SU Drama productions resume, adapt to COVID-19 restrictions

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Christine Albright-Tufts has worked and taught in theaters throughout the country. She’s also married to an actor and has witnessed first hand the toll the pandemic has taken on the arts.

“My husband had a year’s worth of work just canceled,” said Albright-Tufts, an assistant acting professor in the department of drama at Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. “I know how crushing this time is.”

With venues across the country remaining closed as fall approaches, actors and theater artists are left wondering when they will be able to return to the stage. But in the classroom, the work continues with the next generation of actors using this time as an opportunity to innovate and create regardless of the restrictions, Albright-Tufts said.

SU’s drama program is a mix of academic courses and “conservatory-style” classes, with students training in dance, acting and movement work, said junior musical theater major Spencer Lombardo.

But when the department transitioned to online learning in March, classes that would normally require studio time had to be adjusted for at-home work.

Now that students are back on campus, Lombardo said that he and his classmates are doing everything they can to adjust to state and university-wide guidelines, while still maintaining the level of contact needed to create a believable story and engaging performances.

Lombardo is currently rehearsing for a musical called “A Grand Night for Singing,” a production that was rescheduled from last semester because of the pandemic. In the restaged version, performers maintain six feet of distance at all times and are responsible for cleaning and sanitizing their own props.

“It’s definitely different, having to be six feet apart,” Lombardo said. “But I think connection doesn’t have to be physical, and we don’t have to be close to understand how much we all mean to each other.”

Pauline Pauwels, a senior acting major, said that students are finding ways to use the restrictions to their artistic advantage, even while masked and distanced.

Scene study classes, which would normally take place in person at the Syracuse Stage/SU Drama Complex, have had to transition to a hybrid teaching model, Pauwels said. Students will also rehearse their scenes over Zoom, with classmates watching and their instructor giving feedback.

“Theater is a visual art,” Pauwels said. “People are obviously going to see that you’re six feet apart. So instead of pretending, we’re incorporating (social distancing as) part of the storytelling.”

When senior acting major Ella Leh and Pauwels were assigned a scene to work on together, they could work closely at home without worrying about social distancing or masks since they are roommates. It’s a rare opportunity to conduct business as usual, Pauwels said.

Although actors have to be six feet apart, SU drama students like Spencer Lombardo said that they are still able to connect with each other. Corey Henry | Senior Staff Photographer

Leh is also in rehearsal for “On the Lake,” another production postponed from last semester. Rehearsals are being conducted on the Quad, which grants the performers more flexibility than they would have indoors, Leh said. And the piece, which Leh describes as a “feminist sequel” to Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” is suited for the situation.

Costume designers for the play have incorporated COVID-19 protocol into their work, with masks being made that reflect the style of each character. Additionally, costume fittings have been conducted with students’ health and wellness in mind, Leh said.

“It almost feels like now, because we’re all going through something similar together, it’s just made us closer,” Lombardo said. “Anything that we can do to continue to increase the safety of the space and each other is another way that we’ve all been further connected.”

In addition, Pauwels said that being on Zoom has taught her lessons that will translate into the professional world. Self-tape auditions, where an actor must record themselves and submit the performance to casting directors, are becoming the norm, Pauwels said, and her teachers are using this time to focus on the real-world applications of this kind of hybrid training.

Similarly, Albright-Tufts is using the semester to interrogate how theater can reflect our current moment artistically.

She developed a course called “Characters in Isolation,” where her students study plays that deal with people experiencing both physical and emotional disconnect.

While it’s been difficult to adjust to new ways of training and performing, Albright-Tufts said that students have shown enthusiasm and resilience, which has strengthened her resolve as an artist and educator.

“I work really hard to create a space in which I can serve the students in the way that they want to grow,” Albright-Tufts said. “This pandemic has not gotten in the way of that. It has only made my commitment to that stronger.”