By Sarai Henriquez
In the city that never sleeps, New York Broadway shut the doors to all theaters and all musical lovers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following New York, California theater shows were canceled and the CSUDH theater and dance department did the same.
This spring semester, the theater and dance department were going with the second performance of their rendition of Stephen Adly Guirgis “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot,” directed by Kelly Herman, who has been a member of the theater department for eight years. The show was going to debut in late March through early April.
Set in a time-bending, darkly comic world between heaven and hell, the play reexamines the plight and fate of the New Testament’s most infamous and unexplained sinner.
“Refunds will be made to everyone who has purchased tickets,” Herman said about her seventh directorial effort at CSUDH.
Before the department decided to cancel all remaining shows, the actors were still encouraged to continue to work on their own and virtually with other actors that were in their scenes.
“We, like everyone else, are taking our classes online,” Herman said. “This is certainly, creating some pedagogical challenges, but we will have fun and are building creative teaching modules for our students online.”
Herman expresses that online theater classes are unprecedented at CSUDH, but they learned to adjust.
“This is certainly, creating some pedagogical challenges, – but we will have fun and are building creative teaching modules for our students online,” said Herman. “I think, no one would dispute that Dance, Theatre, and Music are all better with in-person teaching/rehearsal/performance. But we as creatives are just that. Creative. We will always figure out ways to create our art as well as teach it. Adaptation in the Arts.”
On March 17, faculty and staff were asked to work remotely and the theater and dance department office closed after the stay at home order.
Even though we are still living in uncertain and confusing times and the word may be at a halt. It doesn’t mean that we as humans have to stop our way of living.
The show must go on.
