Field Notes | making testament
DOP Peter Carlone capturing a shot
A few weekends ago we filmed a thing – a film-theatre-music-storytelling-poetic-hybrid of a thing. The pandemic has caused theatre people to explore new territory in filming our work. Some of my colleagues are miles ahead, having already introduced digital technology into their practice years ago. For myself, I must admit I’m a bit old-school and have gone into this digital transition dragging my heels. I make theatre and not film for the very reasons that differentiate the two art forms – I like gathering in person, I like the communion between performer and audience, I like the ritual involved, I like the live risk of something different happening. The “digital pivot” Covid-19 requires has robbed us of the very things I love most about theatre, and specifically Pacific Theatre – intimacy, live-ness, community.
And yet, it is also an opportunity. The technology at hand allows us to create something during this forced pause and that is a gift, I now realize, we would be foolish not to accept.
When I started at PT in September I was initially resistant to filming anything. It’s hard to remember now, but at the time we were allowed to gather in person at the theatre, even in modest numbers of 35. To my mind, that was better than gathering around a laptop. This past fall we produced a one-woman show, then a weekend concert, and then set up a reading series of four plays which promptly sold out – which is easier to do when there are only a handful of tickets available! All of this was done safely, with caution, and with strict adherence to public health guidelines.
Then, in November, the night before our second in-person reading was scheduled (Bloodknot, read by the fabulous Tom Pickett and David Adams), theatres closed again. To preserve the opportunity of hearing these plays read for both performers and audience, the PT staff scrambled to secure digital rights and move the remaining play readings onto zoom. Though our audience was patient and gracious with us, it was tremendously stressful to switch last-minute from live to online. (I never want to hear the word “pivot” again).
The weekend before the fall shutdown we had gotten one thing right – fearing that we might not be able to gather in person in December, we filmed an evening of Christmas Presence (CP). This show is a beloved tradition for many in our community and we knew it would be vital to get it to folks in some way – even if we could only do a digital production. We measured and re-measured to ensure everyone would be safely distanced in the space, we limited the number of performers and sanitized non-stop. We captured an evening of CP on film, and when it was released online in December we had over 500 people watch its premiere with us, hanging out in the chat, sharing memories, and encouraging each other – a different kind of gathering, but a gathering nonetheless.
Learning from the experience of filming CP, in early 2021 we started hatching a plan to film another show. This time we thought we’d try and build on some of the CP magic and do an “Easter Presence” called Testament. We hired a film crew and decided to stretch filming over three days to give ourselves ample time as well as the safe space to involve as many artists as possible.
Unlike Christmas Presence, which is usually assembled on the fly, this show’s setlist and logistics would have to be well thought out ahead of time. I spent the weeks leading up to filming in conversation with our music director Rick Colhoun, collaborating on what songs the musicians would record. Then I combed through the collection of Easter readings that Ron had generously shared, while also searching out new pieces and writers to add into the mix. The show began to take shape around the themes of lament and hope. We planned to release whatever Testament would be on Saturday April 3rd, which is the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday – the in-between-ness of that day matching the tenor of the show, as well as reflecting the in-between-ness of our current pandemic existence.
Testament coming together
I scrapbooked the show together in my home office on the felt bulletin board I have up on my wall. Moving songs around, editing things out, pouring over poems and Easter stories while listening to tunes by Sam Cooke, Jon Ochsendorf and Cheryl Bear, among others.
A funny thing happened. Many times this year I have emerged from my office at the end of the day slightly beleaguered from too much zoom and anxiously ruminating on emails that I need to respond to. (Am I alone in this experience? I think not.) But after an afternoon spent assembling Testament, I felt something different, and it surprised me. I felt settled, I felt nourished – I would say for the first time in months I felt something akin to peace. At first, this feeling was so unfamiliar I didn’t know what to attribute it to. But I’ve since realized the very act of assembling the show, along with immersing myself in poetry and music, fed me and settled my spirit.
And then we made the thing! Three days of filming at the theatre, singing gospel tunes, reading poetry, meeting new artists, and welcoming them into the PT fold- it was a challenge, and we were stretched and we were filled up. It was not the same performing in the space for empty chairs, but we performed anyway, trusting that the audience will gather, even if it is in a different way.
Testament premieres online April 3rd, Holy Saturday. It is a collage of music and readings just like Christmas Presence. There are lots of familiar faces and some new ones too. Our greatest hope is that you, our audience, will be filled up, the same way we were while making it.
Looking forward to our gathering. “See” you in the chat!
-Kaitlin
Testament tickets are now on sale beginning at $10.
The show runs April 3-11 around the globe.