The Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department‘s 2020-2021 Mainstage Season concludes May 4 through 8 with the season’s final production: Case Study: Contact, a one-of-a-kind immersive virtual experience, performed live on Zoom, that invites each audience member select their own journey. If you had 365 days to live, would you live in the moment or try to change your destiny?
Miguel Rosa López
Tommy Rivera-Vega
Written by New York-based playwright Miguel Rosa López, the show is directed by Chicago actor-director Tommy Rivera-Vega, a Theatre Department adjunct faculty member. The production will run roughly 90 minutes and will take place through Zoom. It will include a filmed portion and some live performances in the Breakout rooms. Admission is free. Viewers who reserve will receive a Zoom link in their ticket confirmation email. For tickets, click here.
“Coming to the end of the 2020-2021 season, I am immensely grateful to everyone who was able to re-think how we do theatre and how we keep making space for the issues and heartfelt thoughts that filled our shows this year, not the least Case Study: Contact,” says Susan Padveen, Associate Chair of the Theatre Department and Artistic Director of the Mainstage Season. “This play uses monologues, filmed sequences, and a Zoom experience to allow the audience to pick the order of scenes they see and make decisions at the end about how they see their own lives moving forward.”
“When the pandemic started in March of 2020, little did we know it would be still raging on into 2021,” adds Padveen. “Our planned productions left no space for social distancing and masks, and so we had to reimagine them. We did plays in totally enclosed pods, live-streamed performances, filmed actors separately and then edited them together, designed rooms in dressing rooms — so many creative solutions to the challenges faced. No one could have envisioned this season and the amazing number of opportunities we were able to make available to our students and audiences.”