Most drama students would agree that the highlight of theater is getting to perform in front of a live audience. However, as a result of COVID-19, drama students were no longer able to experience the opening night adrenaline rush. In order to adapt to these unexpected circumstances, the PHS drama students attended online classes, performed pre-recorded musicals, and even filmed self-tapes for auditions. Although the school year was far from normal, the drama students made the best of the situation and used their time at home to not only improve upon their acting skills but to also prepare for when performances would eventually start up again.

PHS drama students were not discouraged by the cancellation of in-person performances. Drama teacher Julianna Krawiecki made use of the technology available online and decided to have an at-home production. After auditioning online, students recorded themselves reciting their lines. These videos were then combined to create one cohesive musical. PHS students agreed that an online production had both its advantages and disadvantages.

“I’m not going to lie, it’s definitely nice being able to have your sheet music and lines out while performing as a little bit of a safety net, but there’s nothing like live theater and an audience to perform for,” said Hannah Bobchin ’21.

Many PHS drama students shared the same view. Although at-home productions brought about some benefits, such as not needing to stress about memorizing lines, these virtual performances didn’t have the same excitement as the live performances of a typical year.

“In a few ways, yes, it was easier to perform from our homes, by having easy access to scripts and by being able to control your environment,” said Matty Baglio ‘23. “However, in a lot of ways it sucked. Spectacle theatre is all about coming together and performing, and that was hard to achieve over Zoom.”

One of the more difficult challenges of at-home acting was the lack of interaction between fellow actors. PHS actors have found it hard to portray a character effectively if they are not able to interact with other characters in person. 

"One of the other big challenges as an actor in doing the production from home was that there were no other actors on stage with you to play off of. When there is no one to react to, it makes telling the story a lot harder!” said Sedona Raphael ’24. “While I appreciated the gift of ‘slowed-down time’ during the pandemic to work on my craft, I have definitely missed live theater — the friendships that you make during shows and that adrenaline rush you get when you enter an audition room for a callback.”

Out of all the aspects of in-person theater, students agreed that they missed the live performances the most.

“Hands down, what I miss most about live theatre is the audience’s energy. Performing for a live audience is almost like a supply and demand kind of thing,” Bobchin said. “It’s almost like you’re feeding off of their energy and vice versa.”

After a long year of online learning, students are ready to get back into their regular year routines, following COVID-19 regulations. Krawiecki shares some of her plans for the new school year and whether or not the pandemic has affected any of these upcoming plans.

"So I still have plans that all of my classes will have production. That is typical of the drama program right now. We just don’t know what the timeline is because of everything else going on with the COVID-19 restrictions. I do plan on kind of going back to the way that we used to run the class, where it was more interactive in exercises and activities that we can do still distanced,” Krawiecki said. “My goal is to let my students collaborate together, build our community, build their performance skills and experience diverse repertoire throughout the year. And we still do hope to have all of our productions. The timeline is just unknown right now.” Krawiecki is grateful for the opportunity to conduct more in-person activities that the online schedule prevented. She understands the restrictions of the pandemic such as social distancing and wearing a muffling mask, but she plans on working around these challenges to pull off great productions once again. With classes being in person, students now have the chance to connect with their classmates and truly experiencing the opening night excitement once again. But whether online or in-person the students at PHS are grateful for the opportunity to experience the true theater.