Jason Sin, dressed in a period costume and wearing a mask over his mouth and nose, comes through the front door and on to the porch with a welcoming message as he collects his waiting audience. Everyone proceeds inside to watch a group of student actors perform the first part of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull.
In the way that it is performed – with several safety precautions in place to prevent the possible spread of COVID-19 – the play is unlike anything Salt Lake Community College’s Black Box Theatre group has ever done. Then again, these are unusual times – and out of necessity and ingenuity is born an unusual production.
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The first of three viewing spaces for the audience is the large main room of The Clubhouse, built in 1913 for its former occupants, the Ladies Literary Club. The small, socially distanced audience is then invited to watch acts two and three in separate rooms throughout the vintage venue, located at 850 E. South Temple in Salt Lake City.
The next group of SLCC acting students summons their audience in to do the same play in as many acts in as many rooms, and so on and so on throughout a weekend in late September – that is, during a pandemic. As one show ends, another begins. All of the actors keep their face coverings on throughout the plays – and so do audience members. As you watch, you might focus on the actors' eyes, changes in tone of voice, nuances perhaps otherwise overlooked.
“I think the part where we, as a cast, had to think so much outside of the box to keep with safety guidelines while creating a powerful performance was my favorite part,” Jason says. “We definitely had to do a lot of things that were different than what we were used to, but it was amazing to learn and grow.”
Jason, 32, played the part of Medvedenko – he ranks the experience in the top three of everything he’s done in theatre. He chose SLCC for its premier music technology program and plans to graduate in spring, 2021 with associate’s degrees in theatre and music recording technology. His dream – move to New York and become a Broadway performer. Plan B, incidentally, is to find steady work as a physician’s assistant in surgery or emergency services. “I did see the show Sleep No More while in New York City, and ever since then I was really curious as to how the actors deal with having audiences all around them, up close and personal,” Jason says. “Having this experience made me want to try to do more productions similar to it.”
SLCC theatre program director, Zachary Curtis, had planned on producing The Seagull before the pandemic tightened its grip on the United States last spring. As fall approached, Zac and student Robin Young got to work adapting the play, using a “promenade” style that moves from space to space. Zac says the turn-of-the-century Clubhouse felt authentic to the play, written in 1895, and added a “fascinating” layer to the production, which is supposed to take place on a country estate. Spaces where the audiences went were sanitized between each performance. Only 10 tickets were sold to each show, with seats set apart from each other.
“We aimed to create a unique experience for the actors and audience that embraced the precautions we are all being asked to take,” Zac says. “The Seagull is a play about our desires for connection and isolation. The characters struggle to connect in a world that pulls them apart. This play felt very fitting for 2020.”
The three casts of The Seagull
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