PUBLISHED THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2011 AT 1:00 AM / UPDATED AT 4:32 PM
Director Susan Clement Toberer uses a laptop to stand in for New York City actress Kim Gambino, seen on the screen, during rehearsals for the Blue Barn Theatre's production of "Bug" in Omaha earlier this week. Actor Brian Zealand is at left. Gambino, who will arrive in Omaha in person Thursday, has attended rehearsals through the use of Skype.
Skype helps show go on
By Bob Fischbach
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
BUG
What: Stage drama
Where: Blue Barn Theatre, 614 S. 11th St.
When: Sept. 29-Oct. 23;7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 6 p.m. Sundays
Tickets: $25 adults, $20 students and senior citizens
Information: 402-345-1576 or online at www.bluebarn.org
You've heard of an actor phoning in a performance. Not good.
But Skyping in a performance turns out to be very good if you can't show up for rehearsal.
Kim Gambino, a New York City actress cast in the Blue Barn Theatre's production of "Bug," had family obligations that called her back home for a month in the middle of the show's rehearsal period. "We had built a good skeleton of the piece," said director Susan Clement-Toberer. "I wanted to keep everybody where we could run the show from start to finish when she got back."
Clement-Toberer and her cast brainstormed a solution. They first talked about actors running lines over the phone. That sounded like a pricey use of land lines or precious cell minutes.
Someone suggested Skype, a free Internet service that lets you see the person you're chatting with live. An inexpensive camera attachment for the laptop is all you need.
"Kim was immediately receptive," Clement-Toberer said. "We were just going to use her voice at first. But since I knew her blocking (movements onstage), I asked the cast if I should walk the laptop around. I held it in front of my face."
So the cast interacted with Gambino's face and voice, propelled by Clement-Toberer's body.
"It went incredibly, kind of shockingly well," Clement-Toberer said.
Brian Zealand, an Omaha actor who plays opposite Gambino, said Skype's slight time delay made things interesting as he tried to get the rhythm of the lines right.
"But to actually move forward with the play while Kim's so far away — it's been really beneficial," he said.
Gambino, who was in the same acting company as Clement-Toberer at the State University of New York at Purchase from 1984-88, said she had never heard of Skype-rehearsing before. Neither had anyone else connected with the show.
"It's certainly not ideal because of the time delay, when it comes to pacing," Gambino said. "But it was helpful to remember lines and blocking, to keep thinking about the characters' intentions and what's going on in the scene."
During the three Skype rehearsals, she said, she felt a bit cut off emotionally, hunched in front of the camera while everyone else was moving.
But she absolutely would do it again.
"Otherwise, when I get back Thursday, we'd all be rusty no matter how much we tried to work on our own. We're going to save a lot of time."
And time is of the essence. "Bug," a psychological thriller by Pulitzer winner Tracy Letts ("August, Osage County") opens in just two weeks.
"It's been wildly, wildly beneficial," Zealand said. "It was interesting to be lying in bed with a computer screen. But without it, we would have had too much to do in too little time."
Clement-Toberer said the Skype experiment showed her that her goal of a Blue Barn professional wing, combining actors from distant cities with the best local talent, is more possible than she imagined.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1269, [email protected]
Copyright ©2013 Omaha World-Herald. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald. To purchase rights to republish this article, please contact The World-Herald Store.
Director Susan Clement Toberer uses a laptop to stand in for New York City actress Kim Gambino, seen on the screen, during rehearsals for the Blue Barn Theatre's production of "Bug" in Omaha earlier this week. Actor Brian Zealand is at left. Gambino, who will arrive in Omaha in person Thursday, has attended rehearsals through the use of Skype.
Skype helps show go on
By Bob Fischbach
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
BUG
What: Stage drama
Where: Blue Barn Theatre, 614 S. 11th St.
When: Sept. 29-Oct. 23;7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 6 p.m. Sundays
Tickets: $25 adults, $20 students and senior citizens
Information: 402-345-1576 or online at www.bluebarn.org
You've heard of an actor phoning in a performance. Not good.
But Skyping in a performance turns out to be very good if you can't show up for rehearsal.
Kim Gambino, a New York City actress cast in the Blue Barn Theatre's production of "Bug," had family obligations that called her back home for a month in the middle of the show's rehearsal period. "We had built a good skeleton of the piece," said director Susan Clement-Toberer. "I wanted to keep everybody where we could run the show from start to finish when she got back."
Clement-Toberer and her cast brainstormed a solution. They first talked about actors running lines over the phone. That sounded like a pricey use of land lines or precious cell minutes.
Someone suggested Skype, a free Internet service that lets you see the person you're chatting with live. An inexpensive camera attachment for the laptop is all you need.
"Kim was immediately receptive," Clement-Toberer said. "We were just going to use her voice at first. But since I knew her blocking (movements onstage), I asked the cast if I should walk the laptop around. I held it in front of my face."
So the cast interacted with Gambino's face and voice, propelled by Clement-Toberer's body.
"It went incredibly, kind of shockingly well," Clement-Toberer said.
Brian Zealand, an Omaha actor who plays opposite Gambino, said Skype's slight time delay made things interesting as he tried to get the rhythm of the lines right.
"But to actually move forward with the play while Kim's so far away — it's been really beneficial," he said.
Gambino, who was in the same acting company as Clement-Toberer at the State University of New York at Purchase from 1984-88, said she had never heard of Skype-rehearsing before. Neither had anyone else connected with the show.
"It's certainly not ideal because of the time delay, when it comes to pacing," Gambino said. "But it was helpful to remember lines and blocking, to keep thinking about the characters' intentions and what's going on in the scene."
During the three Skype rehearsals, she said, she felt a bit cut off emotionally, hunched in front of the camera while everyone else was moving.
But she absolutely would do it again.
"Otherwise, when I get back Thursday, we'd all be rusty no matter how much we tried to work on our own. We're going to save a lot of time."
And time is of the essence. "Bug," a psychological thriller by Pulitzer winner Tracy Letts ("August, Osage County") opens in just two weeks.
"It's been wildly, wildly beneficial," Zealand said. "It was interesting to be lying in bed with a computer screen. But without it, we would have had too much to do in too little time."
Clement-Toberer said the Skype experiment showed her that her goal of a Blue Barn professional wing, combining actors from distant cities with the best local talent, is more possible than she imagined.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1269, [email protected]
Copyright ©2013 Omaha World-Herald. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald. To purchase rights to republish this article, please contact The World-Herald Store.
