When Rob Caisley’s The Open Hand ran at Clarence Brown Theatre’s Lab Theatre in April 2016, it was already in a category of its own. The play had been commissioned specifically for MFA Acting students and was the first vehicle in UT Theatre history to be so designed. The project had begun three years earlier when Caisley met with MFA Acting students during their first year in the program; ideas were discussed and themes decided on. Director Calvin MacLean and Caisley continued working on drafts, work that later used input from the students in arriving at a final version. The play was cast with four acting students (Melissa David, Kyle Maxwell, Lindsay Nance, Steve Sherman) and a regular CBT professional, Roderick Peeples. The Arts Knoxville review of that production is here.
Jump ahead four years to March 2020 and the performance world was quickly—and painfully—learning the meaning of virtual performances. The five actors had scattered to different corners of the professional world, but no one emerged unscathed as the Covid-19 pandemic was shutting down live performances. With few outlets remaining for artistic projects, playwright Caisley invited the former cast to a Zoom session to explore the possibilities for doing a re-reading of his play. Director MacLean subsequently suggested rehearsing the play once again, doing a Zoom reading which would be recorded, then somehow integrating that recording with the video from the original 2016 production. With a masterful and artistic assembly and editing job by UT Theatre’s Sound and Video designer, Joe Payne, CBT has now made that hybrid version available for On-Demand viewing. View it here through October 11.
Information on the making of this hybrid version is available on the CBT website.
In a nutshell, the scenes are set by wide shots from the live original production with Zoom windows for each actor (each deliciously four years older) carrying the dialog. Of course, this is a reading, not an actual, physically-staged performance. But, The Open Hand…revisited works amazingly well in revealing the evolution of the actors themselves and their take on the roles — an evolution made possible by time, artistic growth, and the directness of on-camera performances.
The Open Hand … revisited (by Rob Caisley, directed by Calvin MacLean) features Melissa David (Freya); Kyle Maxwell (Todd); Lindsay Nance (Allison); Roderick Peeples (David Nathan Bright); and Steve Sherman (Jack).
The attached picture to your article looks like “Blue Window” which was produced in the lab theatre.
Stan,
The photo used was the one that accompanied the Arts Knoxville review of the original production in 2016.
‘Blue Window’ was also reviewed on the site. Here is the photo that accompanied that review.
–Editor