The holiday show has been physically canceled due to COVID-19, but the show will continue through Zoom.

According to stage manager and actor Nick Greenland, the show consists of holiday classics like “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Polar Express” and each story runs about five minutes long.

“A lot of the stories are really fun and quirky. I hope that our audience will see the quirkiness of them and join in with it,” Greenland said. “I think everyone can understand how frustrating Zoom can be at times, so that makes it all the more amazing when you see what we accomplished.”

Zoom was not the crew’s friend according to Greenland.

“I think that when we act over Zoom, we tend to lose a lot of energy and emotion,” Greenland said. “When we did Midsummer, we didn’t have a direct audience that could react with noise. Over Zoom it gets even harder to keep the energy up.”

Actress Celie Arnett says she was disappointed when the show went virtual because she looks forward to meeting the kids after the play. However, she looked to the positives.

“We got to do some improv instead, which was really fun,” Arnett said. “And I still got to talk to all of my friends in the show.”

Choreographer Sophie Jobe did not mind avoiding the trouble of teaching choreography over Zoom.

Luckily for her, she was able to teach all of their parts before going full remote.

“I was able to see everyone dance the best that they could given the circumstances of not being together,” Jobe said. “I am extremely proud of the performers for their hard work on these dances. They all took time on their own to work on these dances.” 

Flexibility and optimism is key to being a choreographer in a Zoom play according to Jobe.

“Technology is so useful, but it can crash so easily as well,” Jobe said. “We came across a couple of problems while working on Zoom, like the whole site crashing, but we were able to overcome those obstacles.”

Arnett advises actors over Zoom to act natural.

“do everything really full out. I know it’s hard to do that when you’re just in your room instead of an actual rehearsal space but it’s really important to act and dance as much as you normally would,” Arnett said.

Jobe was motivated by knowing this play could be a highlight for elementary kids.

“I believe that it could brighten someone’s day. As a child when I went to this play, I was always so excited to see the highschoolers put on a really good show. I know that several kids look forward to this show each year and I feel that it was so important to still put on this play for them.”