Play rehearsals move online
The show must go on for one group of Taranaki performers, who took their rehearsals online during lockdown.
Enchanted April, a play about four women who stay at an Italian castle following Wold War I, was a month out from opening night on April 22 at New Plymouth Little Theatre, when it was postponed due to Covid-19 alert Level 4.
‘‘We have a really tight-knit cast, and we were all really sad,’’ director Vivienne Baty said when the show was pulled.
The play has been rescheduled to open on August 5 and run until August 15. But the cast of eight, who have been rehearsing since January, didn’t want to stop.
So they moved their rehearsals to video calls instead, with hours spent online reciting lines, Baty said. They tried different ways of video calling, including turning off their cameras, so only the emotion in their voices told the story.
‘‘It was amazing,’’ Baty said.
But it didn’t come without hiccups. When Baty asked cast members to run through the play without their scripts, some sneakily had it placed off camera to read. ‘‘All the way through they didn’t put their scripts down at all,’’ she said.
They were still unsure how many people would be able to attend the play, due to social distancing guidelines, but were awaiting the Government’s announcement on alert level 1.
But Baty directed the same play back in 2006 to full houses in Inglewood and hoped they’d be able to do the same 14 years on. ‘‘I think people will be looking forward to getting out to the theatres and enjoying a little bit of live entertainment.’’