Performing arts return in-person this school year, though there will be modifications in rehearsal due to COVID-19. Classes and performances will remain as they previously were. Performing Arts Teacher Aaron Martin said while the school has developed a system to allow community members to attend performances, the Performing Arts Department is prepared to adjust COVID-19 protocol as circumstances in the county change.

“We aren’t yet certain how students and policies will change as these things progress, recess and change,” Martin said. “Currently our strategy is to be ready for everything while planning to restore as much normality as possible.”

 Martin said the department is working to offer theater attendees a hybrid version of productions, entailing both livestreamed performances and opportunities to join in-person audiences. 

“Arts being in person is pretty vital, especially when dealing with performing arts where, much like sports, we work in teams to create projects,” Martin said. “All of the physics, time and metaphysics that take place in those in-person processes make up much of those experiences.” 

 Performing Arts Teacher Queala Clancy said she is developing creative strategies to produce both prerecorded and live performances in this upcoming year.

 “I think it’s important to hold on to both methods,” Clancy said. “There’s this tangible energy when you’re in person, let alone on a stage embodying a story and then conveying the story to people. Any opportunity like this is just a very humanistic experience.”

 Kieran Cooper ’23 said she is excited to return to in-person performances because she thinks Zoom failed to mimic the energy of a physical performance and audience.

“After over a year of being online, [people are] more eager to go back to the way [live performance] used to be,” Cooper said. “[While performing], it is crucial to be able to have the connection with your peers that gets lost over Zoom.”

Echoing Cooper’s sentiment, Performing Arts Teacher Lisa Peters said she felt Zoom performances severed the connection between performers and audiences.

“There’s truly something magical about live performance [and] witnessing this thing that will only happen in that moment,” Peters said. “If you blink, it’s gone. That can’t be replicated in other forms.”