MARBLEHEAD — Live performances are back at the Little Theater–though they still have a way to go before they can bring back an in-person audience.
“Through the Big Times and Back,” an eight-part serial for the stage about professional wrestling written by Zach Winston, began streaming live on Facebook in August and will continue to run through December.
The fifth installment of the series, “The Titan Cometh,” directed by Alexandra Smith, will stream on Facebook this Wednesday at 7 p.m. at no cost.
Emily Grove, who serves as both a producer and actor in the project, explained the struggles of working as a performer and producer during the pandemic.
“It’s been challenging,” said Grove. “It’s really hard to not have an audience. You miss it. That’s why streaming live has been exciting. We have that spontaneity of live theater.”
The series of plays aims to examine the real humans behind the spectacle of wrestling.
“Wrestling is theater on a different scale. This series pulls back the curtain to see what is happening with these larger than life people,” said Grove.
“It gives the audience something to connect to, and also something to look forward to.”
Grove estimated that between 30 and 40 people generally tuned into the program, though their total engagement with the project was much higher–reaching around 1,500 people.
Marblehead Little Theater is also offering socially distanced drama classes for children and producing a three-episode series of monologues from “Spoon River Anthology” opening on Nov. 27.
The play features a variety of characters speaking to the audience from beyond the grave about their lives.
The series of shows, also co-directed by Anne Lucas and Trudi Olivetti, features 45 monologues read by 30 actors.
Lucas emphasized that they wanted to keep their productions relatively short to avoid audience burnout.
“We want to do something that will be entertaining for as long as people want to sit,” she said. “Sometimes it’s too much, even for a theater addict like me.”
These shows will not be recorded live and will instead be released as films on Vimeo. For a suggested $10 donation, members of the public can get access to recordings of all three installments.
Lucas expressed hope that in-person theater would return next year–possibly with outdoor productions in the spring–though she acknowledged that everything was up in the air depending on how bad the pandemic got.
“We’re going to have to wait until it’s safe to go inside,” said Lucas. “These little adventures with technology are the only way that theater is able to happen now.”
