Opinion | Diving headfirst into online musical theater

Michael Gribble, senior film production major

When I found out in late 2019 that Memorial Hall had been successfully booked for my debut venture into longform musical theater, I had no idea that the show's actual premiere would be in the form of a 4.32 gigabyte video file. Of course, none of us knew that a pandemic would hit and alter the state of the world in ways far more important and severe than my little collection of angsty theater songs. 

Now, with an end finally in sight to this chaotic time, I look back to the online production and feel proud that this group of seven vocalists and eight instrumentalists were able to adapt and keep the show afloat, creating some feeling of normalcy despite everyone being isolated in their own boxes on screen. No one needs to create an online show to feel “productive” during this time (I certainly haven’t been nearly as active in the time since we wrapped), but it was a lot of fun and I’m very grateful for the experience.

Last year, Chapman’s March 11 email announcement that classes would be transitioning online came only nine days after we finalized casting for “A Summer in Madtown,” my original song cycle set to be produced by student organization Archetypes and premiere at Memorial Hall that May. I’ll admit, nothing really happened on the “Madtown” front for a good several weeks after quarantine began; as I slowly accepted that the show as we planned it would not be happening, I gave up on the idea of it happening at all. But the world began to function better and better in an online format, and I realized there was nothing stopping us from doing the same.

I reached out to our cast and band, and we were off. One of the benefits of the online show as opposed to a live show was how much of a controlled environment it was. The drawback, however, was the unanticipated extra work to make it that way — various click tracks, audio and video formatting and pages and pages of digital sheet music. But hey, what else was I going to do while sitting in Wisconsin in the middle of a pandemic? 

This was where a lot of the random skills I had picked up at Chapman really came in handy. If I were to produce this show again under more normal circumstances, I would definitely hire a real audio engineer, music producer, music copyist and video editor, among other roles. But this “quarantine production” was so spontaneous and such a passion project that I didn’t mind spending night after night figuring out how to do those jobs myself (to the best of my limited ability). It was fun, which is also what I heard from a lot of our cast and band. We were excited just to be able to perform again, even in a weird, self-taped way.

Another happy accident of embarking on this adventure was being able to collaborate with two of my best friends from back home, which wouldn’t have been possible had the show happened as planned. Similarly, I had the freedom to layer in however many fun percussion sounds I wanted (to the extent that my small instrument collection would allow me). 

All in all, the show was built slowly and methodically, with everyone learning, rehearsing, recording and sending in their individual parts, and me having the privilege of putting them together. If you have an idea for something you want to create while the world is still en route to normalcy, just go for it. Ask for help from your amazingly talented friends and collaborators. But you may also be surprised by what you can learn and accomplish yourself.