Feature: THE MOST IMPORTANT THEATER CONVERSATION THIS YEAR IS NOW NOW NOW at Hollywood Fringe Festival

In 2020, stage artists all over the world, embraced full production online streaming. As Covid-19 triggered worldwide closures for practically everything but supermarkets and hospitals, live performers as well as the organizations that employed them, were faced with the anxiety of careers and ticket sales coming to a full stop.

Most theaters including here in Los Angeles were forced to withstand the battle of slugging out restrictions and the possibility of dissolving operations altogether. We all hoped, even as the shutdown dragged on, that this would be no more than a blip. But with the shuttering of some theatrical houses and other small organizations that co-existed alongside them, reality hit hard, and the result was a reluctant but interesting pivot.

Zoom, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok suddenly stepped in as the understudies of a beloved, connective tradition, and noticeably altered the landscape of live theater.

Actors, dancers, and other performers who prided themselves on adaptability, dove in headfirst with online readings and shorts, then eventually created full-length material on the major streaming platforms. Theater houses and theater companies followed suit. And because there has always been live taping of shows and events, libraries of theatrical treasures were also rehashed into online pay-per-plays.

With every shift of the crisis, live stream, rather than continuing to be a bramble of thorns, has become a way forward. And, navigating through this mostly new territory has morphed performance ideals and behaviors.

For writer/director Tom Cavanaugh, (THE LAST REMNANTS OF COPS, ROBBERS & HOLLYWOOD COWBOYS, INLAND EMPRESS, UNDER THE JELLO MOLD - 2017 Best Solo Performance), it's been an open field of possibilities, including, Cavanaugh categorically inventing a new genre of media with his online-only, supernatural thriller, NOW NOW NOW, which will be viewable, FREE, at the 2021 Hollywood Fringe Festival.

There's just something about it that hooks you. As partial proof, this online traveling show of sorts featured on CBS7 in 2020, garnered Best National Show at the 2021 Pittsburgh Fringe Festival, Best Livestream Show at the 2021 Big Sky Fringe Festival, was chosen as one of only 15 shows to represent World Fringe Day at the Oregon Fringe, will stream at Calgary Fringe in August and is additionally set for an upcoming broadcast on Canada National Radio.

You could say that none of this should come as a surprise. As far back as 2006, Cavanaugh was recognized by Script Magazine as an up & coming artist to watch. In fact, the distinction of this piece is that the show is inventively written with incredible flexibility, come what may. It can be performed in a venue with Zoom as a character, or not in one at all using Zoom as merely the platform. The actors can be in the same room onstage, or instead, in multiple locations around the world, as long as there is a connection. And the show can be re-written very quickly to accommodate any circumstance, including if someone were to come down with the virus.

As I Facetimed with Cavanaugh and his off & on creative partner, Storycrafting creator Matt Ritchey, (BLACKBOXING, Winner 2019 Best Cabaret/Variety & Standout Song Award, ANGELS FLIGHT Winner Best Cabaret/Variety 2016) who will also be performing a character in NOW NOW NOW, the two were preparing for their upcoming online talk, Page to Stage: How to Pull In An Audience, which is set to go live, world-wide via YouTube and Facebook on August 15. The conversation will tackle how artists can balance the technological innovation of Zoom & Live Stream with Storytelling Tradition. Story being the poignant topic for both. Neither Cavanaugh nor Ritchie was particularly enthusiastic about early streaming presentations, many of which seemed to struggle with adjusting to cameras for online viewing.

"I admit I wasn't a fan of doing things virtually live," said Ritchey "The projects I'd been viewing didn't have much to offer in the way of story on camera. Live theater is difficult to capture on tape. Audiences' brains and eyes watch screens differently than they watch theater. We're used to close-ups, shifting angles, quick cuts. It can be done, but the adjustment takes a ton of work. For instance, when everything shut down I helped my client, actress/singer Christine Hauer adapt her solo show, A CHRISTINE CAROL, to a virtual format. We challenged the standard by filming a multi-angle, cinematic version of the show, a la HAMILTON, and it worked beautifully. On the other hand, what Tom has done, with NOW NOW NOW... how it came about, how it was invented and structured, is another evolution. Tommy knows structure like the back of his hand. It's brilliant!"

Cavanaugh sat around at home without a lot to do in the early months of the shutdown. He started watching Zoom sessions and noticed that there was a cinematic quality to them. " Most people using the platform were rehashing old theater material and old radio shows from the 30s & 40s. Then it hit me. I realized it's not about the words as we use them in theater. It's about the words period and the visuals like in film. Converging them is what makes great stories. It's got to be both at the same time. ... And just like that, Cavanagh let Zoom take the lead.

The show made its official debut as early as October 2020. It was first workshopped, virtually at We Make Movies. He brought the first 10 minutes into their performance night, and by the time the 10 minutes were done, everyone's mouth was agape. No one had ever had the experience NOW NOW NOW offered, before. It was then that actor/producer, Jack Zullo encouraged Cavanaugh to expand it. "Once I got it to a 60-minute script, I asked if I could put it up on Facebook or YouTube live once a month. And then it happened. We Make Movies totally got behind this project."

In NOW NOW NOW, Zoom picks the shots. If something goes wrong, it becomes part of the show. "Because you are now on Zoom, although I want that perfect production, there are always going to be flaws. But those flows allow for another freedom - to try and do things that you wouldn't normally do. You've got to 'Embrace the Zoom'."

As a nod to horrors like WAR OF THE WORLDS, BLAIR WITCH, and THE BIRDS, whose trance-like children's song was the nexus for the show's title, and directors like, Tarantino, Scorsese, and Hal Ashby, the piece was inspired by what was going on politically and it was vital for Cavanaugh to write about how he felt at that moment. "I was terrified about the current administration and I was terrified about politics at the time."

He came up with the concept of people getting kidnapped and wanted to do it on Zoom. He was able to take all of his passions, plus all kinds of stuff that people might recognize, put the bits together, and create a new original vision. Cavanaugh even thinks it works better on Zoom. The actors are disconnected from one another. They are all in different places around the country, yet all relating in real-time.

"It's personally emotional," chimes Ritchey, "And that's the point. Tremendous structure and brilliant ideas that are connected...The story is about Tom's own specific experience."

When asked what's next, Cavanaugh is pragmatic.

"Get going on the feature film I'm about to finish that was inspired by this play. But more than that. People are now paying attention. That you have to make this pivot under the new circumstances. I did this from my family home in New Jersey. I couldn't get into the theater, so I made theater from my room. And I got 19 other actors, unheard of in today's non-musical casting, to participate. I got tired of waiting for the answer to, "When are we gonna go back?". So, I decided to just create. I have to create. I have to do it now."

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