Theatre Kapow opens new season with virtual performances
Like most theater companies pre-Covid, Theatre Kapow had a very different idea of what its 2020 season would look like. The Manchester-based company was just days away from beginning rehearsals for one of the two remaining shows in its 12th season when theaters were shut down in March.
After months of planning, Theatre Kapow is moving forward with its 13th season, titled “We Can Get Through This,” starting with a series of three one-person plays, each with four exclusively livestreamed performances.
“It was pretty clear early on that if we wanted to continue making theater at this time, we would have to do very, very small shows,” artistic director Matt Cahoon said. “We figured solo performances would be pretty much the safest thing to do right now.”
The series focuses largely on the idea of isolation and other themes that are very relevant to people today, Cahoon said, such as resilience, courage and conviction.
The first play, Feast, which runs Sept. 25 through Sept. 27, is being directed by Cahoon and performed by his wife, Carey Cahoon.
Written in 2019 by Megan Gogerty, Feast reimagines a villain from a well-known work of medieval English literature (you’ll have to watch the play to find out who it is) who is throwing a dinner party to confront society about its acts of injustice.
“Even though it’s telling this ancient story, it’s probably the most contemporary show I’ve ever directed,” Cahoon said. “It speaks very much to the current moment and even about living in the time of a virus.”
The second play, Lauren Gunderson’s Natural Shocks, runs Oct. 23 through Oct. 25 and is being directed by Wanda Strukus and performed by Rachael Longo. Based on the famous “To be or not to be” monologue from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the piece follows a woman, alone in her basement riding out a tornado, as she reflects on other threats in her life.
The third and final play, A Tempest Prayer by Peter Josephson (director and actor are TBD), runs Nov. 20 through Nov. 22 and is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
The plays, which are being shot in a small studio space in Manchester, are full theater productions with sets, costumes, props, lighting design and sound effects.
“It’s still theater, not film,” Cahoon said. “If people were here watching [in the studio], it would look like a regular live theater performance.”
Theatre Kapow “believes fervently” that there is something special about “the immediacy of a live performance,” Cahoon said, so there was no question that the company would livestream the plays rather than pre-record them.
“We’re doing a lot with [film elements], but doing the performances live and in the moment is what makes it theater,” Carey Cahoon added.
“If you go to the movies, you know that no matter what you do as an audience member, no matter what happens in the theater and no matter how you react, the movie isn’t going to change. It’s going to be the same every time you hit ‘play,’” Matt Cahoon said. “There is a tangible difference between that and watching something happening live and in real time. The actor puts out a different kind of energy, and people can feel that.”
The virtual format has posed a whole new set of considerations for the directors and the actors.
For example, Matt Cahoon said, when directing a play for the live stage, he watches the actor and directs the actor’s movements, but for Feast, he has been focusing his direction on the cameras, watching rehearsals on his computer screen so that he can “see what the audience is seeing.”
In many ways, the virtual format allows him to do more with the play than he could if it were being performed on a live stage, he added. For one thing, he has more control over what the audience fixes its attention on at every moment during the play.
“The staging of a play is a big part of the storytelling,” Carey Cahoon said. “It’s different [in the theater] obviously, since the human eye can see [a] wider [area] than a camera can, but in this format we can decide what we want the audience’s perspective [to be], so we’re thinking a lot about the different camera angles we’re using and what those angles mean dramatically.”
Additionally, cameras allow Matt Cahoon to give the audience perspectives that aren’t possible in a live theater, such as close-ups and overhead views.
“It’s really freeing,” Matt Cahoon said. “We [at Theater Kapow] have always prided ourselves on presenting our pieces with unique audience perspectives, and with the cameras, we can stay faithful to that approach, and we’re able to do even more and have a lot of fun with it.”
The virtual format is a unique opportunity for actors as well, Carey Cahoon said. When performing for a live audience in a theater, she said, she has to project her voice loudly to be heard and exaggerate her physical movements to be seen, but in Feast, she can give a more dynamic performance.
“I can be much quieter and do more subtle things and things with more nuance,” she said. “I’ve really enjoyed the ability to explore a wider range as an actor.”
Carey Cahoon said she “spent a lot of time being bothered” about not being able to perform for an audience in person, but she has a different outlook now.
“I’ve realized that you can still create that shared environment,” she said, “because even though we can’t be in a shared space anymore, we can still be in shared time.”
Theatre Kapow’s 13th season: “We Can Get Through This”
Schedule
Feast – Sept. 25 through Sept. 27
Natural Shocks – Oct. 23 through Oct. 25
A Tempest Prayer – Nov. 20 through Nov. 22
When: Performances are on Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 4 p.m.
Where: Livestreamed online; ticket holders will be sent the link to watch the show
Cost: $10 per streaming device
More info: tkapow.com
Featured Photo: Carey Cahoon as Agathae in Feast. Photo by Matthew Lomanno.
