So to start some, oh, how's the? How is it fix Gemma society? Been this year? How have you adapted to COVID COVID-19? And what have some recent how it's been of activities.
It's been an interesting year, I think we can agree. It's been a year of a lot of adaptation to new circumstances as they come. And it's been a really cool opportunity, I think, to explore new mediums and new kinds of theater that we wouldn't have ever done even. We're going to be putting out I think, next week, plug a device, or a device, audio show. And even the audio element set aside, vcds just doesn't do device theater, traditionally, there's no reason we couldn't, and I think in the future, they should. But that's been being forced to get a little bit creative, I think has actually been really cool for us in a lot of ways.
I would completely agree with Gail on that. When we'd also looked into, we produced our first radio play as well. This past semester, technical dedication. And so yeah, we're looking at ways to be able to still produce theater remotely and online and creative ways.
Amazing. Yeah. And, um, what was the title for the radio job? was it was it like a new script? So was it like, was it a retelling of a script?
Yeah, it was a it was. So it was actually a student written script that had been proposed to us last year for a draw as a drama fest show to be produced traditionally in person for the OT drama fest. And I, in my old job at vcds, I had read that script. And when we were putting together the season, this year, I thought we should do a radio play, this would make a great radio play. And I reached out to the playwright and she did a lot of really great work with us to make essentially an adaptation of her own play, which was great. It's a zombie drama set in the Hart House theatre. Tech booth. It's a really, it's a, it's a fun show, and the sort of thing that feels very vcds, it feels like, you know, he's like,
and the script really lend itself to the audio format, as well. And on top of that, we didn't mention this. Initially, we're also putting on a musical at the in the first week of April. And so that was all recorded remotely. And now we're and then we're compiling it together, online, as well.
So
that sounds like a really exciting. So I'd like to explore both of these. But first one was a question of worth four bit more info on the radio play. With this, some have a name and with the recording be available online, I'd be very much interested in like a high level angling this some if it's available.
Yeah. So our first our first audio show that came out in December, called technical dedication, that's DEA di, ca ti, ti o n, because it's a zombie show. It's on Spotify, Apple podcasts, and YouTube, I think.
We can all put the links in email,
we'll definitely link those. And then this upcoming week, keep an eye on our socials. The next show is called when all of this is over, and I believe should be on those same platforms.
Like that's so amazing. Yeah, I'm very glad to have the opportunity to have this interview on how they thought that work. Like it was hard to get it published on those those kinds of platforms. So that's something that's really exciting. Yeah. And out like, I'm a bit more more info on that, um, how did you manage the production of that? Was it, it was a synchronous, some, from the perspective of someone who is working as a performer on the play, or, or, or a manager or director, what was it like to adapt to COVID-19. To produce
that? It's been, it's been very different for different shows, depending on I think the needs of sort of the base, the script and what the team feels comfortable with. I know for technical dedication, for example, it was recorded pretty much on in one go, everybody was recording their own audio, but they were on a zoom call so that they could just do the timing because it's offline online online. As opposed to something like ghost quartet, which is our musical that'd be coming out next month, I think, where it's mostly been the the performer is for actor musicians. And they've, they're sort of stacking their music on top of each other and recording tracks independently and layering them, which has been kind of incredible what they've been able to achieve for people who've never actually met each other
and are just making music together online. And then our third show when all this is over, it's devised monologues and so everyone recorded their own monologues kind of separately. And then it's been compiled together during the audio editing process. Yeah,
we've been very lucky this this year to work with some very talented editors, which is a subset of our audio and video editing is a skill set that we wouldn't usually interact with so much. But we've met some really great people who have, I think, really made the difference on some maker pre con. So some finished products, I think, wouldn't have been nearly as good without our editing teams.
It's definitely a different skill set than what VCs would normally look for in production,
nature.
And that's amazing and really exciting to hear. And you and you mentioned that the next production will be released in about April, would you have a particular release dates that you'd like me to share? Or is it more of like a early April, mid April, late April? What is our
release date? So our next one is the audio walk when all over? That's coming out on March 13? And then ghost quartet will be coming out? calendar? I believe it's April 2, April 4. Yeah.
And this sounds really interesting. I plan to attend to go to the Spotify, look it up, maybe get some quotes. So this is something that I'm really excited here. Yeah. And for up shifting the two plans for the future. Do you think that you'll be taking in forward some of your experiences adapting to COVID-19 this year and potentially doing more more audio or, or films productions in the next year when the syncing is over? Or do you plan to, like have have it more more or more traditional, traditional? And if so, what is a traditional production normally look like?
A good question, I think, yeah, I think we're currently in the process of finding our executive for next year that people that will get to make those decisions in our capacity to recommend I think, on the one hand, I think there has been a lot of like new sort of trailblazing that's been done in terms of online theater. I also think, which, which I'm very grateful for, and I think has been artistically fulfilling for a lot of people. I also think when social distancing goes away, there's going to be a really, really strong hunger to start doing in person theater again, because it is such a different experience. And it's something that I know, I've missed. I know a lot of people have missed, um, I think vcds going into the next season is certainly going to be a lot better prepared for another online season. Partially, that's just in terms of like, assets, like we've invested in a lot of like microphones and audio equipment and things like that. And partially because we've done a we you know, we've done a season of online theater, Alexa and I are going to write a really thorough transition report. That's like, here's the things we wish we knew when we did vcds, his first ever online season. So I think it'll be I would like to think, again, if it's another season online theater, I think it's gonna be a lot of different similar types of shows. But hopefully, new takes on new formats.
Very well said, I completely agree. It's up to ultimately next year's executive to make those calls. But given what we know, we'd be highly recommend getting probably from the proposal, the initial proposal process to ask potential directors to think of like to propose shows that are in the online format, and can be adapted in person if need be. But just so that everyone's aware at the start of it, so they don't need to scramble and yeah, change things when, because we can't necessarily predict how long this will last. And if we will be completely in person in the fall or if it's going to be another hybrid method, or so on.
Yeah, because I mean, we picked first season, last April until last May, which was a time when we had no idea if we were going to be fully in person by September, obviously didn't end up happening. And there was a lot of difficulty in trying to take the shows that we wanted to produce and port them online if they weren't originally meant for that. There were logistical issues with that there were legal issues with that and a lot of cases right when we're renting, we're we're licensing rights for a show. There's very specific parameters on how we can present it. So I definitely think will be recommending you sort of plan on an in person see and planning on online season. If you can do things in person, awesome. But start from there. Build up.
Amazing. That's really exciting to hear, and have any other info that you'd like to add for either people interested in joining the, the site again next year or people who want to tune in to watch the performances. Yeah,
we always say follow us on Instagram, like us on Facebook, we put all of our announcements are amazing, amazing communications director, Natalie song has done a lot of original artwork for all of our shows this season, and has also been really on top of announcements and things like that. So follow the socials, we're gonna have elections coming up in probably next month or so for our next year's executive. Those are for VIP students, anybody who pays big fees, we would like to see you there, Alexa will do anything. And then
if you're I guess not really sure that you want to have it to be in an executive position. Of course, there will be show proposal season in the spring. So if you want to do a show, you can put forth your idea. And then in the fall vsds also hires its assistance. And so that's a great way to get started as well. And of course, casting and auditions will be in the fall to
amazing, and those are the questions I had prepared. But because this is going to be like the last issue of the dispute paper for this year, I figured I might as well make it a big one. It has been last minute so like no, no, no worries, it's not possible. But if you happen to have anyone else you think might be interested in sharing a perspective, but potentially as a as an actor or performer, even someone from the from the NBA, I'd be happy to arrange like a quick 10 minute phone call interview to include their perspective. Only if there's interest in and available, because I just think it's so interesting.
Maybe are one of our directors.
Yeah, I was gonna say we could probably I bet Sydney would love to talk about those things. Yeah, we'll we'll we'll get in touch with some are directories and we'll send you a couple names, if that would be okay.
That'd be perfect. Yeah. And the terms of timeline, perfectly a time like by like a Thursday noon bites on that's just just the first draft. So like, like, if there's even after that. There's a there's a there's a bunch of flexibility to do. And I feel free to share my thoughts. Like I said, I share my phone number. Yep, I did my phone number and my email address. And yeah, I'll be very interested to hear more. I thank you very much for your time and your perspective today. Yeah, thank you
very much. Yeah.
Let's talk about the stuff we're doing. We appreciate it a lot.
Yeah, for sure. That was a very much just had to include it in the piece. Yeah, I hope you have a really wonderful day. Thanks. Have a good evening.
