'The New Normal' brings COVID-19 struggles to the stage

The cast and crew of “The New Normal” decided to embrace COVID-19 in their production, instead of letting it take away from the performance.

According to Kitt Lavoie, assistant professor of theater, acting and directing, and director of “The New Normal,” the production team decided they didn’t want to shy away from the challenges COVID-19 presented them, so they incorporated their own problems as the characters’.

The show consists of seven plays with two or three actors in each play.

“We’ve actually set them all during COVID or during an event like COVID; they obviously never say the word ‘COVID,’” Lavoie said. “But to create a situation where, rather than just trying to do a play and putting masks on and keeping people apart, but not letting that be part of the world — we really basically took our problems as creators and made them the characters’ problems. So the characters have to wear masks, the characters have to be distanced from each other.”

According to Lavoie, the small cast size helped keep rehearsals and filming manageable. Cast and crew also had to go through temperature checks, and the production was in constant contact with the Campus Health Clinic.

The show is streaming now, but students were presented with a unique opportunity during the production of the show: filming and editing. Students were able to help film each other and work with Lavoie on the final product.

“For me personally, it was my first time doing any kind of camera work and getting to learn the different terminology between doing stage work, to doing film work,” said Alfonso Valdespino, a BFA musical theater major who portrays the character Bennet in the play “Anyway.” “We got to run everything multiple times, instead of just doing a live audience. It was just a whole new experience.”

The plays in “The New Normal” are “Dirty Birds” and “Stay” by Jenny Kirlin, “Anyway” by Jennifer Curfman, “Bank & Trust” by Lavoie, “Super Lucas” by Jennifer Reichert, executive assistant in the Office of the Provost at Southeast, “Empty Handed” by Katelin Wilcox and “Two Birds” by Jerzy Gwiazdowski.

Because of the size of the cast, “The New Normal” replaced “Metamorphoses.” Lavoie and the production team felt “Metamorphoses” wouldn’t be the best to perform during COVID-19. According to Lavoie, when choosing a new production, they wanted to make sure the cast for “Metamorphoses” could still be included in the new show, which helped in their decision for the number of short plays to include.