When Performing Arts moves offstage to online

Performing Arts students at USD struggle to stay connected with their passions and art forms amidst a pandemic and online classes 

Taylor DeGuzman / Arts and Culture Editor 

The transition to online learning and social distancing was not easy for a lot of students. Whether if surrounding oneself with friends was someone’s favorite thing to do, playing football on the field with a cheering crowd was how someone felt invincible, or simply walking to and from class and waving to familiar faces was someone’s favorite part of the day, this pandemic has impacted everyone in different ways.

Specifically, performing arts students, whose world consists of performing on a stage in front of a large audience, are trying to survive in a space that does not allow them to share their art forms in a public space.

Senior Alanna Bledman feels most unapologetically herself within the theatre world. Bledman has accomplished a lot throughout her past four years at USD: both her first and second year, she was constantly in theatrical productions, and had the opportunity to perform in Hollywood and off Broadway in New York at big central theatre locations. Not only does Bledman have acting experience, but she has also written, produced and directed her own productions. After realizing that theatre was the one thing that brought her genuine, pure joy, Bledman decided it was the career path for her. However, the transition to online was not as seamless as she’d thought it would be.

Bledman will star in an upcoming USD fall production titled, Calling My Children Home. However, this production will take form as a pre-filmed show that will be broadcasted online, something that Bledman articulated will be incredibly different.  

“Now I have to think about how to feed off of an audience that I can’t see, because feeding off of a live audience’s energy and reactions is what makes stage theatre so authentic,” Bledman said. “With live theatre, you have one chance to get it perfect, there aren’t any cuts, actors can’t second guess themselves.”

Bledman shared how the pandemic largely affects the theatre community.

“Theatre is taking a toll right now,” Bledman said. “Theatre is physical, theatre is touch, and theater cannot be those things right now. We have to shift and adjust to create that same connectivity that thespians yearn, and we’re all feeling a lack of connection right now.”

As a senior, Bledman is bittersweet about graduating this semester and feels remorse for those theatre majors who are starting their first year in this way.

“I can’t even imagine how first year performing arts majors are feeling right now, but I also feel that they don’t exactly know what they’re missing out on, they don’t really know anything else,” Bledman shared.

Bledman explained the type of mindset the theatre world has right now that is helping them remain strong together.

“Everyone in the theatre world right now has that mentality of ‘The show must go on,’” Bledman said. “We’ve always had to adapt, and now with this semester’s fall production we have to shift and learn in this foreign space that we aren’t comfortable with yet.”

Because theatre is such an interactive and hands-on art and experience, Bledman shared that there are so many components experienced in person that she deeply misses.

“What I always loved about the theatre space is the ability to truly get away,” Bledman said. “There is something so unique about going into four-hour rehearsals and turning off my phone and silencing the outside world. On stage, I had someone else’s story to bring to life, another reality outside of my own.”

Senior Jianna Andrews is a theater major who has plans to enroll in a Physician’s Assistant (PA) program after graduation. The pre-PA track allows her to choose whichever major as long as she finishes the prerequisites. However, her passion for acting is limited due to the climate of online classes.

Currently taking a classical acting class, which delves into Shakespeare, Andrews explained how taking an acting class on Zoom fosters several limitations.

“When you’re acting out a scene with a partner over Zoom, you have to look into the camera as if you’re looking at them,” Andrews said. “It is way more nerve wracking than being in person, because you have to learn to perform and handle your emotions when you’re talking to a computer screen instead of a person. On top of that, you don’t have a physical audience watching, so you can’t feel people’s energies in the room.”

Andrews misses performing and genuinely connecting with other people and the relationships she’s created within the theatre community.

“In theatre, you’re creating relationships with so many different people,” Andrews said. “You’re constantly meeting so many people with different stories, who have such unique backgrounds.”

Transitioning to a completely online format has also impacted another performing art form: music. 

Sophomore Donny Alcones is a music major and performs with USD’s concert and pep band playing the euphonium. Before he attended USD, Alcones was recruited by Jeffrey Malecki, D.M.A, USD’s Director of Bands and Music Education. Alcones has performed with USD’s concert band ever since he was recruited by Malecki as a sophomore in high school. Pursuing music after college is Alcones’ dream; he hopes to write music for video games and tv shows in the future.

Nevertheless, Alcones is finding it incredibly difficult to nurture his passions and learn as much as he can from home. A majority of his course load is music related. He explained that in particular, online band experience deflects the ability to connect with the music and experience the community that band provides.

“There’s a lot of nuances that you can’t get online, such as listening and reacting to the art that everyone is creating together,” Alcones said.

Alcones is currently taking a class called the History of Music Technology, which teaches students how to produce music, understand how music production works, and how to use sophisticated studio technology. Alcones expressed how upset he felt about taking this class online because this is an important class for his future career.  

“It’s difficult because USD has a dedicated room with equipment you would see in a recording studio,” Alcones said. “We have to download a music production program on our computers and it’s extremely hard to do Zoom at the same time as running the program. I wish I could experience a professor walking around the room since this class is so hands on and I would benefit from live-time critiques.”

Alcones explained how both being at home and trying to practice his passion for music isn’t the most beneficial experience.

“As a music major I wish I had access to practice rooms or studio rooms to work on my craft because staying at home doesn’t put me in the right headspace to write or practice music,” Alcones said. “At home, I don’t really have that separation between the space that school occupies and the space where my music can thrive.”

Most of all, Alcones feels detached from his music community at USD and misses those that he would connect with through music.

“Being able to rehearse with friends and performing with them is a musical experience that not many people know about or will ever experience,” Alcones said. “I miss the camaraderie that accompanies being a part of something as special as a band and getting the opportunity to share in this art form and express emotions at the same time.”

In this current world, performing arts students struggle to practice the art form that helps them experience the connectivity and community they would have experienced in school. Bledman, Andrews, and Alcones can all empathize with one another that creating and crafting performing arts in an online environment is a foreign space that cannot compare to the physical and emotional experience that happens on stage and between an audience. There is a spotlight on the performing arts world, more than ever before, that is bringing light to how performers simply cannot thrive, as they did before, in a virtual setting.