Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2021 - 9

that even in folks' apartments, we can
still make something really visually interesting
and artful and fun. "
The process of editing theatre in a socially
distanced way magnifies the complexity
of what Allgeier and the Actors
Theatre team are trying to achieve.
When they were putting together Actors
Theatre's streaming production of
Romeo & Juliet: Louisville 2020, most
footage was shot on actors' cellphones in
apartments around the country. Allgeier
and Fleming screen-shared Allgeier's
computer to edit the video, then shared
the project with sound supervisor Paul
Doyle, who edited the project for sound,
before Allgeier could add any finishing
touches and get the selection ready for
public release. If that sounds complicated
and hard to develop a schedule
around, that's because it is. Allgeier recalls
receiving more than 900 files in
the initial footage download for Romeo
& Juliet: Louisville 2020 over Dropbox,
and by the final edit had a project folder
that contained more than 2,800 individual
items (a total of about 500 GB
of data). If a scene had four performers
recording separately, plus an interposed
background, the scene would require
five layers of video and sound. Romeo
& Juliet: Louisville 2020 was edited using
the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of
programs, primarily Premier Pro and
Photoshop, though Allgeier has recently
started using DaVinci Resolve, which he
describes as a " newer, cheaper, and still
pretty powerful editing program " for moments
requiring animation.
" You're doing the best you can without
all the pre-production and planning you
would normally do for any kind of digital
capture, " Fleming explains. " So it's asking
people to do the extraordinary over
and over again. "
Artistic Director Zachary MeicherBuzzi,
who spends a great deal of time
working with performers for the theatre,
agrees that the schedule change
in the technological transition has been
substantial. " Philip is compiling all of
the clips and then we have to see what
shots came out, what didn't. And then we
might have to bring an actor back three
weeks later to reshoot something. It's
completely different from the six-week
schedule for a show when you're going to
have three weeks of rehearsal and three
weeks of performance, and you've got to
get everything done with the performers
within that time. " Allgeier himself notes
how radically his own job duties have
shifted. " It's a completely different job
than before. There were just these things
that suddenly needed to be done. We
started moving in new directions and we
would get into a meeting and say, 'Okay,
who can do this?' " As the theatre's only
staff member exclusively responsible
for projections and projectors, Allgeier
notes how strange it is that he has not
touched a projector since March 2020.
" I'm not dealing with any internal facility
management things. We don't have digital
signage to take care of right now, because
the buildings are effectively closed.
We're not doing outside events, " Allgeier
explains. " Many of the things that I normally
would have been doing don't exist
in our current arrangement. " Instead,
much of Allgeier's time is devoted to editing.
" The vast majority of my time has
been editing and managing the footage
that is coming from all of the different
people that we have enlisted to create
these projects, where most of the editing
that I was doing [before COVID-19]
was for projection, or for quick online
marketing purposes or quick videos that
will be playing on a TV or a monitor as a
patron walked by, " Allgeier explains. Now
I'm putting together the vast majority of
projects that we're doing from the editing
realm. "
" [Allgeier] has been a linchpin in this
transition to virtual programming, " explains
Elizabeth Greenfield, who was the
director of communications and patron
experience for Actors Theatre in 20202021.
" The transition period meant that
we we've had a foot in both worlds. Some
projects looked a little bit more traditional;
some didn't at all. And so having someone
on the team who understands the
context of the way we all used to work,
and has the parlance with technology,
and a framework for how to tackle these
challenges-has been huge. "
Making Magic
Allgeier considers how his approach to
his work would be different if he had not
been a consistent working member of
Actors Theatre's staff. " Let's say you're
hiring someone to make a movie. And
their company is accustomed to shooting
movies and then you say, 'Oh, and by
the way, you're not allowed in the actor's
Advertising featuring Satya Chávez for the digital
creation Where Did We Sit on the Bus? by Brian
Quijada, a digital creation by Satya Chávez and Matt
Dickson, lighting design by Paul Werner, and media
by Philip Allgeier. | Courtesy of Actors Theatre of
Louisville.
house and they're not coming outside and
you're not going to be able to be there,' I
think they might not be able to handle
that as well as a group of people who
have been doing exactly that for nearly a
year now. "
Paul Werner, director of production,
has been responsible for transporting
physical items around the country for
different video shoots, including driving
to Chicago himself to pick up equipment
from a performer who had been capturing
footage in their apartment, and he
provided lighting and prop support for
Where Did We Sit on the Bus? by Brian
Quijada, which was later nominated for
a Drama League Award. The partnership
between sound and video is closer than
ever in an environment where theatre
is produced online, and the importance
of sound cannot be overstated in this or
any other article about producing online
theatre. Paul Doyle learned how to use
FiLMiC Pro and Reflector so that directors
and actors can communicate and
see each other operating in real time,
in addition to Doyle's work on sound effects
and music. Matt Dickson, director
SUMMER 2021 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | 9
Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2021

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