While Broadway and other theaters have remained closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the show must go on at St. Joe’s.
“Jesus Christ Superstar,” a rock opera detailing Jesus’s final days, will be performed by the SJU Theatre Company in the Claver House parking lot to sold-out audiences at 7:30 p.m. on March 26, 27 and 28.
Typically the company performs in Bluett Theatre, but this semester’s audiences will pull up in their cars, tune in to their radios and watch the actors perform on a small stage to the left of Claver House, home to the university’s Honors Program.
Actors will wear masks at all times during the performance but will be using wireless hand-held mics in order to better transmit the sound to the audience members’ radios.
Anastasia Korbal ’22, who plays the female lead role of Mary Magdalene, said she is excited to share this unique experience with the audience.
“I’m looking forward to having the chance to just perform, regardless of what it looks like, where it is or the constraints that are put on us,” Korbal said.
Last semester, the SJU Theatre Company streamed a radio play performance of “It’s a Wonderful Life Radio Play.” Renee Dobson, M.F.A., associate professor of performing arts and artistic director of Bluett Theatre, said she appreciated the opportunity to direct a streamed performance but pushed for a return to an in-person show this semester.
“Especially for the musical theater students, it was important to at least try or make an effort to do a live performance,” Dobson said. “Zoom is all well and good, but it’s not really live theater.”
Discussions about a live outdoor theater production began last summer, according to Dobson.
“There have been numerous [meetings] with the dean of arts and sciences, and through the provost’s office,” Dobson said. “There was more time discussing and meeting than there was in rehearsal.”
Dobson said she collaborated with Cary Anderson, Ed.D., associate provost and vice president of Student Life, to find an initial location for the performance, which was the roof of Hawks’ Landing.
“We thought that would be kind of interesting to do something on a rooftop, a rooftop type of concert, but [Dr. Anderson] got word that there was a zoning issue,” Dobson said. “The location was then changed to Claver House’s parking lot.”
Korbal said performing in an outdoor setting as opposed to a traditional theater pushes actors to adapt their methods of acting when developing their characters on stage.
“We’re performing for people in cars, so everything has to be even more over the top,” Korbal said. “Not in a bad way, but so that it’s readable.”
As the production team discussed the logistics of the outdoor location, the cast spent many practices in Bluett Theatre in small pods. No more than eight people out of the 16 members in the cast were on the stage at any given time.
“The most challenging thing is just your natural instincts,” Korbal said. “At one point they didn’t want us facing each other directly, so there’s a lot of things that would come naturally that we had to work around.”
Adhering to the university’s iCare Pledge, which requires all members of the St. Joe’s community to wear masks in indoor and outdoor spaces, the actors had to wear masks while rehearsing.
Giacomo Badalamenti ’24, who plays the titular character Jesus Christ, said it took time to get used to that.
“Singing with a mask has definitely been a little weird,” Badalamenti said. “It sometimes falls off your face a little bit.”
Dobson said she adapted the staging, the positioning of actors on a stage during a performance, to ensure that minimum contact is made on stage.
“I approached it as a hybrid of a full staging and a concert,” Dobson said. “In some cases, they’re doing choreography, but there’s minimal contact.”
The actors also participated in weekly surveillance testing to ensure that practices were kept safe, according to Dobson.
Over the course of the entire process, one person in the cast and crew tested positive for COVID-19. The cast paused rehearsals for a week while they waited for test results.
“If I wasn’t a proponent of masks before, and I was, I certainly would be after that because the fact that no one else tested positive had to have happened because of masks,” Dobson said.
Despite these challenges, the cast said COVID-19 protocols have not affected the participants’ camaraderie.
“Even though we haven’t been all together and the rehearsal process has been kind of strange, there still is that sense of community among the cast members and the crew,” Korbal said.
Dobson said she is most proud of the students’ perseverance and tenacity during the rehearsal process.
“It’s not easy for them,” Dobson said. “There’s always that aspect of having to be very cautious. I love them for being able to create an experience here that’s uplifting for them, and maybe for the audience.”
While this semester’s production will be one of a kind, both the cast and the crew are hoping to return to Bluett Theatre in the near future.
“I do hope that we will be back in the theater, even if there’s still social distancing going on,” Korbal said. “Just being back on a stage, not outside, in that element, is something that I’m definitely looking forward to.”
Whether or not the company will be allowed to perform in Bluett Theatre next semester, Korbal said she is just happy for the opportunity to perform.
“This is definitely an experience that we’re all going to take with us for the rest of our lives,” Korbal said.
