By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
For the Bowling Green High School Drama Club, even during a pandemic the show must go on.
The pandemic has put a crimp in the club’s style. “We haven’t had much of a presence in the community this year because we haven’t been able to,” said JoBeth Gonzalez, drama teacher. Still, “we have been very active.”
In January the thespians streamed their production of “Radium Girls” recorded in a COVID-safe manner before a select audience.
Even as far back as last summer, a Zoom recording of their original play “Free to Fly” was streamed to those attending a virtual international conference on sex trafficking. The play is the work of several years and successive casts of BGHS students.
Gonzalez said that the show was seen by more than 700 high school students from 12 states, and half of them said that was their favorite conference session.
And the drama club is not done yet.
They recently posted on YouTube an audio recording of “The War of the Worlds,” the classic radio drama. That recording was made last fall by the drama club, which continues to meet virtually. The play uses Orson Welles’ original script to tell the story of a Martian Invasion of New Jersey.
The club was given permission to meet in person in a studio set up in the Performing Arts Center’s art gallery to record the radio play.
The scene design class was charged with creating the sound effects. Once recorded it was handed off to Ryan Albrecht, the Performing Arts Center manager and technical director, to edit and post.
And the all-school musical will be presented. This year it will be “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” which calls for a small cast and limited scenery
As of a few weeks ago, Gonzalez expected that the musical will be produced in a similar manner as “Radium Girls,” staged live and recorded. “I think we can be really creative with this.”
Reflecting on the pandemic, she said: “These kids are learning new skills that they won’t be able to take stock of probably for a few years. I’m really curious to see how their experiences navigating school and extracurriculars gives them a different kind of confidence than maybe they wouldn’t have had otherwise. I have to think of it that way. I think any time any of us go through something that’s unexpected and so very different, we’re going to mourn everything we’re losing, and it’s hard to take stock of what we’re gaining. But if we don’t think of the positive of what we’re gaining it’s harder to move forward.”
For herself, Gonzalez values the technology skills she’s had to learn.
She also said, even as a veteran teacher, she’s found she’s had to hone her skills further and learn to better organize her lessons so students in the Google Classroom can stay connected.
Teaching virtually has brought another dimension. A parent can be heard in the background, or the family cat will walk across the screen. Everyone occupies their own box , no one’s in the back of the room. “There’s an equity,” she said. “You can see faces, and you can get closer to kids in a way.”
That’s something, Gonzalez hopes can continue once classes return to face-to-face.
“There’s nothing worse than the silence when you end a Google Classroom. Where did they all go? We don’t know.”
