LYNN — The Lynn English theater collective will be presenting a different sort of spring revue next week.
The show, called “Bulldog Pride,” will be presented via Youtube.
This annual show was cut short last year due to the pandemic, but drama teacher Michael Lopez, said the students have transitioned to recording scenes and songs via Zoom, which are then edited together to create the show.
Lopez said this idea began about a year ago when he, and his students, were restricted to their homes and had more time on their hands. Since the pandemic began, the drama club has been able to do three virtual shows.
“Classes weren’t really happening because a lot of our students in the District didn’t have laptops yet,” Lopez said. “So I got some kids together (who) were willing to participate and we worked on that for several weeks and then put it all together.”
The spring revue, however, is a bit different than their other virtual shows. At first, Lopez said the fall show was created strictly from Zoom clips, but this year’s spring revue features Zoom clips as well as in-person scenes.
The spring musical was written by the students and includes well-known songs that have been rewritten to include names of teachers and staff at English.
Students came in one at a time to record their scenes, whether they were in the halls of the school, outside, or in front of a green screen. Lopez said each student would have airpods in to hear the prerecorded scenes from their cast members so they knew when to begin their part.
This new way of video performances, as opposed to live,is something Lopez said he never thought he would have to do. But he has made the most of it.
“Not all of the students were into this and some said they didn’t want to participate,” Lopez said.
Lopez said although this prerecorded way of performing wasn’t ideal for everyone, it was nice because he said they had six to seven times as many views with the plays online than they did in-person.
“It was really great. It got a lot of views,” Lopez said.
The downside to that, Lopez said, was that they lost all the money in ticket sales, on which the club relies.
For the three short plays the club put on in the fall, Lopez said it posted the videos through an online drama website where people pay to view the video. Unfortunately, Lopez said this resource got too complicated and there ended up being issues with tickets and access to the videos, so the drama club is returning to Youtube to post its work for the spring revue.
With the videos on Youtube, people are free to watch, so Lopez encourages people to donate online at www.lehsdrama.org so they can raise funds to help pay for their next performance and the costs that accompany it.
“With this, we didn’t make any money,” Lopez said. “We actually lost money because we spent money on the show and all of that.”
Lopez said his husband, who is a graphic designer and children’s book illustrator, took over the project of editing all of these virtual shows, which Lopez said took a long time. Now that he has more experience doing so, Lopez said the spring revue should be edited and up on Youtube next week.
“We’re excited for people to see the spring revue. The kids put a lot of work into it,” Lopez said. “We had a lot of fun with it.”
