Senior Lauren Kalfus singing in the play “Night Night Roger Roger.”
PV Theater holds first in-person performance since pandemic
The Pascack Valley’s Theater Director Thomas Lupfer said he chose Night Night, Roger Roger as an option that would allow the cast and crew to stay at a safe distance from one another, while still putting on a show.
“We were looking for something that was upbeat and happy,” Lupfer said. “And Night Night, Roger Roger was really helpful, for the first time welcoming an audience back [in-person].”
Lupfer said that doing the show last year online created a learning curve this year, where the cast was able to learn all the basics.
“It’s been a while and there’s a lot of new people doing it. But the cast and the crew are really, really tight and really doing remarkable work together. So we’ve had an exciting week,” Lupfer said.
Lupfer said that they needed to teach terminology and the processes of creating a show to both that cast and the crew because most members had not seen or done it before.
“We’ve been sort of building some of those [theater skills] from the ground up,” Lupfer said.
Learning from last year’s online performance, Lupfer said that they shortened some of their rehearsals and changed the stage managers and crews responsibilities, in order to “re-learn how to do some things.”
With this season in particular, [was difficult] getting back into the swing of things, being in person and not being able to rely on a script behind your zoom camera or a little cheat sheet off the side. So, [performing] definitely took some getting used to again,” PV Senior and Cast member Lauren Kalfus said.
The Thespian Society troupe was able to fundraise money in order to bring UC Santa Barbara student and Ronnie to PV for the performances.
They will be doing “sort of a residency with us,” doing workshops and a panel after a performance of Night Night, Roger Roger.
“We got to ask questions that gave us more insight about our characters, we had a playwriting workshop with the playwright and we got to perform right in front of the person who wrote the material,” Kalfus said. “All of which, I’m sure, is an opportunity most of us will not have again.”
Kalfus said that having a large number of characters and the nonlinear plot allowed everyone who auditioned to have a name role, allowing everyone “their moment to shine,” and taking away the competitive aspect of performing and the theater.
“Returning back to live theatre definitely had some obstacles, but ultimately it returned theatre back to the way it was always meant to be, which is something really special,” Kalfus said.