2021 Community Play

>Due to our agreement with the licensing companies, because you have to pay the rights to do these shows, and under the conditions of the pandemic that was all really different this year, usually plays your never allowed to video record them but the licensing agreement companies that we went with, they decided to allow you to stream but you have to stream using their streaming software. So the streaming software they have is called Showtix4U and it's both a little better quality and video sharing than Zoom, you know how zoom can sometimes be a little tough on the video sharing. But it does take a little bit extra steps for people to sign-up. So the show is going to be free but you are going to have to sign-up individually and then each person is going to get an individual link that you can’t share with your friends. So it’s really only for you. You have to sign-up ahead of time and then you're going to get this individual link to watch the show.

On Saturday, you will still need to sign-up through ShowTix4U but you can watch anytime throughout the day.

It’s been a really interesting and different process this year and what I’ve been saying, what I said to the kids and what Luc and Hannah and I said is “you know, we’ve never done this before, we’re learning as we go along.” But the essence of what I love about theater is that we’re all collaborating, we’re making art together, so we’re still doing that even if we’re all doing that through our screens from home. What we’ve been trying to do is have everyone at home and we record. Sometimes people will record on their phones, sometimes we record on Zoom, and then we’re going to edit the videos together. What you are going to be watching on Friday, February 12th is going to be all pre-recorded. But another thing that is kind of fun and exciting is because we have all been doing this all very separately, the performers haven’t really seen each other's videos either. They might not have seen the final product of their own scene and they won’t have seen what the other people have been doing in their scenes. I think it will be exciting for myself and other directors and other participants to see everyone’s show come together.

So I don’t know exactly how it is going to work, but I believe there is going to be a live chat. Usually, the audience gets to clap and laugh and the actors can get feedback that way. That is something I know that I am going to miss about doing it virtually but they have this little chat feature, which we’ll be monitoring to make sure everything is appropriate, but usually, the Sandy Spring community is just so supportive and I think it will be fun. So I encourage people to write in the chat like “that part was really funny” or great job to your friend whatever their name is.

I’d say the show is rated PG, some of the things from All in the Timing have references to alcohol and dating. So Middle School and up.

It is two different plays, but each play is a series of one-act plays or scenes. Each scene might be 10-minutes, some might be 20-minutes and so it will really feature just 2 - 5 actors in that scene and they are all comedic. They’re all funny. When myself and Hannah and Luc were trying to decide what play to do, we felt like this year the gift we want to give to the community is hopefully to make them laugh, so we thought a comedy would be best. All in the Timing by David Ives the scenes are a little more absurdist and funny. All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten is a little more funny and heartwarming.

Often we open the Community Play up to people of all ages. This year we were worried we couldn’t take on a hundred actors. This year the Community play is featuring Upper and Middle School students, about 16 students. Most of the students are in about 2 scenes.

This is a great example of how you might have to fail your way to success. I’m always trying to teach my students it is okay to fail and as part of this process we’ve been recording, and I have a plan of how I think things are going to go, and then I have rehearsal. I think everything went great then I look at the recording later and I realize that someone’s head is cut off or the audio didn’t work or something so we’ve been having some failures. But I think that we are failing our way to a successful show. It’s been a big learning experience but I’m so thankful for the students and for Luc and Hannah because we’ve been laughing through it all. Even when I spend an hour editing on the video and then I lose my work because I don’t know that much about video editing and I’m learning as I go. That has been a learning process for me but it's been really fun.