This past month the La Joya Community High School theatre program put out a series of virtual shows under the title anthologies of the macabre. These 3 short shows were all Halloween themed and had dark/spooky storylines. Anthologies of The Macabre was directed by La Joya juniors Alyssa Coa and Luis Sanchez.
When asked what her favorite part of directing for the first time was, junior Alyssa Coa said, “the creative freedom. Being able to decide how you want things done and interpreted.”
Alyssa’s favorite part of directing was the creativity, and as someone who she directed i can say with confidence she is one of the most creative directors I’ve worked with. She had innovate ideas that constantly bettered the quality of our productions. Being virtual could have easily ruined the play but due to Alyssa’s strong ideas we thrived on this online platform.
Junior Stephanie Espana responded, “finding an environment where i am able to preform with full energy and volume. Its hard to find a place in my home where i am able to be loud enough, and scream ” when being asked what the biggest road block was to doing a virtual series as an actor was.
In theatre there is normally an environment where you can be loud and move around which unfortunately quarantine took away. Theatre students have been forced to adapt and act in a way that they’ve never had to before. Actors in this play had to cry, yell, and scream this normally would be no problem, but they now had to worry about everyone around them which was a major hindrance on everyone acting in the play.
Stephanie Espana later added, “My favorite part of working on the show was honestly being able to just act with fellow actors that give it their all and show up every day.”
Going into a virtual production you don’t expect to get closer to anyone, you go in thinking it’ll be like another silent class. Being forced to turn on your mic and camera to rehearse was the biggest reason there was little to no obstacle when it came to forming new friendships.
Although making a virtual theatre production was a brand new challenge that everyone in theatre had to face head on. This experience broadened all the actors horizons when it came to acting, because most of them have only done live performances. All of the cast rose above these went into this blindly and came out the other side better actors because of it.
