The Remote Theatre stage: 'at the drop of a hat'
The first thing we may notice when watching a remote play like the one we showed yesterday is that the stage is more tightly defined than it is in face-to-face theatre. Whilst in the latter the boundaries between the spaces inhabited by the actors and by the audience may be nicely blurred (actors may change costumes on stage in front of the audience, or even go and walk or sit amongst them), in remote theatre the stage must begin and end at the edges of what is visible on the screen. There are advantages and disadvantages to this. Having a very clear perception of what is on stage means that everything is noticed by the audience. This is great if you want them to see the closeup expressions in someone's face, or an object in an actor's hand, but it's not so great if the light isn't right for your virtual background image to work, or if you've forgotten to move your bookcase out of view when the scene is supposed to be on a beach!
It's also challenging to establish a three-dimensional feel to the work (one of the features which normally distinguishes theatre from film) when all you have is a flat screen. It's certainly not impossible to do this however, and many remote plays have overcome this lack of depth by varying how the actors are sometimes a long way away from the webcam (showing their whole bodies) or sometimes right up close to it (perhaps just showing their eyes)
Another way of adding depth and atmosphere to a remote theatre piece is by the use of backgrounds. A piece of cloth could be used as a backdrop or a picture, and these can be brought in and changed during the play if necessary to indicate scene changes. The virtual background feature on Zoom allows this process to happen very quickly and seamlessly. In the play we showed yesterday this is used to great effect with one of Zoom's standard virtual background images of grass. Normally, so that the image is sharper and doesn't get projected onto people's bodies, we'd recommend that this is done with a physical green screen covering the wall behind. However, not using an actual green screen (as in Welcome to Earth) has the effect that people's bodies keep popping in and out of view - just right to capture how it might be when aliens visit us from another planet!
Despite the fact that the visible stage is so limited in terms of space, the 'backstage' may be infinitely large, as it is basically anything that is beyond the view of the camera. It may be filled with props, masks, puppets, or costume changes, ready to bring onto stage at the drop of a hat (quite literally!). This means that it is much easier and faster than in face-to-face theatre to bring anything or anyone onto the stage.
