How USI Theatre Is Performing Through A Pandemic

Theatre majors Eve Pigman ’23 and Kyle Burgess ’21 were preparing to return to campus for rehearsals of the department’s spring musical, Little Shop of Horrors when USI announced Spring Break would be extended because of COVID-19. “I was like, ‘What does that mean for our show? Are our rehearsals going to be extended?’” Pigman recalled.

Uncertainty turned to heartbreak as they learned their production and the all-female, student-directed show Eclipsed, just days from opening, would not see the stage.

“It was gone like that,” said Pigman. “We just got an email, and it was gone.”

“I cried for two hours. I was devastated,” added Burgess. “It was the same day Broadway announced that they were on shutdown for COVID, and that devastated me as well because that’s kind of like my dream, to go to Broadway and audition.”

“To add to the difficulty of it, we weren’t really there to hug them and tell them it was OK,” explained Eric Altheide, Associate Professor of Theatre.

“It was the right choice, but that came with a very steep cost,” said Burgess. “We were all hurt.”

Which is why he and Pigman were hesitant to get their hopes up this fall. Though they longed to return to the Performance Center, with universities canceling productions for the semester—and, in some cases, the entire year—they knew more disappointment was possible.

Providing a “light”

While they waited for a decision, Altheide and Elliot Wasserman, Chair of USI’s Theatre Department, got creative.

“We tried to figure out different approaches,” Wasserman said. “I tried to brainstorm plays where actors in masks could fit within the metaphor of the show, the concept of the show.”

They even considered adding masks to productions without an obvious connection. “Theatre reflects life, and this is the way we live now,” added Wasserman. “But that is not a very satisfying theatrical formula for every show.”

After much consideration, and with support from Dr. James Beeby, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, and Dr. Mohammed Khayum, Provost, the directors ultimately moved forward with two productions, replacing the shows they’d selected before the pandemic with options that more easily cater to the current restrictions—Songs for a New World and It’s a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play.

Both Burgess and Pigman, who’d been understudies in Little Shop of Horrors, eagerly auditioned for Songs for a New World, a musical medley or “song cycle” with just four acting roles; the radio play has six. “When the cast list came out [and I learned I would be in the production], I was just elated,” recalled Burgess. “I was in my kitchen eating lunch, and I jumped up and down like a kid on Christmas.”

Pigman learned of her casting alongside her roommate, who is also her understudy; they’re enjoying the “light” theatre is providing at the end of a tunnel darkened by COVID-19. “I think they [Wasserman and Altheide] knew that it would help our mental health to be able to be part of a show, because not having anything, I think, would make it feel very bleak,” said Pigman.