Pictured: The systems for creating ‘Near/Far’ were incredibly complex, with seven systems running over three monitors, all being operated remotely by the Digital Technical Director. The actors, director, and designers were all remote as well, watching rehearsals and recording the process over Zoom.
A note from the Director – RARE: from the Latin rarus which in the late Middle English translates as ‘widely spaced’. We have all experienced during the global pandemic that is Covid 19, a necessity to space ourselves widely in order to protect ourselves and survive. And yet, in that space of separation we have grown to understand how deeply we need one another. How necessary communion is for our survival. And what is the theatre but a communion? A coming together to experience what it means to be alive. To love. To lose. This is the exploration of our contribution to PQ23, Near/Far. Near/ Far grew out of a desire on the part of the faculty, staff, and students in the department of Theatre and Film at the University of Mississippi to stay in creativity during the height of the pandemic. Our challenge to ourselves was to make a piece of unique theatre that offered our student designers, technicians, and performers an opportunity to practice their craft as safely as we could manage AND to talk about our collective experience during this historic time. As the director of this piece, I felt particularly charged to keep our student designers challenged and our young actors moving and in their bodies. I wanted to resist the temptation to present a Zoom reading or simply be talking heads. And so, we developed a completely new piece of theatre in a completely new way: a performance in Larval Mask, devised, rehearsed, and performed remotely in student’s rooms and homes in front of green screens, recorded over Zoom, and shared via YouTube. Near/Far is an exploration of isolation, loss, and ultimately, the importance of community. The process of creating the show was an exploration in and of itself. In our search for creativity in the time of pandemic, our department stretched the imagination of all of our units: sound, lighting, scenic, costume, technicians, designers, actors, and producers, to create a new form. In that space of risk and creativity we found a way to narrow the widened spaces.
Production Credits
Presented on YouTube and Performed in Oxford – MS
Producer – Michael Barnett
Playwrights – Lauren Bone Noble and the Students of the Department of Theatre and Film at The University of Mississippi
Director – Lauren Bone Noble
Choreographer – Lauren Bone Noble and the Cast of Near/Far
Scene Design – Wyatt Wood; Faculty Mentor – Cody Stockstill
Costume Design – Aryana Gaines; Faculty Mentors – Carey Hanson and Donna Buckley
Lighting Design – Gianna Shuetz; Faculty Mentor – Yi-Tai Chung
Sound Design – Peter Wood
Media Design – Cody Stockstill
Assistant Costume Design – Ava Greer
Props Artisan – Jared Spears
Stage Technical Director – Fel Macias
Digital Technical Director – Jeffrey Hannah
Stage Manager – Gianna Shuetz
Actors featured in Photos
Jaslyn Ballansaw
Elizabeth Burrow
Christian Carew
Myah Harper
Isabella Mollega
Reese Overstreet
Gregor Patti
Ashley Wingo
Catrina Winters