In COVID times, gestures that would have been banal and forgettable a year ago now arrive embedded with loaded backstories—even those (especially those?) that play out on stage.
Eventually, the group stepped off Zoom and met for tech week in TATL’s Rogers Park space. It was the first time the maximum-45-seat Jarvis Square Theater had been used for live theater in almost a year. With Taylor taking on chauffeur duties so the actors could avoid public transit, the group did two days of masked rehearsals. Then, they all did another COVID test. Then there was an extraordinary moment of wrenching ordinariness.
“It felt pretty sweet during that part of tech, to have that freedom,” McNulty said. “We all have to do what we have to do to stay safe—I’m not complaining about having to wear a mask or anything else I have or need to do. But yeah. I was pretty melancholy after, knowing it’s going to be a long time before we have that kind of freedom again.”
“So by late last fall, I was like, ‘We just need to do it, even if it’s just for us. We’ve all been prepping for this show for so long, and I’m afraid if we postpone it anymore, we might not all be able to do it together. So let’s get it out of our system so we can move on, but we have to figure out a way that we can do that without shortchanging the brilliant material in any way and we have to be safe.’”
“We got 20 new subscribers during a pandemic for a season that’s totally up in the air which I think is pretty great for our little storefront. It’s a tight-knit neighborhood, and I really love being a part of it,” he said.
“In this play, there are multiple universes we’re jumping in and out of, and depending on which one you’re in, you see a different version of Marianne. And this version has seen some things that have hardened her. This is the Marianne who says emotions don’t compute, so I’m just going to bury my head in my spreadsheets and data.”
Opens Thu 2/4, 7:30 PM CST: through 2/28, Fri-Sat 8 PM CST; also Sun 2/28 3 PM CST, 773-655-7197, theatreatl.org, $15.
