Evan Michael Woods
Felicia Bertch, Mitchell Stephens, Jovane Caamano, and JR Bradford record “The True History of the Tragic Life & Triumphant Death of Julia Pastrana, the Ugliest Woman in the World.”
Amphibian Stage has put on this play before. Key crew members, including the director and the sound designer, are the same. But that didn’t eliminate the challenges that come with creating a production during a pandemic.
Facing travel restrictions, director Jonathan Fielding had to turn to technology to begin the process of putting together “The True History of the Tragic Life & Triumphant Death of Julia Pastrana, the Ugliest Woman in the World” — a play that goes live Thursday via Vimeo On Demand.
“There was a learning curve for me, certainly,” Fielding says. “I’ve never directed anything on Zoom. I’ve only ever acted once on Zoom.”
Fielding, who lives in New York, relied on Zoom to watch auditions, give feedback, and direct the same play he did in 2012. All his communication with the cast and crew happened virtually, as most of the actors were recording at the theater in Fort Worth.
“I think we rely so much on gesture, and we rely on looking at expression and timing,” he says. “All those things change whenever you’re doing it via the internet.”
"The True History" is originally staged in complete darkness, but since in-person performances are on pause, Amphibian Stage has produced this play as an aural experience, using software many people associate with movie theaters.
Sound designer David Lanza used Dolby Atmos surround sound technology to “place” actors in certain positions, simulating the 2012 performance, where actors physically positioned themselves in specific areas within the theater.
Lanza says implementing Dolby Atmos effectively in a live performance would be difficult without a really expensive sound system, so the aural nature of this particular production enables the audience to engage with the play in a way they couldn’t at the theater.
And the good news is, using lower-quality headphones won’t take away from the software’s effects.
“The better the headphones, the better the experience is gonna be, but it can work on any range of earphones or headphones,” he says.
Getting clean audio for the software was a challenge, Lanza says. One of the actors lives in California, so she had to use a handheld device and microphone to record her voice. Even the audio recorded at the theater was subject to other noises, such as air conditioning and passing trains.
“Figuring out how to get everybody to really feel as one cohesive unit, get a good recording from everybody when we had people spread all across the country, was definitely one of the challenges,” Lanza says.
This introduces one of the most obvious obstacles to recording: the physical separation of the cast members, who were inhibited from seeing each other due to safety measures and social distancing.
“To be able to fully respond to a situation you can’t see is quite complicated. I didn’t realize how complicated or how difficult that would be,” says Felicia Bertch, who voices about 10 characters in the play. “And not even just responding to somebody asking me a question or saying something to me, but also the context of where the scene is taking place and what’s happening around you in the environment.”
Though the method of performance may be different, the message of the story remains the same. The show follows the life of a woman who, by no fault of her own, looks different from everyone else and, as a result, experiences judgment and isolation. Powerful individuals who fit more closely to the standards of beauty exploit her, disregarding her humanity, dignity, and desires.
“I hope that an audience will consider their own culpability in marginalizing others who may be different from them,” Bertch says. “And I hope that this show is a reminder of the importance of the arts and the struggle for the artists right now in our nation or, really, across the globe.”
The play runs from July 16 – 30. More information can be found here.
