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In June 2020 we decided to deliver our second project; an online monologue series. This project would last three months and be showcased in September 2020. The aim of the project was to engage those who wanted to gain experience working within a collaborative form online and stay creative during the Coronavirus pandemic.
The project took part in six main stages;
Writer callout (11 people applied!)
Writer meet
Actor Call out (Over 30 people applied!)
Writer and Actor meet (10 pieces went ahead with 10 actors, 10 writers and 2 directors)
Rehearsals (each piece had 3, 30 minute rehearsals)
Showcase (Initially 4/9/2020 but was postponed to 5/9/2020)
Writer Call Out and Meet
Writers varied in experience, locality and interests, which was fantastic as it made the showcase much more diverse and interesting. The Thunk-It team worked with the writers and gave constructive feedback for a second draft of the pieces before publishing a call out for actors.
There was an initial Zoom meet for the writers to meet one another, discuss their work and to begin creating the sense of community intended by this project.
Actor Call out
The actor call out received over thirty interested actors who all had extreme talent, which made the casting and selection process difficult and timely! Actors submitted from across the nation and internationally which was fantastic!
Writer and Actor meeting
Once cast, the actors and writers were brought together on a virtual platform to meet one another and ask questions about their pieces, before the rehearsal process began.
Rehearsals
The rehearsals were undertaken on Zoom between director and actor. Writers were in contact with their director throughout the process and were welcomed into the rehearsal room if they so wished to be. Each actor was given 3 thirty minute rehearsal slots and then filmed their pieces independently before sending them to the Thunk-It team. There were ten pieces; five pieces directed by Becky Lennon and five pieces directed by Jules Risingham. The rehearsal process lasted around three weeks and was fantastic. It was a place to explore, experiment and get to know the actors one on one.
Showcase
The showcase was planned for September 4th 2020. On September 3rd Thunk-It’s Artistic Directors Becky and Jules appeared on BBC Radio York to talk about the project with Beth McCarthy, and promote Thunk-It.
Unfortunately, on the day of the showcase the Thunk-It team had a variety of technical difficulties which resulted in a postponement of the performance. This was initially very disappointing for all involved. However, this was a new platform process for the creative team. Within 24 hours these issues were resolved and the showcase went ahead on September 5th 2020, a little over 24 hours late. Despite the technical glitch the showcase was a success and has been watched to date by almost 500 people!
Click to see the full showcase!
Each piece has since been uploaded to Thunk-It’s Youtube Channel, all captioned.
TItle Card Art by William Maughan (Instagram - @eightheadshigh)