The UTM Vanguard Theatre’s production of “Doubt: A Parable” by John Patrick Shanley ran Nov. 5-8, primarily for a livestreamed audience, testing the ability of Visual and Theatre Arts to handle a performance in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Among the cast of this history-making performance here at UTM was Ethan Tester, a Senior English major from Waverly, Tennessee, who played the role of Father Brendan Flynn. He agreed to conduct an email interview with The Pacer about his experience with the performance.
We asked first about the original intentions for the production, whether or not it was always intended to be a livestreamed event and how the crew thought that would impact attendance.
“The intention was always to do a livestream,” Tester said. “There was a lot of doubt (pun not intended) around whether there would be any live audience. Thankfully, we were able to safely allow a limited audience of 25 along with our online audience.”
Performing for a mostly online audience, as you can imagine, is much different than performing for a packed house. Tester told us he actually found this to have certain advantages, especially as this was his “first real on-stage performance.”
“For me, performing in front of a camera felt like a primer for the ‘real thing.'” He added, “it was kind of nice to not have to worry as much about who was in the physical audience watching me.”
It was, however, an adjustment for his colleagues on the stage.
“I know some of the other talented individuals I was working with were much more used to having a big in-person audience. I think they found it to be a bit disappointing that not many people would get to see them perform in person.”
Tester acknowledges that not being a veteran of the stage probably had something to do with his ease of adjustment, but all the actors and crew performed well in the circumstances. And speaking of circumstances, Tester said the feedback he received about the show highlighted the experimental nature of the performance.
“As far as the overall direction and performances were concerned, everyone seemed very happy with the production. I know some of my friends commented on issues they encountered with the online livestream. I think a lot of that can be attributed to the first-time nature of a production like this at UTM.”
Nevertheless, it can be expected that if the pandemic continues into the next production, Visual and Theatre Arts and Vanguard will be much more prepared to tackle the challenge.
It seems problems that occurred with the foray into online viewing didn’t deter Tester any, who responded emphatically to that question, “I would definitely participate in another production like this if I had the time!”
