My friend Brandon wrote a short play, Cameo, for performance over Zoom. It was part of an event put on by Invisible Disco Productions, and was the final of four plays put on, each about ten minutes long.
The experience of watching a play on Zoom is pretty variable. For each actor, there is an extra link in the chain that can go awry. Assuming your own internet connection is very reliable (ours happened to not be for a period of time), you need the connection and technology of every actor to be spot-on as well.
Luckily, these short plays were well-designed for the medium. Each only had two characters, and each play was nothing but a dialogue allowing a small story to play out. A few technical glitches happened, but nothing extreme in my opinion.
Brandon’s play was about an enthusiastic middle school girl, who saved up money to purchase time on Cameo from her favorite Disney Channel star named Shannon. Shannon is a washed-up actor who, after leading in a teen paranormal romance, is seen to have never received worked afterward, instead living in the shadow of his co-stars who went on to greater careers. As the Q&A of the interaction progresses, we get a nice character arc out of Shannon. Initially reading off index cards and aloof with his fan, we get an insight into the frustration of peaking early and not being taken seriously. This leads to a blow-up, and the girl momentarily leaves the call. With a mix of guilt for his actions, and a growing appreciation for a sincere fan, he gets her back on and offers an additional session.
It was a lovely story, and while I could see it working well as a text (some plays work well that way, many don’t), the actors did bring a lot to the table once my internet connection came back enough to get more than a frame every few seconds. While the actor playing the girl did have her mic cut out on several high-pitched excited monologues, it worked because the “setting” was essentially a Zoom call, so I wasn’t even sure it was an accident. Also, this actor did such a good job playing a middle school girl, I was happy to endure the screeching. It was a little over the top.
This was an interesting experience. I would definitely watch an event like this again, but would make sure I’m set up ahead of time on my large TV with a solid internet connection. This was a little last minute, and we got stuck on a spotty WiFi connection. It’s fun to see people exploring new forms of entertainment, and putting spin on something we’re familiar with.