COVID-19

On March 10, Smith College, along with the majority of colleges and universities in our country and the world, decided to cancel in-person classes for the rest of the semester. I woke up from an afternoon nap to missed calls, countless messages, and that one, massive email. Campus was surreal that afternoon, with lots of people singing R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It,” with tears and hugs. Houses and student organizations crammed their usual end-of-year celebrations into three nights as we all scrambled to say our goodbyes and pack up our dorm rooms. On Friday, March 13, our graduating senior Theatre major, Cathy Kennedy ‘20, with Nikki Beck, our Theatre production manager, and dozens of other students, put together a show, echoing the mood on campus, The End Of The World As We Know It: A Nine-Hour Marathon Of Every Performance That Should Have Been, that included scenes from plays, dance shows, musical performances, and other shows that were already in rehearsal and had scheduled performances for April. Countless students, staff, and faculty went in and out of the Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre during those nine hours to watch the performances. After our extended March break, classes shifted to a virtual format (with “Zoom fatigue” soon settling in…), and continued online this Fall, as we approach nine months in isolation and our sixth month of Zoom University. And our Fall semester show, The Amplifier, has been put together by Theatre students, staff, and faculty as an online show as well!

Outside of academia, life looks equally different. We’ve all been largely confined to our houses. The initial enthusiasm for baking and home improvement has died down as the novelty of spending 24/7 in our homes has worn off. Toilet paper is finally less of a hot commodity compared to late March, hand sanitizer is more easily attainable, and remembering our mask when we do go out has become second nature. And just recently, the news media reported that a quarter of a million Americans have already died from the coronavirus, with no sure end in sight. The Covid-19 pandemic has been devastating in its death toll, in its impact on the economy (particularly for small businesses, for those who pay rent, and for the unemployed), in its shattering impact on all of the performing arts, and in its ramifications on our daily lives.

THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT

The Black Lives Matter protests sprang up around the country in May and continued throughout the summer, leaving in their wake a strong, widespread desire for real change and activism against institutionalized racism in our country. The reinvigoration of this movement happened as a result of police violence against black folks, specifically the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, to name only a few.

The BLM movement saw some of the most widespread protests in this country ever, as there were marches in every major city and in an unprecedented number of smaller cities and towns. Once again, a light was shone on the injustices faced by BIPOC every day in the U.S. Calls have been made for police reform in hopes of mitigating the amount of persecution and violence inflicted on black and brown folks across the country.

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

As if 2020 wasn’t hectic and stressful enough, it was also a general election year with a particularly volatile campaign trail. For many Americans, the election results were a matter of life and death, as a main concern for voters was the handling of the pandemic. As I write these notes, the election results are in the process of certification, with Joe Biden as our new President-elect and Kamala Harris as our new Vice President-elect, with six million more votes nationwide than their opponents, but also with unprecedented, strained attempts by the incumbent administration to cast doubt on the legally certified election results.

THE AMPLIFIER

According to our faculty member, Daniel Elihu Kramer, “Coming into this year–so unlike any other–it was difficult to think what play could possibly be the right choice for our fall department production. We were all scattered–ever since we left campus on March 13–apart from each other in this time of pandemic; this time of racial reckoning; this time of fear, anger, and hope. What one play could allow Smith students to explore and to tell what they were living? I realized I needed to offer students the opportunity to tell their stories–perhaps fact, perhaps fiction, but always true. Even spread across the country and beyond, we have come together–students, staff, and faculty–in the spirit of theatre, the spirit of collaboration, to make work we could not have made alone, to lift up each other’s voices, and to amplify each other’s truths.”

The process of creating The Amplifier has been an amazing process of collaborative creativity and exchange of ideas between students, staff, and faculty. We began our process with a number of general interest meetings and brainstorming sessions, before eventually separating into individual groups: writers, directors, actors, designers, editors, website designers. We had discussions about how best to execute pieces in a virtual format, whether to film individually or in groups, on zoom, in person, or in other ways. The different pieces were created with pairs or groups of people in person but not in the same pod, so we had to figure out ways to keep everyone safe and healthy while still creating work we were happy with. Those decisions were made and adjusted within the individual groups, based on our comfort level, location, and other parameters.

Daniel Elihu Kramer headed the production, along with Nikki Beck, who kept us on track with deadlines and encouragement, and with four student leaders. As project ideas were solidified, each piece was assigned a student leader to act as overseer and as the point of contact between the participants in the specific piece and Daniel. The student leaders also paired actors, directors, designers, and editors with the specific pieces. And then we were off to the races. Scripts were edited and finalized, stage managers scheduled rehearsals and times to film, designers got to work with their directors and the staff in the Theatre Department, and editors waited patiently for footage to be sent their way.

It was decided pretty early on that all the finalized pieces would be featured on a website, where you can explore all of the work and, if you are interested, can read about the process, as you are doing now! What this meant, of course, was a whole other level of design and planning outside of the actual theatrical creative process. We got help from the IT department at Smith, and a number of students and staff were involved in the creation, design, layout, and content of the website.

In The Amplifier’s final form, most of the pieces are comprised of original content created by students: short scenes, poems, devised work, interviews. The individual pieces cover a range of topics related to the world in 2020. Many pieces address the various challenges and devastations of living through a global pandemic. Some pieces deal with the political climate and the significant activism that has taken place this year. Others look at racialized experiences through the lens of American POC and immigrants. Each piece is unique and poignant.

As much as this project was about bringing out voices and creative energy together, it also worked to keep us connected. Despite all the stress, all the unknowns, all the exhaustion, I felt connected to the Smith Theatre community, and that kept me going. I got to see familiar faces every week during production meetings where we could laugh together and become wildly distracted, until Nikki put us back on track. It also gave people who hadn’t worked with the Theatre Department an opportunity to get involved in a less intimidating way than diving headfirst into a typical main stage production. It was a beautiful process with wonderful participants, and a safe opportunity to process through performance and explore the past year in many different creative ways.