Theater is known for having insurmountable obstacles: budget, the competing movie industry, ticket prices, etc., but we have never experienced anything like 2020-2021. This pandemic has been heartbreaking, tiring, and sometimes it has felt altogether hopeless. So much so that we almost gave up this year and decided to not produce a show. Ms. Crystal Isola, Ms. Alice Huang, and my fearless theater students felt the show must go on...ON Line. As we fluctuated between the different colored tiers of COVID we put our heads together and Zoom seemed like a solution, but how would we do it? How would we sing and dance in time with one another over Wi-Fi and beat barriers like Zoom lag? We honestly weren’t sure, but we knew we didn’t want a year without Theater at Lynbrook, so we mustered up our courage and employed our favorite improvisational theater word, “Yes.” In the face of a lot of “No’s” we said, “Yes.” Yes we will have a show. Yes it will be hard. Yes it can be done. Instead of giving up and seeing distance as an obstacle, we used it to our advantage and reached out to professional YouTube artists like Alan McRae, a virtual background designer, and Brendan Bradely a YouTube artist who began pioneering remote theater when the pandemic hit. People we wouldn’t have otherwise met, we were able to meet via Zoom and collaborate with. What once was a barrier, we began to see as an opportunity. We read guides about how to tackle the project and partnered with Musical Theater International and ShowTIX4U to stream our show. We bought green screens, we combatted Zoom lag, and with the amazing cast and crew, and the magic of our brilliant student video editor and sound mixer, Anthony Huang, we pulled this show together!
To say I am proud of our cast and crew would be a serious understatement. They always impress me when they come together and make theater happen, but this year was unlike any other. Ms. Isola magically taught all of our singers their individual parts and strung together a remote, virtual choir! Melody Chen, Ingrid Lee, Emma Sumanaweera and Anthony Huang worked together to create and lead our choreography for the show, working above and beyond to create professional-level choreography. Our biggest team of Stage Managers EVER worked tirelessly behind the scenes to craft a film shooting schedule and wrangled all of our footage and audio tracks. Thank you my sweet Vardani, Samantha, Alex, Alicia, and Ava! You girls constantly make me laugh and shock me with your organizational skills and professionalism. I am so proud of your work, and your professionalism with the cast and crew. I would also like to acknowledge my awesome assistant directors, Dylan, Anna, and Pranav. This was my first year having three assistant directors, and I am so glad I did, because I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you three. Anna, you are so kind, fun, and smart as a whip. Dylan you are creative and the most kind young man, so easy to work with. Pranav, you work so hard at everything and always think three steps ahead. I am so thankful for the three of you, you should be SO proud of yourselves. Anthony Huang, your editing skills are out of this world, and you do it with such a humble and kind attitude. Your work speaks for itself, I am beyond thrilled with what you crafted -- you are A ROCKSTAR! Sophia, your poster designs were incredible and your work ethic is outstanding. Thank you for being such a bright light and having a positive attitude no matter what. I adore working with you, and am so glad we’ve spent so much time working in theater together. Ingrid and Melody, you dynamic-duo, you worked your socks off your senior year -- not only as choreographers, but as costume, technical theater, hair, and make-up artists. You went way above and beyond for this production. I am so proud of you girls and can’t wait to see all you accomplish in the world. Annika, Janhavi, Natalie, Harumy, Ohana, Ava, Alex and Alicia, I am so impressed that as newcomers you jumped right in. Annika, you helped whenever we needed you backstage, and with that big smile! Janhavi you jumped into marketing like a champ with the amazing Siddarth who leads our Social Media (Sid you rock!). Harumy and Ohana, so excited to have you at LHS and SO thankful for all your hard work on this project with props, marketing, acting, etc. Ava, Alex, and Alicia you worked your tails off as stage managers and always were jumping in to help, thank you! Alex you were so on top of everything. Ava you always make me laugh, and stood out to me in Beginning Drama because of your natural ability to lead. Alicia, thank you for jumping in and joining the team, you are very talented as both an actress and behind the scenes as a stage manager. Vardani, thank you for leading the way as our resident stage manager and being so organized, honest, and fun to work with. So glad you are a part of the team. Austin Huang, thank you for being our “yes-man” and helping whenever we need you -- green screens, costume inventory, acting, Zoom tech, the list goes on and on. You are such a special person, with a gift of leadership. I am so thankful for your help, and we are so sad you are
