We started meeting weekly (digitally) and began developing a way to re-create a play that we had all previously worked on together. We discussed and bantered about new ways to write, direct, perform and finally to produce an authentic piece of theatre that reflected the restrictions of the times. The script was rewritten to meet the Zoom platform (and rewritten and rewritten and rewritten until we returned to the original story and fashioned a working Zoom script embracing the pandemic.)

We diligently addressed, digital sound issues, individual Zoom room lighting demand, directing challenges and production concerns in a progressive fashion. The greatest issue was equalizing the strength of each performers internet signal. We soon realized that we were not producing a single play on one stage, we were producing fifteen individual plays on fifteen different stages. We had a live band which handed us a cumbersome and unwilling problem because of the inherent sound delay on the platform. We gathered costumers and set dressers, we reached out to other virtual groups across the country for advice and received guidance from brothers and sisters who were seeking change.

Actors and the production team’s homes were turned into rehearsal halls and we dealt with dogs barking, babies crying and phones ringing. Rehearsal halls became sound stages as walls were cleared of pictures, beds were cleared of clothes and garages were tidied. We even put one character in a car and he drove throughout the city Zooming on the go.

During this wonderful and creative time, Virtual Arts was able to develop a professional environment for live theatre on a digital platform and most of the company members stood firm and supported the change as we swam in murky waters. Those that couldn’t support bowed out and were replaced with actors willing to swim. Our final step was organizing a tech rehearsal in fifteen locations all at the same time. Tech rehearsals need full and deliberate focus, this was a monumental step but each and every person did their best to be patient.

As we worked, we began to see live theatre across the nation transition from stage to screen (small screen) and the result was a new and unique theatrical experience.

Final Dress Rehearsal. Typically, this is a sh-t show and we succeeded. It was a complete wreck of missed cues, technical hiccups and blank screens. It was wonderful!

While we remembered with fondness the stage curtain, our vision led us to a black screen that kept the audience waiting. On the screen was a card that read “Our show starts in fifteen minutes”. We chose music to get the audience into the mood – a virtual overture – and we chose images and questions for those waiting to see the show as added entertainment. We had a logo built and invitations delivered. No paper ticket needed. An audience member only had to have a link, the time, the date and a device to sit in the digital theatre of Virtual Arts.

The pre-show hum of excited audience members reading programs and settling into their seats was replaced with the chat feature. We soon discovered in a world dominated by social media that this was a similar and satisfying equivalent. Finally, a host appears on the screen and “in character”, takes the audience through the many ways that they can be involved in the night’s performance. The host greets everyone on the chat and asks the audience to greet the host back. “Hello Las Vegas!” “Hi from Chicago.” “Break a leg from Kansas City.”

Then the play begins, and like magic, we are performing live again. We don’t hear the audience laugh but we see their comments in chat. We used cellphones to communicate to stage managers, we see a grand entrance of an important moment thwarted by the mute button – but it’s live theatre and the audience chats “You’re muted!” The actor is unmuted, and just like a forgotten line it becomes a moment of improvisation and joy as issues are solved and the play goes on. Shakespeare would have loved it. His audience would have thrown digital tomatoes.

Virtual live theatre is no less nerve wracking than in person live theatre. Our pulses exploded and we made our way, screen by screen, moment by moment and the play unfolded and was shared with an audience. Our First Performance.  After six months of weekly and then daily virtual sessions, we launched a full interactive digital production of Tony N’ Tina’s Wedding as a fundraiser for the Nevada based Composers Showcase Entertainment Community Relief Fund on October 8, 2020. We did our production “live” with fifteen actors from three different time zones, a director in the

Northwest, production coordinators on the East Coast and a live band tucked neatly into a house in Las Vegas. We paid our actors and technicians and we helped raise a substantial amount of money for the benefit of other actors not as fortunate as we were.

The performance of a live interactive play usually depends on rubbing up against audience and perspiring as we dance together, eat together and laugh together. Instead, we found ourselves and our audience staring into screens and following the story visually and interactively on the chat. It was hard to make a decision on which to watch – the screen or the chat. We didn’t serve food (hard to do from state to state on a screenJ) but we did share what we were snacking on and cocktails flowed freely in the audience.

Our first performance was a race to share a new style of theatre that was just beginning to wake in the minds of the world and we were there, moving from moment to moment and learning to hold for laughs and mug for more.

We shared visions of the audience delighted and stunned to be seen on screen. The chat lit up and the actors continued. Audience stood. Audience sat. Audience laid down on a couch and watched from the comfort of home. There was no curtain call, but an audience Q&A gave way to cheers and questions. Wonderment about how we had achieved this moment was mostly without answers because we had never looked back on this extraordinary journey.

And when it was all said and done, theatre is theatre is theatre. Our first very appreciative audience shared text messages and congratulations via Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, much like the dazzling frenzy of the after-show lobby. Sometimes an entire group of actors shared best remembered moments of shock and success. Laughs among us led to pride in our achievement.

We missed the paper programs, the combined scent of an audience in close quarters and the hugs of joy but we had re-envisioned our first live virtual production in a new way that felt rewarding and fulfilling. We had dreamed. And the decision was made to move Virtual Arts ahead into the ever-expanding world of theatre rethought.

With Larry Pellegrini as executive director and Margaret Menzies Gonzalez as artistic director, the company has grown steadily producing six shows in its first year for the world wide virtual community. During this period, Christy Patti joined as director of operations and Melissa Ford rounded out this digital company as the director of research and development. 

In January 2021, Virtual Arts formed its Board of Directors by inviting Tonya Ozone and Lynnie Godfrey to join. Tonya Ozone has worked closely with The Ashland Shakespeare Festival and the Boys and Girls Club of Hilo, Hawaii. She is an entrepreneur and successful board member who has developed programming for the Hilo YWCA and the Zonta Chapter of Hilo. Lynnie Godfrey is a Broadway actress and director. Her career has spanned forty years and includes NYC theatrical nominations and awards along with performances on and Off Broadway and on main stream television. Lynnie has worked closely with Norman Lear and PBS. The board guides this digital theatre company, steering us to define our work by adhering to our mission.

Our Mission: Virtual Arts is a theatre and event company that connects artists and audiences globally to realize the full potential of online and in person productions by developing authentic works of hope, humor and humanity. We offer assistance, guidance and production value for online community outreach events that raise awareness and support families and artists world-wide.

We have engaged Meredith Ebersole, a graphic designer from Portland, Oregon to develop our logos, Jean Pritchard, a master photographer to capture on screen moments and Jeff Gitlin, CEO of Jagged Edge Marketing, to upgrade our social media presence.

Our first year has taught us that Virtual Arts can stimulate change in humanity as we join with our guests in a united trek for social awakening. And we were not alone. In the first fifty-two weeks, we were joined in our efforts by companies like Samuel Goldwyn and Amazon. We asked for help and received it from the University of Hawaii and theatrical partners like Corcoran Productions, Black Theatre Girl Magic and HeARTS Productions. We produced and supported class reunions and loved one’s memorials. We structured corporate on line meetings  with Paradise Activity Company and The International Propeller Club. We envisioned and celebrated with three hundred and fifty former members of Tony N’ Tina’s Wedding from around the world in the first gathering with the original company, The TNT Holiday Hangout.

Diverse ideals have engaged us to create plays about colliding cultures, the embracing changing of career paths inspired by the pandemic and a Juneteenth show that cemented twelve months of ceaseless steps forward in a small step toward a more diverse world. We highlighted the LGBTQ community and the Get Out The Vote movement.

We aren’t just a theatre company, we are a virtual presence seeking change through art, for art and because of art.

Conscious of the shoulders we stand on, Virtual Arts looks to the future and our 2021 – 2022 season, we know that artists are here for the long haul, feeding the fire of change with music, plays and focused discussions about how to light the future. At one time, we relished bringing our productions to an eager live audience in a sacred theatre, but now with the challenges and changes of the modern moment, Virtual Arts will bring high quality digital productions of to the entire world.

We have learned so much in our first year with the talent of our team and generosity of the audiences who have supported us. The frontier is a head and we can see it.