The Pandemic Blues – Act 1 Online Now!
Now available to watch: Act 1 of THE PANDEMIC BLUES: A vaccine of music, dance and drama. Click here to watch.
Directed by Fred Motley Performed live at the Kirby Cultural Arts Complex November 20-22, 2020 and filmed prior to the performance.
Acts 1-3 will be showcased on YouTube for our entire community to enjoy. New videos will be released throughout the month of December.
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
On March 27, 2020 North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper announced a “Stay at Home” order to contain the spread of the coronavirus. This meant a lockdown, closing schools, businesses, and theaters. To keep in contact with the community, the Kirby Theater decided to collect stories from people about how they were living during the pandemic, and craft their stories into a performance.
I was asked to help with this endeavor. We wanted the submissions to be stories from the community. We wanted a wide range of stories. We realized people tell their stories in several writing forms. So, we allowed them to submit in the form of journaling, poetry, fiction, narrative or freestyle. We posted that selected pieces would be crafted into a play. We asked for a sample (175 words) of their work to see if the essence of the stories, poems, and narratives could be changed/edited into a monologue. Then I remotely workshopped the submission with the writers to make sure they were okay with changes. The revised works were then woven to convey the theme of the play –“living life during the pandemic.”
The monologues were given to actors who worked with me to create characters and craft this performance of storytelling. These stories let us know that during this pandemic we can have meaningful conversations, embrace brotherly love, take care of ourselves, encourage one another and bake pies as we weather the pandemic blues. Peace and Blessings
Fred Motley, Director
This show is brought to you by the Person County Arts Council, Person County Recreation, Arts, and Parks, Piedmont Community College. This project was supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. www.NCArts.org Filming was done by the wonderful Wenning Studios!
