Camp Rock highlights
April 26, 2021
Due to Covid-19, theater at NPHS has looked very different this past year. In a typical year there is a musical in the fall, a one-act play in the winter, and a full-length play in the spring, but this year the musical was moved to the spring in hopes that there would be fewer restrictions to work around. Earlier this year, NPHS theatre performed both a fall play and a winter one-act over Google Meet, but this spring it performed its first show back on stage: the musical Camp Rock.
As one can imagine, there are many difficulties when directing a musical during the covid pandemic. Director Ben Thietje says that the three most difficult parts of this show are wearing masks, staying socially distanced, and performing without an audience. It is very difficult for the actors to act and sing when they are wearing masks. Likewise, it is hard to direct the actors so that they remain socially distanced onstage but still keep the show feeling normal. Lastly, theatre lives off of performing for live audiences. Without that energy in the room, everything changes.
Although the cast is glad to be back in the auditorium, there are many things different about this musical compared to those in the past. Senior Lindsay Bisek, a veteran of New Prague theatre, stars as the lead role of Mitchie. She says, “A lot of things are really different. We have to record everything which is really weird and different, and we don’t all get to be together, and we don’t have the same energy, but hopefully, the final performance can turn out well and as normal as it can be.”
One of the greatest changes in the rehearsal process is pre-recording the music. Nicole Thietje, the musical director of Camp Rock, explains the difficulties of pre-recording: “Because the recording process is very intensive, it takes a lot of time. It’s been a challenge because we are trying to record with the track pulled really far down, so [the actors] can’t hear the music, [aren’t] onstage, and don’t have an audience . . . It’s really a completely turned upside down process, but not in a bad way, just in a new way of thinking about it and a new way of reimagining how we can do it.”
Although the conditions aren’t ideal, Camp Rock is an example of not only life beginning to return to normal, but also how being able to adapt can make the best out of a bad situation.
