George Walker: "The first weekend in October at Hundred Hills there will be live Theatre, with Scott Hoffman's The Children's Crusade. Then, on the second weekend, it's Ghost Tape Number 10, directed by Sam Mchale. They'll be a BCCS screening of both pieces on October 13th. It all began back in May, and here's Krista Detor to talk about it."
Krista Detor: “In May my neice came through. She was a Tisch graduate. Because of Covid, she was basically forced out of New York and so all of the Tisch Theater graduates who would have had their senior projects staged in the New York theater community did not get to do that. And that is a calling card that many of them rely on. And of course, of the five days that she was here, this just issort of whimsical idea came up!”
“And she said, God, I wish there was...there's just no theater anywhere to be done. And I wish there was some place that we could do some theater."
“I said, 'this is an artist residence. This is what I've been working toward. Why don't you do it here?' And that started an idea, and then we all started brainstorming: how in the world can you do safe, distant theater during a pandemic?”
It was an idea that sort of caught fire. And she recruited Sam Mchale, who's graduated Tisch as a producer, and they curated the residency. They picked the actors. They cast a wide net. Not all of them were available. And so they picked the actors, and they picked the other director. Then I worked with them and we ironed out the details of the curation.”
“We ironed out the details of how we would keep them safe and then how we would keep them isolated and then how we would make this thing happen.”
George Walker: "So you've got a couple of performances coming."
Krista Detor: "We do. The first show, which is Children's Crusade, written by Scott Hoffman, staging on October 1st, 2nd and 3rd. It's based on an actual event that happened 13th century. A group of children decided that they were going to kind of save the world and make this religious crusade. They set off to accomplish that. And Scott’s setting of that idea is in current times, with a group of kids who are going to attempt to make a pilgrimage. The piece itself addresses issues of faith and where that's placed and, you know, the extremes to which people will go to meet the requirements of that faith.”
“And then, we stage on October 8th, 9th and 10th, Ghost tape Number 10, which is a devised piece. I was actually just talking to to Sam Mchale, the producer. He said, 'the manner that the pieces being devised in is like nothing that he's ever seen and is amazing.'They're coming at it almost like writing for television.' The entire group is meeting and then two people will go off and and devise a scene and then bring it back to the director. He believes that it's not going to present at all like a deviced piece. It's going to present like a completely edited fully realized theatrical piece.”
George Walker: "How are you going to keep the audience and the actors at Hundredth Hill safe?"
Krista Detor: “We are keeping within the County guidelines for very small audiences. Outdoor, socially distanced circles in the grass, masks on when outside of your circle. People are not even walking through each others' airspace. All of the residents have been tested. They took their third Covid test yesterday, and they've all been isolated. Since October 1st here.”
"We're also going to do a livestream performance at the Buskirk-Chumley on the 13th. We'll livestream both of the shows. Both of the shows will have great sound, great streaming quality, great lighting. Everything you could possibly ask for in the very difficult world of theatrical streaming.”
George Walker: "Krista Detor of Hundredth Hills, describing an audacious theater project. presenting The Children's Crusade on the first weekend in October, and then Ghost Tape Number 10 on the 2nd. A livestream at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on October 13th. I'm George Walker."
