Arvada Center Using Technology To Reimagine Its Theater Productions
ARVADA, Colo. (CBS4) - With most live performances still shutdown due to coronavirus, Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities has found new ways to perform.
"We knew that we didn't want to stop engaging with our patrons, so we looked around. 'What can we do?' 'What can we do that would be virtual, that we could afford, that was not going to be too risky?' Because, of course, we, like everyone else, were suffering a lot of lost revenue from lost ticket sales from all the canceled performances," said Philip Sneed, President and CEO of the Arvada Center for Arts & Humanities. "So we began to look at all of our work from our classes, to our theatre productions, to our concerts, to our student dance and music, to see what could be done online, and we were surprised at how much we were able to do."
The Arvada Center has done virtual plays, and virtual student dance concerts. They even did an audio-only drama, like the old fashioned radio plays. They did performances that were broadcast live in real time, and others that were recorded and streamed on-demand.
"We just looked at all the possibilities that the technology offered, and just tried to get as much content out there as possible," Sneed explained.
They premiered a groundbreaking zoom play called "The Family Tree" written by local playwright Jessica Austgen.
"People loved it. People loved the interactive component. You get to know the characters on four different Zoom screens, and four different locations, and the actors were all in their own homes, of course, for safety. And as you got to know the characters then they would split off into breakout rooms, so just like when a meeting has a breakout room. The audience could choose which character's story lines to follow, and then, of course, at the end it all comes back together. So people loved that," Sneed said. "I know some people saw it multiple times so they could follow different characters story lines at different times."
The success of "The Family Tree" led to another original work from Austgen that will run March 19 – April 4. It's called "Christie Con."
"This play imagines an annual convention of Agatha Christie fans that has to go virtual because of the pandemic. So if you love Agatha Christie, there will be that element to it, but you'll also get to know some of the kinds of fans that are really hardcore and follow her and go to these conventions," Sneed told CBSN Denver. "There's already been a lot of excitement about it, been a lot of presales."
"Christie Con" will be performed live on Zoom, so you can go to arvadacenter.org for specific show times.
The season kicks off with a one-man show that is recorded and streamed. It started on Monday is is called "Buyer & Cellar."
"It's based upon something that's actually true which is that Barbara Streisand, in her mansion, in California, has an enormous, underground mall, basically, filled with all her memorabilia. She's a fan of American design. She's published a book about American design. So that is the bit of truth that this is based on," Sneed said.
The play is the fictional story of an out-of-work actor who gets hired to manage the collection. In the fictional story, Streisand would come downstairs and shop the collection, even bargaining for best prices.
"So it's all one actor. He's done it from his home. Our production staff has come up with a set design, so we've added scenic elements to the actor's own apartment. And our staff is so good, that they've even managed to find a way to have the lights change in his apartment, and that change is executed from the stage managers apartment in a completely different location, so everybody is isolated," Sneed said.
The Arvada Center will be commemorating 45 years of offering musical theatre with a special concert that highlights special moments from past Arvada Center productions. "Our Favorite Things: A Musical Theatre Retrospective" will be streamed live from the Arvada Center on April 2 with a limited number of in-person seats available.
Also in April, Arvada Center will be putting on another radio play. Listeners will be whisked away to the glamourous Jazz Age where love and obsession rule the night, in an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby." That will be available on-demand starting April 15.
