Cuthbertson High School Students Create Theater Magic From Home

When Joy Winters, Cuthbertson High School’s drama teacher, realized school would be closed for an extended period of time due to the COVID-19 virus outbreak, she reached out to some of her students with a challenge: could they create a compilation video of cast members singing and dancing the opening number of BIG FISH, their spring show, if students filmed themselves and sent them the files?

 

Senior Tucker Ziegler and Junior Aiden Smith immediately said yes. The pair, who also study film at Cuthbertson High, were part of a production team that recently took first place in the NC Thespian Filmworks 2019 student film contest.

 

"I felt confident that if anyone could pull it together, they would," explained Winters via an email interview. 

 

Performances of BIG FISH the musical should have started this past weekend. Instead of students heading into final dress rehearsals last week, however, Ziegler and Smith oversaw the logistics of making this short film remotely, including the editing and splicing together of more than two dozen videos submitted by the cast from their respective homes.

 

“I wanted to find a way to maintain that connection we have spent months building,” says Winters. “I also felt it was important to give them something to do that they could do—so many things are out of our control at the moment—but this video, this song from a show that we all love so very much—it was something we could do.”

 

But there were some challenges that Ziegler and Smith had to overcome. During a first attempt, they discovered that most of the videos submitted were off-tempo from the music. Once they learned how to fix that problem, they asked students to re-record their videos and submit them again.

 

The full production of BIG FISH, which includes a cast of 35 and a crew of nearly 20 students, began rehearsals last December. Although Winters does not yet know exactly when the show will take place, she says it definitely will happen. She and the students are hoping for a summer production so graduating seniors will still be able to participate before heading off to college.

 

As for now, students have pre-recorded videos of the choreography and a music app to help them rehearse the show at home. Winters also organized two online sing-a-longs via Facetime the first couple of weeks school was out but has since received word from the school district that they are no longer permitted to use video conferencing technology for rehearsals, due to concerns about student privacy and school liability. “I understand but it’s really frustrating,” says Winters.

 

While shelter in place orders are in effect, students have another show-related activity to keep them busy too: making more yellow and orange paper daffodils for the Act I finale. Students had already dedicated many after school hours to fabricating flowers and connecting them to fabric, netting and lights to bring to life Winters’s vision of an auditorium magically transformed into fields of daffodils, but she wasn’t sure they would have enough of them before the show opened.

 

“They’re kind of the bane of everyone’s existence,” admits Winters, who came up with the idea, as an economical way to create something magical. Now, at least, they have plenty of time to create more flowers.

 

“Honestly, I am blessed to work at Cuthbertson High School,” says Winters. “The students and parents have consistently pulled together for every production we do. This show, however, was very special to me. It's not a well-known show, but during the rehearsal process our cast fell in love with it. It is everything that I love in a show—a wonderful, moving story that comes alive with well-developed characters, fantastic song and dance numbers, moving ballads, and some good old-fashioned spectacle. This show is pure magic. My students have put together thousands of daffodils by hand for this show in order to make it come alive. It is truly the perfect blend of actors and technicians working together to tell a story that everyone can relate to.”

 

From the sound of it, this production—like so many high school shows—would have been magical even without the extra daffodils.