something new with the dance they already learned. It prompted the creation of “In Quarantine,” a video edited together of ETSU students dancing together despite being apart.
“Originally the dance was inspired by a particular piece in the exhibit, that of a man sitting on a bed and looking out through a window at an eery, abstract scene taking place outside,” said Harker. “Given our current circumstances, the dance quickly evolved to represent what we are facing today. Like the man in the painting, we are all quite literally inside looking out.”
As for the classes she teaches, she holds Zoom class meetings and posts pre-recorded instructional videos for students to learn from. Even as the Zoom calls experience lag, Harker believes it is still crucial for the students to be united at this time.
“The most important thing for me is that we are just dancing it out that way – that we have the opportunity to just get together and dance together.” Harker said. “Even if you know that person is three counts behind, it really does not matter just so long as we’re dancing together.”
Karen Brewster, professor and chair of the department, has taken on her own challenges teaching stagecrafting and stage design.
“We gave them a scene painting exercise and asked them to look around their homes for examples,” Brewster said. “Maybe where the rain has worked on the paint on your house to make it look more worn from weather. We had them take pictures of that and then talk about how you would replicate that.”
Some classes you can’t quite convert fully online; this was the case for Bobby Funk’s stage combat class. The course has taken a more technical approach as students watch fights and write about what they learn from them.
“Normally, we would go out twice a week with swords in hand and fight,” said Funk. “We had already covered unarmed combat, but we were in the middle of covering rapier and dagger when the virus hit and all of a sudden we cannot sword fight on Zoom.”
For his directing class, he has re-imagined their final 10-minute play project and made it more accessible for the home environment.
“They had to come up with a concept on how to do the play on Zoom,” Funk stated. “I threw out a lot of ideas, and they’re doing everything. A woman in the class is building stick puppets and is actually going to costume them, and she’s going to do the scene with puppets. Another person is going to use his house plants to say the lines and move them around.”
A shared sentiment by many of the department professors is that the community should still continue to support the arts now more than ever. Looking toward the tentative opening of the Martin Center in the fall, they hope people will rise up to fill the seats again for not only their spaces but the surrounding areas.
“The biggest thing [the community] can do is support us when we open back up and then also support the theater community as a whole,” said Brewster. “What happens to our theater impacts us. What happens to other community theaters impact us. We all work hand in hand in the arts community. We need to support the arts, but we also need the arts to get through this.”
