Theater productions around the country have had to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the Alley Cat Players (ACP), LASA’s theater troupe, it is still unknown whether they will be able to put on their yearly spring musical. It is also unclear whether UIL theater competitions will happen, and the ACP spring show hinges on that decision. In the meantime, the ACP has been exploring new ways to safely hold auditions and rehearsals. 

Junior Olivia Eric-Griffinson, an ACP representative, said that COVID-19 has had a large impact on the ACP theater community. She explained that the ACP, in her opinion, have been hurt more than many other extracurriculars at LASA. 

“COVID has had a really negative impact on theater, which you can see by the fact that we didn’t do any shows in the fall,” Eric-Griffinson said. “It has been difficult to recruit new people — especially freshmen. It’s so difficult to reach out to people virtually that you’ve never met, and even more to find new people who are interested. UIL is happening soon, which is fantastic, but it’s frustrating that sports have been able to continue somewhat normally since the beginning of the year while theater has been hurt so much by COVID.”

She explained that most things about the spring musical, and even the topic of the musical itself, are still undecided. Junior ACP President Jennifer Ramirez was able to provide more information on their plans for the future.

“We’re running it based on if UIL happens,” Ramirez said. “As of right now, we’ve held video auditions for UIL and are hoping to practice online until we absolutely have to rehearse in person, which would probably be the mandatory rehearsal right before competition.”

According to her, if Austin is still under Stage 5 regulations by that time, UIL will not hold any competitions. If UIL competitions are permitted to take place, however, the ACP is considering drive-in performances. Junior ACP Officer Lucy Sugawa said that the department will place a strong focus on safety, but many details are still being worked out.

“It looks like if a musical is going to happen, emphasis on the if, we’re hoping it can be outdoors, sort of a drive-thru musical sort of thing,” Sugawa said. “We’re working on rehearsal plans, and some of our techs are drawing up plans for building an outdoor stage.”

Tentative plans indicate that actors would wear masks throughout the show, and a sound system would be rigged so that both audience members and actors would be able to socially distance, regardless of the number of people. In the meantime, the ACP have held auditions for the musical online.

“This year all auditions for shows have been virtual,” Ramirez said. “Anyone can submit a video with a monologue or anything depending on what the requirements are, but we are keeping all auditions virtual.”

According to Ramirez, in-person rehearsals were held a few times a week in the theater parking lot when the pandemic first started, but that has changed because of the need for stricter regulations under the city’s Stage 5 precautions. Now, all auditions and rehearsals are online.

“We’re actually doing a play right now, and virtual rehearsals over Zoom have been working okay,” Sugawa said. “I would guess that with the musical, rehearsals would have to be more of a combination between virtual and in-person, but the department is really focused on safety, so it would be masked at all times, outdoors, and socially distanced.”

The switch to online rehearsals has called for changes to how the actors practice their roles. Due to how difficult it is to move around on a Zoom call, Ramirez said they now place a focus on practicing lines and developing characters instead of stage directions and the blocking of the actors on the stage.

“Because we’re confined to our houses during rehearsal, we focus a lot more on character building and mostly just going through lines,” Ramirez said. “Specifically for UIL, we were told that we wouldn’t be going back to in-person. Even then, the blocking would be made so that we’re not too close to each other, and we would basically learn it there and maybe add some blocking into the Zoom calls if permitted, but it’s a bit hard whenever you’re not next to the person you’re talking to.”

According to Sugawa, if everything works out, auditions for the spring musical will be in late February and performances in April or May. For now, however, Ramirez said they’ll still have to wait and see if plans will go through.

“We’re really just going with the situation,” Ramirez said. “Everything is up in the air, and we don’t really know. We haven’t gotten a cast list for UIL as of right now, meaning we haven’t really started the actual rehearsal process, and competition is set for the Friday in March before spring break, so once we get closer, we’ll be able to figure out whether or not we will be performing and competing at UIL, and then after that, we would definitely be able to figure out if the spring musical will happen at all.”