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Directors and Producers Talk about Transforming Prototype Festival from Live to Virtual.
If COVID-19 had not happened what would the Prototype festival have looked like?
Melanie Milton, PROTOTYPE Producer
PROTOTYPE typically produces and presents 5–7 live opera-theatre works across 7–10 days in January. From chamber opera to staged song-cycles and everything in between, PROTOTYPE presents work in intimate spaces, concert halls, and Blackbox theatres addressing the topics of our time, with a strong focus on the human voice. For 2021 we had an array of World Premieres, produced by HERE and Beth Morrison Projects (BMP), the co-founding organizations of the Festival, as well as an international project with puppetry and a gorgeous Copenhagen based chorus. We had hoped to return to some of our favorite partner venues including Baruch Performing Arts Center and HERE Mainstage, but when Covid struck, we began compiling the pieces of a hybrid festival.
What are the differences that you have felt while reimagining and manifesting the virtual experience? Pros and cons?
Kristin Marting, Founding Co-Director of Prototype, Founding Artistic Director of HERE
Obviously, producing has felt more like working in a vacuum, despite the ubiquity of zoom. To not be able to be in person together evolving…
