{"id":208742,"date":"2021-03-18T11:11:09","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T15:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/?p=208742"},"modified":"2021-03-24T16:24:47","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T20:24:47","slug":"working-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/2021\/03\/18\/working-together\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Working\u2019 Together"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Born of an interdepartmental collaboration between students in Theatre and Dance<\/a> and Television Production<\/a> to safely overcome the obstacles of the COVID-19 pandemic, Montclair State\u2019s Working<\/em>\u00a0will have its world premiere at the Department of Theatre and Dance\u00a0Virtual Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

Adapted for Broadway in 1978 by the legendary Stephen Schwartz,\u00a0Working<\/em>\u00a0is a musical based on Studs Terkel\u2019s book,\u00a0Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do<\/em>, first published in 1974.<\/p>\n

With its vignettes of individual workers\u2019 toil \u2013 from farming to waitressing to welding \u2013 the show is almost ideally suited for a hybrid production, one that could be rehearsed and recorded via Zoom or, for some musical numbers, in outdoor and\/or socially distanced or masked groups.<\/p>\n

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Working<\/em>, filming at the Kasser Theater. February 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe adopted protocols for the pandemic into the design and the blocking of our show,\u201d says Peter Flynn, associate professor of Theatre and Dance. \u201cSo everybody, unless they\u2019re shooting remotely, unless they\u2019re on Zoom or everybody\u2019s in a mask, everybody stays socially distant. There are even some characters, because of the jobs that they are representing onstage, who wear masks and gloves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working<\/em>\u2019s tales of the trials and tribulations of everyday workers also made it the perfect theatrical vehicle for addressing the plight of essential laborers during the pandemic. Flynn worked with his associate director, Chanel Johnson \u201920, to update the musical, with the blessing of Schwartz.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe formulated questions and put out an email to our entire Musical Theatre student body and said, \u2018Whether you\u2019re involved in the show or not, we\u2019d like to interview any family members that have been directly affected by quarantine or by the pandemic.\u2019 And we got a flurry of emails back.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, Flynn explains, \u201cWe interviewed a teacher, three business owners, a pilot and a physician\u2019s assistant.\u201d Then Flynn and Johnson turned each of those interviews into a monologue using a fictional name for the character.<\/p>\n

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Musical Theatre students (with choreographer Hollie Wright, lower right-hand corner) rehearse \u201cIt\u2019s an Art\u201d at the Red Hawk Diner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the same time, Flynn began coordinating with School of Communication and Media Professor Stuart MacLelland on the project, which proved rewarding for students in both programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge success story,\u201d says MacLelland, who enlisted students from his Advanced Television Production and Television Production Company classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the time, I give my students an assignment to find acts or talent. But we weren\u2019t going to be able to put 20 people in our studio and control rooms, so I started looking around for content.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Filming\u00a0Working<\/em>\u00a0using green screen and outdoor locations last fall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The John J. Cali School of Music and the Department of Theatre and Dance presented great opportunities. Besides filming a Kasser main stage production of\u00a0A Chorus Line<\/em>\u00a0using robotic cameras and the University Singers performing\u00a0Ain\u2019t No Grave<\/em>\u00a0in the Amphitheater, MacLelland and his students went to work on\u00a0Working<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a really good partnership,\u201d says MacLelland. \u201cMontclair State has always been great at broadcast journalism and documentary.\u201d Working with the Cali School and musical theatre, however, represents \u201ca whole new world\u201d for Television Production students. \u201cWhen they are watching the rehearsal process and see that side of show business, we\u2019re providing the broadest foundation for any kind of media arts and performance, making them more dimensional and marketable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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School of Communication and Media Professor Stuart MacLelland (left) with Carter Winner \u201922 in the production room at the Kasser Theater.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The University company for\u00a0Working,<\/em>\u00a0which was routinely tested for COVID-19, shot scenes all over campus before needing to postpone production because of a positive COVID-19 test among the group in early November: A number called \u201cCleanin\u2019 Women\u201d was shot in the News Lab in the School of Communication and Media. \u201cThe Mason\u201d was shot in the Amphitheater.<\/p>\n

Major production numbers that open and close the show were rescheduled for filming in the spring semester \u2013 when Flynn and MacLelland felt it was safe to resume with the full cast and everyone in the company was cleared according to the University\u2019s COVID-19 protocols. \u201cIt\u2019s An Art,\u201d about a waitress, was shot in the Red Hawk Diner in late February.<\/p>\n

Other scenes were recorded using Zoom or with green screens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been very weird doing a show during COVID,\u201d says Johnson, who graduated in December. \u201cLuckily, we\u2019ve been able to have a lot of one-on-one time with the actors in person and over Zoom during the process. Zoom rehearsals have proven incredibly effective. We can meet as a full company or have five different breakout rooms rehearsing at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Working<\/em>\u00a0associate director, Chanel Johnson \u201920: \u201cWe were able to create a show in the middle of a global pandemic, which I think is pretty spectacular.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Having to always think about social distancing and other COVID-19 safety measures made everything more difficult, Johnson says. \u201cBut we were able to create a show in the middle of a global pandemic, which I think is pretty spectacular,\u201d says Johnson, who gives credit to MacLelland and his students: \u201cThey\u2019ve been really incredible throughout all of this. Major props to them for all the hard work they put into this show!\u201d<\/p>\n

Flynn, for one, is excited to share the \u201csix-month labor of love\u201d with the world: \u201cFor the very first time in a production of\u00a0Working<\/em>, there will be monologues about people who do their jobs during a pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMost theatre programs in the country have chosen not to do shows during COVID-19,\u201d says Judith Evans, costume shop supervisor for the Department of Theatre and Dance, \u201cbut Montclair State is producing creatively\u201d \u2013 and safely.<\/p>\n

Working\u00a0will debut at the Department of Theatre and Dance\u00a0<\/em>Virtual Festival<\/em><\/a>, an online\u00a0<\/em>portal that allows performance and presentation opportunities for dance, theater, musical theater and other students and provides every audience member a front row seat to spectacular pre-recorded shows available for streaming.<\/em><\/p>\n

Story by Staff Writer\u00a0Mary Barr Mann<\/a><\/p>\n

Learn more about the Theatre & Dance Virtual Festival<\/a><\/span>Learn more about the Department of Theatre & Dance<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Collaboration brings musical production to life despite challenges of the pandemic, joins other performances at online Virtual Festival<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":208743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,12,11,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-announcements","category-190_theatre-dance","category-235_school-of-communication-and-media","category-student-success"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208742"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208748,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208742\/revisions\/208748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}