This being my first Zoom play, there was a lot that was new to me about acting over technology. There was of course dealing with the technology itself, like knowing where to stand to be seen well on camera, and putting the mic in the best position, but acting in general was very different when acting in a room by myself. I haven’t participated in that many shows during my time in theatre, but this is certainly the most different one I’ve done. Performing towards a computer screen rather than an audience is strange, and it’s even weirder to have your scene partners on the other side of the country rather than the other side of the stage. The lack of a physical presence + the voice delay over the internet made it a pretty separate task from in-person acting. However, some of the challenges it presented weren’t immediately obvious to me. Sennojō Sensei and Director Maggie often advised me to keep my energy up. I think putting energy into acting is one of my favorite parts of performance, and during rehearsals, I thought I was doing an alright job of keeping high energy. Until I watched the rehearsal footage afterwards and saw that my energy was quite low and could be much higher. I think a combination of being in a small room and being by myself made me hesitant to project and make bigger actions. But after taking notice of this, I tried my best to turn the energy up way past normal and make up for the low energy factors. I know it was a noticeable improvement, and I hope it turned out well.
– Clayton Searcy, Earthbound